Jean Imbert, former winner of Top Chef and friend of the stars has just been appointed to head the kitchens of the famous Cannes palace, the Martinez Hotel, a few weeks before the Cannes Festival.
Top chef, Plaza Athénée, Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, A Belmond Train Europe, Dior and now the Martinez hotel. The French chef Jean Imbert continues his brilliant rise in the world of French gastronomy. From mid-May, he will take the helm of the mythical Martinez hotel, at the same time as the launch of the Cannes Film Festival.
It’s like a waking dream for this artist of gastronomy, who has been working on this project for several months with the hotel’s teams.
From admirer to admired
The CV of this prodigious chef continues to evolve. In 2021, he succeeded Alain Ducasse at the head of the kitchens of the famous Plaza Athénée, where he was awarded a star one year later. Named chef to the stars, he had the opportunity to collaborate with Pharrell Williams in New York and Saint Tropez. He also created signature menus for Dior, before setting down his bags, or rather his utensils, on the Croisette, within the walls of one of the most prominent palaces on the Croisette.
Indeed, the Hotel Martinez, famous for its art deco decoration and the array of stars it has welcomed for decades, is one of the intangible stars of the Croisette.
The chef and the teams of the Cannes establishment have been working on this project for several months now and it will come to fruition during the opening of the 76th Cannes Film Festival, on May 16, with the launch of La plage du Martinez.
It is both an honor and a new challenge for Jean Imbert, who will highlight his creativity and culinary talent to the service of the palace. He said he was honored and touched by the trust and welcome that the hotel teams have given him.
On his Instagram account, where he is followed by 521,000 followers, he shares the story that links him to the iconic establishment of the Croisette and the Cannes Festival: “25 years separate this photo taken a few days ago and one of my first badges of the Festival on the 2nd photo. I started working at the Cannes Film Festival at the age of 16 (…) 25 years during which I had the chance to cook during each edition, to make dinners for most of the directors/actresses/actors, etc… who always made me dream. And 25 years later, what the 16-year-old kid who was going to work there would never have thought possible is going to come true: I’m going to become the chef at Martinez!”
Click here to read the full article on Luxus Plus Magazine.
Featured photo : © Press
