23-02-2015
Sylvain Sendra, 37, one Michelin star, three restaurants. His career in the restaurant industry began at 24 with bistrot Le Temps au Temps
Sylvain Sendra is a young Parisian chef, originally from Bresse. After his first bistrot had become successful in 2008, together with his wife Sarah, he opened a restaurant in the fifth arrondissement, Itineraires. He soon received a Michelin star, standing out thanks to his creative, never forced or excessively complicated cuisine. With a great attention to the selection of raw materials, an attention one can also find in Sendra’s brand new restaurant: Bocca Rossa, a few metres from Itineraires, which is, instead, an Italian restaurant. Having had the chance to chat with the French chef, it was impossible not to start from the choice of betting on “our” culinary tradition. «Besides Itineraires, some time ago I also opened a bistro called 58 Qualité Street. However, I still had this desire to open another restaurant, close to Itineraires, yet not a replica of that format. I didn’t want to have another bistrot, I wanted a place that would be closer to the kind of culinary research I’m conducting in my gourmet restaurant, but which would be substantially different.» So you thought about Italian cuisine... «Yes, the inspiration arrived from my wife Sarah. She reminded me of my Italian origins. My grandfather on my mother’s side was Italian, a communist who fled from the Fascist regime and arrived in France. I’ve never spoken Italian in my family. My mother speaks Italian, obviously, but she never taught me the language. Italian culture, however, has always been part of my life, especially the food: it was my grandmother how passed Italian tradition on to me. As a child I would already make pasta, gnocchi, and I would walk around Pisa with her, since my family comes from that town.»
Bocca Rossa has only one room, with warm and casual tones
The logo and name of the new restaurant come from an idea of Sendra’s wife Sarah. She wanted to play with a captivating and lightly sexy image
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Journalist, based in Milan. At 8 years old, he received a Springsteen record as a gift, and nothing was the same since. Music and food are his passions. Author and broadcaster at Radio Popolare since 1997, since 2014 he became part of the staff of Identità Golose Instagram: @NiccoloVecchia