Le Pincemin – a Top Chef winner's stage in Versailles

At 10 boulevard du Roi, a short walk from the gates of the Château, Le Pincemin occupies a townhouse address as sober as any other in central Versailles — until the kitchen starts to perform in full view of the room, across a central island in labradorite stone where the chef works in front of guests, turning the evening into something of a spectacle. The restaurant carries the name of its owner, Xavier Pincemin, who was born on 8 November 1989 in Versailles and is the winner of the television show Top Chef, season 7, on M6 in 2016. In June 2019 he became chef of his own restaurant Le Pincemin in Versailles, and that November he was named a "Jeune talent" by the Gault & Millau guide. Le Pincemin is now selected in the MICHELIN Guide, recognition that sits alongside a chef better known to many for his social-media following. Behind the showmanship, a kitchen works seriously with fine produce, precise technique and, increasingly, the sharp green notes of sea plants.

01The room and the setting

Inside, there is no pass hidden behind swinging doors: the kitchen opens directly onto the dining room, built around that same broad labradorite island, so that each dish is finished and plated within sight of the tables it is heading to. The address is shared with Lafayette, Pincemin's second restaurant at the same number on boulevard du Roi, an Asian-fusion steakhouse with a cocktail bar, matured meats and flavours drawn from Asia that runs on a louder, later rhythm than the gastronomic room next door.

The mood deliberately avoids stiffness: groups come in without standing on ceremony, more concerned with a good evening than with formality, even though the plates arriving from that labradorite counter are built with the precision of a far starchier dining room.

02The chef

At nineteen Pincemin started as a commis in the kitchens of La Véranda, the second restaurant of the Trianon Palace hotel in Versailles, working his way up to chef de partie for fish and meat. There he was spotted by Simone Zanoni, chef of the Michelin-starred restaurant Gordon Ramsay au Trianon, who recruited him onto his team, first as a junior sous-chef and then as sous-chef. In 2015 Zanoni put him forward for the selections of Top Chef's seventh season; the final, recorded in January 2016, saw him win the title against Coline Faulquier.

Insider tip

Open Tuesday to Saturday; book directly with the restaurant, by phone or online.

Since opening Le Pincemin he has built something close to a small Versailles group: Lafayette next door, and Rescator, a brasserie of French bourgeois cooking a short walk away at 27 avenue de Saint-Cloud. His profile beyond the kitchen is unusually high for a chef of his generation — his table has welcomed the rappers Aazar, Ninho, S.Pri Noir and Laylow, regulars who have followed him from the television screen to the dining room.

03The cooking

The cuisine is built on the finest produce, kept precise and given an edge by the use of sea plants. Several tasting menus run side by side, sharing amuse-bouches, starter and fish course, and differing chiefly in the main course that follows.

A recent sequence, read on the Gault & Millau guide in October 2026, opened with smoked eel, beetroot and rocket cream, moved through a Breton foie gras vol-au-vent glazed with a poulette sauce, then John Dory with torch-burnt turnip, mustard seed and a red wine fumet, before reaching Cantal pork with a potato and sweet potato pressé, sea lettuce, nombril de vénus and a sea fennel jus-vinegar.

04What to order

The higher tiers are built around a single luxury centrepiece, lobster in one version, wagyu beef in another, while the amuse-bouches and the fish course that opens every table stay the same across formats.

05When to go and booking

Le Pincemin serves lunch and dinner Tuesday to Saturday, from noon to 3pm and from 7.30pm to 1am, and is closed on Sundays and Mondays. Reservations run through the restaurant's own booking system rather than a third-party platform, by telephone or via its website.

06The neighbourhood

Boulevard du Roi sits within walking distance of the Château de Versailles, close enough that the gilt and parquet of the Sun King's palace are no real distance at all from Pincemin's dining room. Two more addresses carry his name nearby: Lafayette, sharing the same building, and Rescator, his brasserie of simmered French classics and sharing plates, at 27 avenue de Saint-Cloud.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.