The magazine Le Chef, which has supported chef-owners for 40 years, recently presented the Tremplins Trophies to chefs who launched their first gastronomic table in the past year. Among the winners are Charles Barentin and Margot Corvasier, who purchased Le Grenier à Sel in Le Mans (72) from Frédéric Morançais, who had operated it for 13 years. After one month of renovations, the restaurant reopened on August 25. Both are natives of Le Mans, with Barentin as a chef and Corvasier as a dining room manager. They met in 2018 at Auberge de Bagatelle and worked together under Christophe Hay at La Maison d'à côté in Montlivault and at the five-star hotel Fleur de Loire in Blois before joining the Yannick Alléno group at La Table de Pavie in Saint-Émilion. Chef Marie-Léa Coulon opened Evezhea in Dinan (22) on June 12 last year. She comes from a family with a background in cooking and discovered the profession during an internship in fourth grade. She trained at La Dame de Pic in Paris and at the Coquillage of the Roellinger family for two and a half years. She later worked in La Rochelle with Christopher Coutanceau and at the Hôtel de l'Abbaye in Tronchet (35) for three years before opening Evezhea in 2026. César Crouzet, formerly the second chef to Patrick Vander at Les Fresques of the Hôtel Royal Evian (74), opened Vervinia on March 25 in Chanos-Curson (26). The restaurant, which has a 16-seat table, is named after the verbena plant and the vine, symbolizing freshness and transmission. The menu includes a seven-course discovery option. Crouzet, originally from the Drôme, returned to his roots after years at the Hôtel Royal Evian. The restaurant also includes a shop selling local products used in the kitchen. Chef Nicolas Fontaine and sommelier Logan Thouillez opened Poésie in Nîmes (30) in February last year. Both are part of the lineage of Pierre Gagnaire, with whom they built their careers. Fontaine previously worked at Gaya in Paris and participated in the renewal of the Hôtel Imperator in Nîmes, where he was executive chef of the brasserie L’Impé and the gastronomic restaurant. Chef Matthias Marc, known for his work at Substance and his appearance on Top Chef, opened La Maison des Cimes in Malbuisson (25). The restaurant, formerly L’Atelier de Donat, was renamed and includes a gastronomic table, a bistro using firewood logs for cooking, and a 10-room hotel labeled Relais&Châteaux. Marc is accompanied by his wife Hanna, Sylvain Courivaud, former chef of Braise, and Eulalie Mariton, a sommelier. Chefs Kévin Vaubourg and Lucille Routin reopened Le Chalet du Sire in Les Déserts (73) in June 2026. The Savoyard institution is located at an altitude of 1,500 meters on the La Féclaz plateau. Vaubourg spent seven years with Anne-Sophie Pic between Valence, Paris, and Lausanne, and previously worked at Gilles Goujon and Jean-Luc Rabanel. Routin, originally from Chambéry, trained under Jean Sulpice, Emmanuel Renaut, and Clément Bouvier. The pair reunited in 2021 at the Beau-Rivage Palace and later at Le Lavandin in the Drôme, where they earned a Michelin star in their first year.