A native of Bussières-les-Belmont in Haute-Marne, Laurent Petit undertook hotel studies and obtained his CAP in cooking at the age of 18 at the Lycée Hôtelier de Saint-Dizier.
It was in Paris in 1984 that he became aware of the nobility of the profession of cook. He was hired as a clerk by Nicolas de Rabaudy, at the time a restaurateur, in the future Sommelier Bistro. The food journalist won him numerous internships with multi-star chefs including Michel Guérard, with whom he took the measure of the extraordinary possibilities of great cuisine. His internship provoked the click, the certainty that he would undertake, in his own way, a journey as a Chef.
At 24, he joined forces to create Le Péché Gourmand in Briançon. It is in this city that he meets Martine Coin, his future wife. In 1992, the couple moved to Annecy-le-Vieux where they took over a restaurant together which they named Le Clos des Sens. With the help of his small team, Laurent Petit wishes to make Clos des Sens, a restaurant adapted to his cuisine, the essence of which resides in the association of products, "the coherence of research that is both elaborate and refined allowing a meeting in the service of the senses ". In 1999, Le Clos des Sens joined the Outstanding Tables of the Les Collectionneurs chain before obtaining its first Michelin star in 2000.
Five years later, the Chef opens in Annecy a contemporary brasserie with the allure of culinary coffee, Le Contresens, and is named Chef of the year by the Guide Champérard. In March 2007, Le Clos des Sens obtained its second star in the Michelin Guide and in 2011 Laurent Petit became a founding member of the Culinary College of France with Alain Ducasse and Joël Robuchon. Also a member of the very closed "Grandes Tables du Monde" club, in 2013 he received the Prix Omnivore Terre-Azur.
Image Credits: Alpheus Media
