The French restaurant, Plénitude, delivers a sublime gastronomic experience to its guests imbued with a combination of skill, emotion and precision. Newly crowned as the winner of the Gin Mare Art of Hospitality Award 2024, the restaurant’s chef and service director discuss humanity, secret rooms and the power of sauces
Chef Arnaud Donckele is nothing short of a culinary poet, whose ultimate expression comes in the (very French) form of sauces. On top of that, he truly believes in people – meaning that exactly how his dishes are presented to guests, and by whom, can add significantly to their effect.
“I ask my kitchen team to cook as if they are cooking for the people they love most in the world. It is the same for the service team, I want them to bring everything they can to the guest, to be truly generous. This is when magic happens,” says the chef-patron of Plénitude, located within the famed Cheval Blanc hotel on the banks of the River Seine.
If this focus on elevating sauces and cherishing humanity sums up the philosophy of the restaurant, there is inevitably much more to its success. And it has certainly achieved a lot in a short period: Plénitude opened in 2021, garnered three Michelin stars within record time in 2022, graduated to The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list for the first time in 2023, and now earns the highest international accolade for its dining experience with the coveted Gin Mare Art of Hospitality title.
Plénitude is located within the Cheval Blanc hotel on the banks of the Seine
Alongside restaurant director Alexandre Larvoir, Donckele has assembled and trained a young team that delivers something extra special in a city long renowned for its sophisticated dining scene. So what can diners expect at this 30-seat gastronomic ode to service and style?
A dynamic evening
After being greeted in the luxury hotel’s reception, guests are brought to the first-floor restaurant; but, before being seated, they enter the wine cellar. “This provides an opportunity for us to make the first real connection with people, to get to know them, maybe to make them laugh,” says Larvoir.
After discussing wine (to a greater or lesser extent, depending on their interest), they are guided to a table in the intimate dining room. The Sail Away Together menu – with a number of options for each of its four courses – or the seven-course Symphony tasting menu is available. One of those seven courses involves guests being taken into the kitchen to be served a plate directly by the chef and his culinary team. “This is a moment when we often feel another change in energy and spirit,” adds Larvoir..jpg)
The restaurant includes a ‘secret’ room filled with vintage plates and select cheeses
After the main course, diners take another detour, this time into a ‘secret’ cheese cave. The waiting staff open hidden doors in the side of the room and ask guests to step inside, where they first select from rare vintage crockery and then choose their desired fromage, which they take with them back to their table.
Finally, desserts arrive courtesy of acclaimed pastry chef Maxime Frédéric, before guests are offered the chance to ascend to the 10th floor of the hotel for views over Paris by night, with the illuminated Tour Eiffel prominent.
“What is beautiful is the movement,” says Larvoir. “Guests move around the restaurant and they become actors in the drama of the evening, they are not just passive.”
A sauce for every dish; a dish for every sauce
Donckele is, first and foremost perhaps, a saucier. The chef sees these little pools of liquid as carrying not just flavour, but feeling, balance and sincerity within them. Each of the dishes on the menu includes a sauce of some description, so if you believe sauces are the essence of French cuisine, this is the place to come.
For Chef Donckele, the sauce forms the central element of every dish
“The sauce gives soul to the dish,” says Donckele, who is as modest as he is passionate. “This liquid material carries emotion and honesty – you can’t cheat [with a sauce]!” It is considered the centre point of each plate as much as the meat, fish or vegetable that it accompanies, or that accompanies it.
Sardine is served with a piquant green ‘Eden’ velours, while langoustine comes with a wonderfully airy ‘arlequin’ sabayon, for example. The myriad ingredients for each of the bouillons, foams, consommés or vinaigrettes is presented to diners in written detail.
“With a sauce, as with a human, what is most beautiful is what is inside,” he adds.
Surrounded by beauty
The LVMH-owned Cheval Blanc – ranked among The World’s 50 Best Hotels in the inaugural edition of the list in 2023 – is housed in the historic La Samaritaine building in the French capital’s 1st arrondissement. Its suites, for anyone fortunate enough to check in and extend their immersion in Parisian luxury, boast floor-to-ceiling views over key city landmarks and their own sunlit garden spaces.
The hotel’s flagship restaurant is also a work of art: a cosy white and yellow cocoon of a room, with cream bubbles on the textured walls and its own views over the adjacent Pont Neuf from its split levels. Each detail, from the glassware to the staff uniforms to the hand-picked ceramics, has been forensically sourced and selected to play their particular part in the gastronomic symphony..jpg)
Led by Alexandre Lavoir, Plénitude's service team delivers a heartfelt and sometimes emotional dining experience
And yet the Plénitude team prides itself on ensuring its diners are not over-awed by the surroundings. “We try to create a new style of service that is relaxed and not too formal. We bring a little of the [friendly] countryside spirit that you would not expect in a big luxury hotel,” says Donckele, the son of charcutiers, who hails from rural Normandy.
The idea is that the team can bring their own human qualities to the table, while still being precise and detail oriented. “The warmth that the team brings is sometimes unexpected,” adds Larvoir. “Our guests can often get quite emotional during their experience with us. Just the other day a lady said, ‘I don’t know you, but I love you!’ with tears in her eyes. We are sincere, it’s not a performance.”
The philosophical approach of the restaurant, extending through the kitchen and out into the dining room, emanates from the chef-patron. “Arnaud sees beauty in every individual,” says Larvoir. “He gives people confidence and, at the same time, he has a clear vision so that we continuously improve.”
The final, suitably poetic words on hospitality go to Donckele himself: “For me, the hospitality provided by the staff, through an act as poetic as possible, provides the backbone of the emotional impact of each dish.” It is an impact that has evidently registered positively with diners, critics, experts and international gourmets from near and far.
Now step into Plénitude with this video:
The list of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2024, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, will be announced on Wednesday 5 June from Las Vegas. To stay up to date with the latest news, follow us on Instagram, Facebook, X and YouTube, and sign up to our newsletter.
