A chef from Savoie, Kelly Jolivet has led Benoit, Alain Ducasse's historic bistro, since 2022: she champions the art of “slow” sauces, works direct supply chains, and has retained a Michelin star and 2 Gault & Millau toques with iconic dishes such as hare à la royale.
Born in Haute-Savoie in 1993, Jolivet takes a literary baccalauréat before discovering a culinary vocation during a year at the hoteleria; she then decides to enroll at the École hôtelière in Thonon-les-Bains, where she graduates in 2015. Her internship at the Louis XV in Monaco opened the door on the Ducasse brigade: from commis she became chef de partie, assimilating the importance of product and technical precision. After a move to Geneva, in 2018 she leaves for Dubai as sous-chef of miX, an experience that teaches her large-volume management without betraying her French identity.
In 2019, she returns to Paris aboard Ducasse sur Seine, a boat restaurant where she coordinates millimetric mise en place in small spaces; three years later, Alain Ducasse entrusts her with the kitchens of Benoit, a bistro opened in 1912 and awarded a Michelin star since 1955. With her, the restaurant immediately reconfirms the macaron and the 2 toques of Gault & Millau, thanks to a menu that renews the classics without distorting them.
Her philosophy revolves around time, the “invisible ingredient” of sauces: a volaille jus takes 24 hours between roasting and reductions; she considers broth “the backbone of taste.” Attentive to the short supply chain, she buys organic vegetables directly from La Ferme des Pins Sylvestres in the Marne and works with Mr. and Mrs. Galis of Carpentras for truffles and first fruits, supporting sustainable agriculture. During the hunting season she offers a game menu where hare à la royale and a tourte stand out in collaboration with the street-food collective Groot La Tourte, a bridge between bourgeois tradition and pop culture.
Jolivet conveys the centrality of the dining room: “A bistro lives on human warmth before recipes,” she says, personally overseeing the training of young commis on the basics of service and conversation. Her medium-term goal is to obtain a second star without sacrificing the convivial atmosphere that made Benoit fall in love with Paris more than a century ago.
