“If you ever have the choice between two options in your career, choose the most difficult one; at least you won’t have any regrets,” French chef Bernard Leprince once counseled Amandine Chaignot.
She’s carried the spirit of that advice with her through roles in several of Paris’ top kitchens, including Alain Ducasse’s Plaza Athénée, Eric Frechon’s Wine Spectator Grand Award–winning Epicure, and Yannick Alléno’s Le Meurice.
Chaignot was raised outside the French capital by a research biochemist mother and software engineer father, and she was supposed to settle into a dependable science career of her own. But partway through pharmacy school, boredom pushed her to make the move to the burn-marked, knife-nicked life of a chef.
This story is from the November 30, 2017 edition of Wine Spectator.
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This story is from the November 30, 2017 edition of Wine Spectator.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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