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Chef Jean-Baptiste Durand used to dream of having his own restaurant. He even knew what he wanted to call it: Osé, which stands for “original, savoureux, équilibré” (original, tasty, balanced), and translates as “daring”. Fast forward several years and Jean-Baptiste’s dream finally came true when on 2 July 2021 – his 29th birthday – he opened Osé.
Welcome to Ellange, a small village of 331 inhabitants in the commune of Mondorf-les-Bains. Just a stone’s throw from the church, a beautiful, century-old building bears a burnished metal sign. A few years ago, this was the village café and restaurant. Since 2021, it has been a gourmet restaurant, run by a young couple: Jean-Baptiste Durand in the kitchen and Johanna Caël front of house.
“After nearly 15 years of working in Michelin-starred restaurants, I wanted to open my own restaurant. My brother was working in Luxembourg at the time, and we decided that this was something we wanted to do together. We wanted to be near Mondorf, because it’s a lovely town with a thermal spa, the wine route, and it’s also at the intersection of three country borders… And then we found the perfect property here in Ellange.” After three months of renovation work, Osé finally opened its doors just over a year after the first Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, when things were still very much uncertain. “But it didn’t prove an issue. I think people just wanted to get out of the house; there was a sense of freedom in the air.”
Not much remains of the old bistro, except for the tables, which have been sanded, varnished and repainted to look as good as new. Osé’s large serving counters, mounted on tree trunks from Durand’s brother’s garden, are from the old café’s wooden counter. Curtains now hang from the large windows and the main room has been repainted in fresh, light tones. Even the old bowling alley is hidden from view… “For now,” smiles the chef.
“My cuisine is creative and very much guided by instinct. You need a pinch of the extraordinary in the kitchen, to give your diners an element of surprise!”
Durand, a Frenchman from the Paris area, met chef Éric Guérin ‒ “a friend of the family” ‒ many years ago.
As a teenager, Durand worked as an apprentice in Guérin’s Michelin-starred restaurant “La Mare aux Oiseaux” in southern Brittany. “I considered Éric Guérin my mentor… I was waiting for a vacancy to come up.” It was here that his passion for cooking was born.
Not particularly academic by nature, the young Durand favoured practice over theory, moving from restaurant to restaurant and learning on the job. From luxury hotel “Le Burgundy Paris” in the French capital and “La Mare aux Oiseaux” in rural Loire-Atlantique, (to “Le Jardin des Plumes” in Normandy and one of Florent Ladeyn’s restaurants in Lille, Durand landed at “La Balette” in Collioure, on the Spanish border, working under its Michelin star chef Frédéric Bacquié. “Here, I rediscovered the joy of simple food, how to focus on the ingredients.” He also fell in love here: with the region, where he’d like to return one day, and with Johanna, also a catering professional, who followed him to Luxembourg.
So, just how daring is Osé? “My cuisine is creative and very much guided by instinct. You need a pinch of the extraordinary in the kitchen, to give your diners an element of surprise! We otherwise keep things simple, with the focus firmly on quality, gourmet food. You want it to feel like a special meal, like you’re going all out to impress and delight your guests…” With his Breton chapter, Durand in particular likes to cook with fish “because fish flesh is complex and delicate.”
Precision cooking, finesse and the use of seasonal produce all year round: This is what has earned the young chef a score of 13 in the Gault&Millau guide and a place in the Michelin Guide’s “Creative” selection.
Osé offers a three-course menu (€55) and a seven-course tasting menu (€89), from Thursday to Sunday. With the menu changing every two months, “regular diners are constantly in for a surprise.” Do you dare to embark on the Osé experience?
OSÉ
11, Route de Mondorf — L-5690 Ellange
Tel. + 352 / 20 28 37 37