This post is also available in: Deutsch
Français
A rapid rise to culinary fame in Luxembourg’s gourmet circles within just ten years and Gault&Millau’s ‘Young Chef of the Year 2024’: Portrait of Clovis Degrave, a prolific young chef, who recently opened his second restaurant.
What we’d most like to know about Clovis Degrave is where he gets all his abundant energy and drive from – this need and desire to be constantly shifting and shaping, to sally forth, even through turbulent times. From the sea air that invigorated him during his early childhood by the sea in Calais, perhaps? Or from a lifetime spent in hotels, with parents in the hotel business? Or from the legendary fighting spirit of Lorraine, the region in which he grew up from the age of eight?
Or perhaps it is a combination of all these elements from his formative years that have made him the go-getter that he is today.
From student to waiter…
Clovis Degrave, who attended hotel school in Metz and gained an advanced vocational diploma in Culinary Arts and Tablescaping in Nancy (followed by a Bachelor’s in Marketing), embarked on his culinary career in Luxembourg with “a temporary job as a waiter” at restaurant Le Sud on the banks of the Alzette in Luxembourg City’s Clausen district while a student. “Back then, the restaurant belonged to Michelin-starred chef Christophe Petra. I learned a lot working for him,” says Clovis Degrave.
In those early days, Clovis also completed an internship in event management under the marketing manager of 1Com Group, owned by Steve Darné and Jean-Claude Colbach, who, at the time, were at the helm of the district’s trendiest bars: Ikki, Zulu blanc, Rock Box… The young Clovis was in his element: “It was a brilliant experience. I got to meet Luxembourg’s movers and shakers, to put names to faces.” At the end of his internship, however, Clovis decided to stay his course in the hotel and restaurant sector.
… to Head Chef at Le Sud
It would prove a sound decision, for the career path he’d been charting had not gone unnoticed. At the end of 2010, Clovis returned from a four-month trip to Australia with a hotel school friend. Back in Luxembourg, Chef Petra, who had lost his Michelin star, was looking for a commis de cuisine. “I applied for the job. It’s a standard entry-level position for anyone starting out in the restaurant business,” says Clovis Degrave. But Clovis’s career was about to pick up speed: “I was taken on, not as a commis de cuisine, but as a chef de partie! Chef de partie for someone at the start of their career is a big deal. You’re responsible for running an entire section of the kitchen: organising staff, ordering stock…”
Things continued to progress at pace for Clovis. Soon after, Christophe Petra moved back south and sold his restaurant to Steve Darné and Jean-Claude Colbach from 1Com Group: “We already knew each other, so they asked my advice. I suggested they hire a chef who was already well known and take me on as their sous-chef.”
But Steve and Jean-Claude had other ideas: They wanted Clovis Degrave to head up the kitchens at Le Sud. “I was only 22 and wanted to continue studying! I didn’t know what to do, so talked to my father about it. He said to me: “If it doesn’t work out, it won’t be your fault – you’ll simply have been too young. But if things go well, it’ll do wonders for your career. Think about your end goal: Do you want to work for a big group or to open your own restaurant?” recalls the 34-year-old chef.“My dream had always been to open my own restaurant…”
So, in October 2011, Clovis Degrave became Head Chef at Le Sud. His team included Jordane Jacoby, who’s still his right-hand man today, and Paul Bungert, crowned Luxembourg’s best pastry chef 2024 by Gault&Millau, who was head pastry chef. “We worked well together and learned a lot.”
Via La Tour d’Argent
In 2015, after a fantastic four years as Head Chef at Le Sud, Clovis Degrave was eager to set sail for pastures new and new challenges. During a brief stint at Brasserie Schumann – “the menu wasn’t gourmet enough for me” – Clovis met Aline Bourscheid, its assistant manager, and they became a couple. In 2016, a recruitment agency offered him a job as a sous-chef at La Tour d’Argent in Paris. But Clovis didn’t drop anchor at this famous Parisian institution for long. “Aline and I had been toying with the idea of opening a small snack bar and café for some time. We’d viewed a lot of places in Luxembourg, none of which had been suitable. Then, just two weeks after I’d started at La Tour d’Argent, Georges Lentz from Bofferding called Aline and told her about a hotel and restaurant that was up for sale. It was called Chez Brigitte and was a sort of aparthotel offering long-term rentals. She thanked him, but told him it wasn’t what we were looking for. But when she told me about it, I urged her to call back and find out more. And that was it – I was sold! I was so excited about the potential of it all that I promptly handed in my notice at La Tour d’Argent and returned to Luxembourg.”
![](https://u3t7s5p3.rocketcdn.me/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/HDG1-1024x681.jpg.webp)
The Grünewald adventure
It marked the start of the couple’s Grünewald adventure. And it was ‘Goodbye Chez Brigitte, hello L’Hostellerie’, as Chez Brigitte reverted back to its original, 1922 name. On 2 April 2017, after a lot of hard work, a mountain of paperwork and a series of pre-opening tasting sessions, by invitation only, the newly renovated 29-room hotel opened its doors to its first guests. “We were fully booked!” recalls the entrepreneur. A month later, it was the turn of the fifty-cover restaurant to welcome its first diners.
The rest, as they say, is history: a renowned establishment, a real asset for Dommeldange, a flourishing little haven of peace that is constantly changing and evolving.
“The first few years are always the hardest in our sector, but things went from strength to strength. Then Covid hit. We weren’t about to let that beat us, though, and began offering a takeaway service. We made more from food when we were closed during that first lockdown than we’d ever made when we’d been open!”
Never waiting for the tide
With the end of lockdown came the post-lockdown frenzy. L’Hostellerie’s young owners were quick to take on new staff, to enable them to open seven days a week. And then the second lockdown took hold… Where some would play it safe, Clovis Degrave’s response says a lot about his ability to weather a storm: “I took advantage of the second lockdown to renovate the kitchens. We tore everything out and replaced it. We also extended the restaurant and terraces, created a private lounge, redecorated…”
Life returned to normal, but in summer 2022, the couple, who prefer tempestuous crossings to smooth sailing, decided to buy the building opposite L’Hostellerie du Grünewald. “I’d wanted to open a new concept restaurant in Luxembourg for a long time. I’d been to various ‘chef’s tables’ during my travels and loved everything about them.” In the newly acquired building, Clovis Degrave initially opened seven new guest rooms and then, on 7 September 2023, his new concept restaurant: Grünewald Chef’s Table.
A special culinary experience
In this new, upmarket restaurant, the first of its kind in Luxembourg, the chef and his team cook amongst the diners. Just six weeks after opening, this special culinary experience earned him the Gault&Millau guide’s ‘Young Chef of the Year 2024’ award. At the age of 34, Clovis Degrave jokes, “I’m not that young any more!”, but quickly looks serious again when asked if he has any other projects in the pipeline: “I do, but I can’t talk about them yet. We’re still young, of course, and there’s still things we want to do with L’Hostellerie du Grünewald, which is our main business.” Aline Bourscheid’s and Clovis Degrave’s flagship… While the couple may have the wind in their sails, they’re also mindful to not let themselves be tempted by the sirens’ song.
And where can they be found when they’re not hard at work? On a boat, of course! “Aline’s parents introduced me to sailing, and we now go sailing once or twice a year,” says the young man. And because ‘a smooth sea never made a skilful sailor’, there’s still opportunity enough to wish this captain of the culinary seas “Godspeed”!
![](https://u3t7s5p3.rocketcdn.me/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/HDG-1024x681.jpg.webp)
![](https://u3t7s5p3.rocketcdn.me/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/HDG3-681x1024.jpg.webp)
![](https://u3t7s5p3.rocketcdn.me/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/HDG2-1024x681.jpg.webp)
HOSTELLERIE DU GRÜNEWALD
10-14 ROUTE D’ECHTERNACH
L-1453 LUXEMBOURG
GRÜNEWALD CHEF’S TABLE
2 RUE DES HAUTS-FOURNEAUX
L-1719 DOMMELDANGE
Images: KACHEN