The place is well suited to its liveliness and its solar tropism. This immaculate canteen without any folkloric temptation, side by side with the Cirque d’hiver, plays to sold-out crowds, even in the height of summer. However, the idea was daring: serve revisited Lebanese cuisine in this bohemian district close to the Republic, where new addresses are opening every day.
Rita Higgins believed in it from the start. Behind her bright smile, the 37-year-old chef doesn’t seem to be afraid of anything or anyone. It’s because she’s already had several lives and a lot of obstacles to overcome. First a nurse in Lebanon, then an emergency nurse in Belgium, after continuing her studies at the Hôtel-Dieu de France university hospital in Beirut. She met her first husband in Brussels, a Franco-Japanese, whom she followed to Japan for a few years.
Unable to practice her profession there, she landed a post as a consular officer at the Lebanese Embassy. “At the same time, I created a cooking blog written in English – there was a lot of talk about Lebanese recipes but not only – which met with some success to the point that I was asked to organize private dinners at me in the spirit of the table d’hôte. »
A sign of fate
The love of cooking is gradually gaining ground. Life circumstances will act as an accelerator. In early 2015, her ex-husband was transferred to France this time. Rita Higgins sees it as a sign of destiny: in the land of gastronomy, she will be able to make her passion her real job. Rita Higgins joined the Le Cordon-Bleu international cooking school. “I needed this validation by confronting myself with the technique and with other enthusiasts much younger than me. I think I wanted to finally be taken seriously.” she recalls.
After an internship alongside chef Alain Solivérès at Taillevent, she returned to Japan to work this time with chef Lionel Beccat at the two-star Tokyo restaurant Esquisse. Quick return after her divorce in Lebanon, where she became the chef of the Mediterranean cuisine restaurant Baron, in Beirut, ranked 12e place of the 50 best restaurants in the Middle East. This success gives her visibility and connects her with the world of international cuisine. But the desire that inhabits her is to settle in France, a country that she considers her cooking homeland. The explosion, in 2020, of the port of Beirut unfortunately reshuffled the cards. Rita Higgins takes her troubles patiently.
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