“I am a pure Parisian, raised in the suburbs, who has never left the capital. And, like many “real Parisians”, I come from Auvergne grandparents, who went to Paris (on my mother’s side) to become cafetiers – the classic pattern of bougnats. My whole family is of Auvergne origin, more exactly Cantalouse. My paternal grandparents spent their life on the Planèze plateau, in Cantal, and I have kept a deep attachment to this region.
I have a classic course of good student, preparatory class then business school. In the 1990s the banks were hiring, I ended up in a bank, and I worked in the industry for twenty years. Quite quickly, I took care of creating activities, developing projects for large clients.
Structure, support, innovate, this is what I have always liked to do. But, after the 2008 crisis, what I was doing was no longer in the DNA of the banks, and I took advantage of the first plan to leave. I started to give advice to structure companies, then I got interested in the creation of a local currency.
A hybrid power place
The restaurant sector had always attracted me, a little by family tropism, a lot by greed, and I met people who had a new concept, without knowing how to structure it: the central idea was a place of food hybrid, where artisanal producers would be the actors and the driving force, shareholders of the project, where the products would be both sold raw and served cooked, to create a kind of ecosystem and give meaning to the professions of producers, sellers, of restaurateurs – rethinking the value chain in a way …
“At Le Douze, you can come to the market, meet the artisans, have a coffee or enjoy a real menu prepared by chef Pablo Jacob and his team, with daily arrivals. “
It was necessary to invent everything, to build everything, I studied the economic feasibility of course, but also how to interconnect all the trades for it to work. It was a fairly innovative set-up, which pleased the City of Paris and allowed us to settle in a former barracks at 12e arrondissement. At Le Douze, you can come to the market, meet the artisans, have a coffee or enjoy a real menu prepared by chef Pablo Jacob and his team, with daily arrivals. Everything is connected, nothing is lost, and we eat well.
In my family, hosting and cooking have always been very important. We used to cook classic home cooking, simmered dishes, planters, ratatouilles, meats in sauce, sautéed potatoes … And the famous apple pie, also called “pomp” and that I nicknamed “Planèze cake”, because it is the one my grandmother always prepared for me when I arrived at her place.
The recipe appears in a collection of the family’s local kitchens. There are also pachades, thick and crispy pancakes, flour, a kind of custard, cornettes… These invigorating dishes speak of a region, its climate, and a simple and frank generosity… Because to cook, it’s also communicating, thinking about others, and that’s what I like. “
Douze, 2 passage Emma-Calvé, Paris 12e.
The site of Twelve.