Chef Laurent Petit has signed on, and here's all we know about his new venue

At the end of 2022, Laurent and Martine Petit left Le Clos des Sens in Annecy-le-Vieux, handing over the reins to Thomas Lorival and Franck Derouet. The end of this adventure, which will have lasted over thirty years, did not of course mean the end of the chef's and his wife's careers, but the beginning of a new phase... Or rather a return to their roots. On Thursday, October 5, 2023, Laurent Petit returned to his native region, acquiring the Villa Vauban estate in Langres, Haute-Marne.

Three culinary expressions on the agenda

For the former Clos des Sens chef, this place will be much more than just a hotel-restaurant: "It's a place to live", he assures us. Accordingly, Laurent Petit plans to create "three culinary expressions", starting with a food truck, due to open by May 2024. "Then there will be a culinary café in June, followed by an exceptional table in September, if the work is completed on time", he hopes.

The estate will also host eight rooms, which will open in dribs and drabs, but also "a 3,000m2 permaculture vegetable garden, with an herb garden, greenhouses to prepare seedlings and an orchard". "The philosophy will be the same as at Clos des Sens. We'll be working very closely with local produce and plants. Of course, since the terroir is different, the dishes will be different."While in Annecy, the chef was banking on "lakeside and plant-based" cuisine, the Langres region will lend itself more to "forest cuisine". "There are240,000 hectares of forest and it's a region of big game. The key is toremain consistent with our surroundings", insists Laurent Petit.

With this new establishment, the couple hopes to shed two light on the situation. Firstly, it will highlight Langres, a "town with a strong character, which I didn't necessarily understand when I left for France forty years ago", admits the chef. The second objective will be to showcase a young, committed team of around twenty employees. "If I may use a sporting metaphor, it's like starting a handball team. We're starting from scratch and we hope to take it up to the first division with young talent. We'll be placing an advertisement shortly."

A confidential notebook

This new stage in Laurent Petit's career was also an opportunity to take stock, transcribed in the form of a confidential notebook, called Recette de Vie. "It's a kind of introspection, a conclusion, even a psychoanalysis... I needed to write and say things in relation to my years in Annecy, the transmission of the business, but also my feelings about gastronomic critics and how I lived through it all."

The words of this book, written by Magali Buy, are a sort of "point" on the last few decades for Laurent Petit. His childhood, his studies, his "bumpy" culinary path, his encounters, his "cooking out"... All aspects of Laurent Petit's life are covered, and he assures us: "[He] assumes everything that is written". A phrase that is sure to arouse the curiosity of readers...