He honed his craft in the great Parisian kitchens, managed services of 700 covers a day, and designed menus for some of the capital’s most storied addresses. Today, Achille Sayou Tchoublen is working on a new venture in Biarritz, developed in partnership with investors.
A career built from the ground up
It all began in 1990 with a classic culinary diploma, followed by a Hotel Management qualification in 1992. Achille Sayou started as a commis chef in 1993 at La Contre Allée in Paris’s 14th arrondissement, before methodically climbing every rung of the culinary ladder.
By 1997, he was sous-chef at La Méditerranée, a house specialising in fish and seafood, rated 16/20 in the Gault&Millau guide. A year later, Le Palais Royal entrusted him with designing its menus and leading a brigade of 15 — earning a 17/20 rating.
Operating at scale
It was at Restaurant Mary-Sol in Hossegor that Achille Sayou truly demonstrated his ability to run large-scale operations: 500 to 700 covers a day, a brigade of 10, consistently, since 2009. Before that, at the Café de l’Homme overlooking the Trocadéro, he had already managed comparable volumes at the head of a 25-strong kitchen team.
In 2007, Groupe Blacktte SARL brought him on as a consulting head chef, tasked with developing menus across three restaurants simultaneously while overseeing 33 people across three brigades.
Biarritz: a stopover or a final destination?
After a stint at Le Royalty on Place Clemenceau, Achille Sayou is now working on a new venture in Biarritz, developed in partnership with investors. At 53, with over thirty years of experience — spanning the kitchens of the French Tennis Federation, the oyster bars of Montparnasse and the prestigious Place du Marché Saint-Honoré — he brings to the area a rare profile: a seasoned technician equally at home creating dishes and leading teams.