Matthieu DE LAUZUN
Matthieu was born in 1982 in Lodève in the Hérault, a father doctor and a mother pharmacist and nothing predisposed to cooking.
It was only around the age of 10 that he discovered, through numerous trips to his pied-noir grandmother settled in Morocco, the flavors and products of the Maghreb.
He discovered the great classics of oriental cuisine and the French-Moroccan cuisine of André Halbert, a French chef living in Casablanca where he spent all his holidays from the age of 12 until he started a professional career in the kitchen. He learned the great French cuisine Bourgeoise but made with the best of Moroccan products. From the great Central Market of Casablanca to the kitchens of André Halbert and the furnaces of his grandmother, Matthieu took the taste of the kitchen mixed with different influences but especially and above all the cuisine with strong and marked tastes. These years of youth in Morocco will mark much his cooking in the future.
It is therefore natural that he began an apprenticeship in cooking at age 18, a bachelor's degree in economics and social affairs, to the kitchens of Gilles Etéocle, two-star chef in the Michelin Guide and Meilleur Ouvrier de France in Montrond les Bains in the Loire. He spent three years there and learned the solid basics of French classic cooking as well as pastry. Despite these three years of rough and sometimes difficult learning, Matthieu entered the prestigious kitchens of the Illhaeusern's Auberge de l'Ill, three Michelin stars, where he spent three beautiful years alongside Paul and Marc Haeberlin. Matthieu will then move into the kitchens of Michel and Sébastien Bras in Laguiole where he will spend two magnificent years. It is during this experience that Matthieu will really develop the desire to settle in contact with the Bras family and truly become aware of the power of cooking as a means of expression. After a stint at Mathieu Viannay in Lyon (two Michelin stars) he made the decision to open his restaurant in Gignac in the Hérault in October 2007. After 15 months of opening, Matthieu wins a star in the Michelin guide kept since. In 2009, he will also be a "young Languedoc Roussillon talent" for the Gault et Millau guide and, for that same man, a "grand de demain" guide in 2014. After more than 10 years spent in Gignac and a solid reputation, it's up to Pézenas, at the Priory of Saint Jean de Bébian that Matthieu will put his suitcases in a sumptuous setting. His cuisine is a cuisine of products, without untimely destructuring with this research that could be described as frantic and unfortunately endless: the search for the taste of childhood and lost memories.
