Joël Robuchon, awarded "Meilleur Ouvrier de France" in 1976, "Chef of the Year" in 1987 and "Chef of the Century" in 1990. As of today, he is the most awarded Michelin-Star Chef in the world.
At his birth on April 7th, 1945 in Poitiers, nothing compelled this bricklayer’s son to walk off with all those titles and rewards. Pupil at the Petit Séminaire de Mauléon-sur-Sèvres in les Deux-Sèvres, he once thought about entering the service of God but he finally found his way into gastronomy by becoming at first an apprentice, then a companion in the "Tour de France des Devoirs Unis", from which he acquired the name "Poitevin la fidélité".
At the age of 29, he took over the commands of the kitchen at the Concorde Lafayette hotel and managed 90 cooks, serving several thousand meals per day. His professionalism, his rigor, his assurance, and his creativity have already established his reputation. After a remarkable passage as an Executive Chef and as a Food and Beverage manager of the hotel Nikko, where he received two stars, he opened his own restaurant in December 1981: Le Jamin.
In the first year, he received his first Michelin star; the following year, the second one and the year after, the third. Three years, three Stars, a feat never seen before in gastronomy!
For over ten years, his restaurant achieved remarkable success. In 1994, he settled on Avenue Raymond Poincaré, in a restaurant bearing his name.
The Joël Robuchon restaurant was awarded Best Restaurant in the World in 1994 by the International Herald Tribune. A worldwide success was already taking place.
As promised, Joël Robuchon, 50 years old, announced his retirement, to focus on handing over his knowledge.
Far from the pressure of the stars, he decided, with his director friend Guy Job, to "bring" cooking to television, to make it more accessible, to demystify it.
For over 10 years with the show "Cuisinez Comme un Grand Chef" and the cult "Bon Appétit Bien Sûr", Joël Robuchon offers with Guy Job a daily TV show. In this real cooking lesson, he receives each week a chef and presents tips, tricks and simple recipes that can be made with easily available products, in order to make it accessible to the greatest number. In September 2011 Joël Robuchon hosts a new weekly cooking magazine "Planète Gourmande", produced and directed by Guy Job, in which he shares new recipes and tips.
During all these years, Joel Robuchon travelled the world and regularly went to Japan to discover new products and techniques that had been skillfully passed down to chefs for decades. He became passionate about the empire of the rising sun. His Japanese experience and his discovery of tapas bars in Spain gave him the inspiration to offer new dynamics to his vision of cooking. He transformed the traditional restaurant concept to bring his cuisine in front of the guests, a cuisine of quality products offered in a spirit of conviviality and sharing.
Joël Robuchon thus created the original concept of L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon in association with Guy Job.
Joël Robuchon asked Pierre-Yves Rochon to design this luxurious place so as to put forward his chefs, his products, and flavors. A restaurant where classic gold and white colors, specific to many luxury French restaurants, were replaced by black and red.
As the conductor, he calls back his long-standing companions. In 2003, the first Atelier de Joël Robuchon opened its doors in Paris in the Saint-Germain des Prés district and simultaneously in Tokyo. Joël Robuchon thus shook up the traditions of haute gastronomy.
This unique concept overturns the codes of classic restaurants: the place is warm hearted, open to the kitchen stoves and the customers feel immediately at ease. The first customers are delighted to discover this innovative concept where gastronomy harmonizes with conviviality. The opening of the restaurant was greeted by the international press, who welcomed the return of this great French chef!
The success of L'Atelier led Joël Robuchon to develop this concept around the world: Las Vegas in 2005, New York, London and Hong Kong in 2006, Taipei in 2009, at the Publicis Drugstore in 2010, in Singapore in 2011, in Bangkok in 2014, in Shanghai and Montreal in 2016, in Miami in 2019, in Dubai in 2020, in Geneva and Saint Barthélémy in 2021... This success is based on the same signature, the same know-how, the same emphasis on products and a cuisine that varies according to the country and its culinary traditions. Joël Robuchon creates hundreds of recipes and epicureans from all over the world come together in the same spirit of conviviality.
To answer the different demands from worldwide guests and in addition to the Ateliers, Joël Robuchon opened other establishments in luxurious environments always respecting this spirit of sublime simplicity; a 3 star gourmet restaurant in a French-style castle right in the heart of Tokyo, a 3 star restaurant situated in Macao at the top of a casino or in the model of a mansion, and a 3 star restaurant right in the heart of the MGM Grand Casino in Las Vegas. Outside of these exceptional tables, he also has the Restaurant of Joël Robuchon in Monaco (2 stars) and his Japanese restaurant Yoshi (1 star), without forgetting satellites, tearooms, pastry shops and the other dining outlets that embody the spirit of Joël Robuchon.
Today, Joël Robuchon's legacy lives on in these restaurants around the world where the chefs, chosen and trained by Joël Robuchon, remain faithful to the principles that made him a guide for French gastronomy.
JOËL ROBUCHON IN FRANCE
L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon Etoile
L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon Saint Germain
L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon Saint-Barthélemy
