Avignon: Florent Pietravalle among the greats of tomorrow
The second major gastronomic guide, Gault & Millau has lifted the veil on its prize list. The 2022 vintage of the famous “yellow guide” counts 16 exceptional restaurants and 58 prestigious tables, from a selection of more than 2,300 tables on the paper guide, and more than 5,000 tables on the official website. If the young Breton chef Hugo Roellinger, barely 33 years old, is crowned of the year, the guide rewards the Michelin-starred chef from Avignon, Florent Pietravalle, consecrated to the title of the Great of tomorrow. Before him, Gault & Millau knew how to reward chefs such as Thierry Marx, Jean-François Trap, Pierre Gagnaire and Glen Viel, who have become benchmarks.
At the head of La Mirande, in a decor dating from the 14th century, restaurant backing onto the Palais des papes, Florent Pietravalle, who passed through the kitchens of Joël Robuchon, Jean-Luc Rabanel and Pierre Gagnaire, offers plates in perpetual movement and plays the card from the unexpected to dessert.
“It’s the work of five years that pays off, it makes you want to continue. We are a team of 20 for 30 covers and it shows that if we have only come part of the way, we have it pretty well. traveled “, reacted the chef previously starred by the Michelin guide who measures his progress since his arrival at La Mirande. “It is the fruit of regularity. Then, it is the work that we have built with our producers, our suppliers: we have understood that we must be interested in the seeds that nourish the pigeon, at the depth to from which a fish is caught, etc. Finally, we are always on the lookout. We try fermentation techniques, caramelization, misos, etc. The idea of the restaurant is discovery, techniques such as products. . This makes it possible to bring the customer where he would not necessarily have gone “.