Paris (France) (AFP) – The Gault et Millau guide on Monday awarded Jérôme Banctel the title of "cook of the year 2027", a new accolade for the chef of the Gabriel restaurant in Paris, discreet which has become essential.

Published on: 09/11/2026 - 20:44Modified on: 09/11/2026 - 21:23

“I am very proud to have it”, reacted on stage Jérôme Banctel, who greeted in passing the “people who have been close to me for years”, particularly on the audience side.

"I wasn't expecting that at all. When I arrived, I had the only certainty that I was going to sign the meal," he then added to AFP, while he took care of the gala dinner served to 600 guests at the Carrousel du Louvre on Monday evening on the occasion of the ceremony, without knowing that he would be the winner.

Jérôme Banctel thus wins a distinction which narrowly escaped him in November 2023 when he was already among the nominees.

But the accolades have continued since then: the third Michelin star in March 2024, eight years after the second, then the title of “chef of the year” awarded by his peers in September 2024 during the Le Chef Trophies.

Aged 54, this Breton has been, since 2015, the executive chef of the restaurant at the hotel La Réserve, a very confidential setting located near the Avenue des Champs-Élysées. He obtained 5 toques, the maximum possible.

Having remained in the shadows for a long time, "he is well recognized by his peers but not well known to the general public", concedes the director of the guide, Marc Esquerré.

“He has mastery, ease, ease... If you ask him for the moon, he cooks the moon. For me, he is at his peak,” he adds.

One of its signature dishes is artichoke - or carrot depending on the season - cooked in lime.

Detector

The Gault et Millau guide was launched the day after May 68 by two gastronomic journalists, Henri Gault and Christian Millau, to support the nouvelle cuisine that Michelin was then shunning.

“Others notice. We detect,” Marc Esquerré congratulates AFP. He insists on the “600 new features out of the 2,200 entries in the 2027 guide”, all “100% humanly visited”.

This edition also gives pride of place to women, particularly in sommellerie, a profession which is becoming more feminine more quickly than kitchens.

Argentina's Paz Levinson, 48, the first woman to head the sommelier of chef Anne-Sophie Pic's group, was elected sommelier of the year.

She succeeds another woman, Marion Cirino (L'Ambroisie, Paris). New for this edition, the “no-low” sommelier trophy, dedicated to non-alcoholic (no) or low-alcoholic (low) pairings, goes to Orane Vanheule of the Auberge du Vert Mont (3 toques), in Boeschepe (North).

In the “Great of Tomorrow” category, which highlights a trajectory deemed to be ascending, the prize goes to Nolwenn Corre, 36, from the Hostellerie de la Pointe Saint-Mathieu, in Plougonvelin (Finistère). She made the family inn, taken over by her grandparents in 1954, into a restaurant that counts, with iodized cuisine dictated by the fishermen of the point.

Finally, the pastry trophy rewarded Clément Réauté, pastry chef at Fleur de Loire, Christophe Hay's restaurant in Blois, for his light and refined desserts, including a buttered Hardy pear poached with elderberry and its sage cream.

As for Olivier Bikao, he was elected dining room manager of the year for his five-star service at the Le Meurice Alain Ducasse restaurant, in the Parisian palace on rue de Rivoli.

© 2026 AFP

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