Can Jean Imbert, a chef with no Michelin stars, replace Alain Ducasse, the most decorated living French chef? Critics say no, chefs back him

Social media darling Jean Imbert is taking over the Plaza Athénée restaurant from Alain Ducasse

The Top Chef winner has ignited a storm of snobbery from French critics, but his fellow chefs are more encouraging

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Chef Jean Imbert, loved by social media and celebrities, is taking over from Alain Ducasse. Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images/AFP

Published: 8:15pm, 15 Sep 2021

Jean Imbert has one of the trickiest jobs in France – not only taking over from the country’s most decorated chef at one of its fanciest restaurants, the Plaza Athénée, but also proving himself to some of the sniffiest food critics on the planet.

French gastronomy is not known for its love of young upstarts, and Imbert seems tailor-made to rub some people up the wrong way.

The 40-year-old made his name by winning TV competition Top Chef and then exploding on social media, where he could be seen hobnobbing with the likes of Jay-Z, Pharrell Williams, Marion Cotillard and Kylian Mbappé.

These are not the usual credentials for someone to take over the restaurant at the Relais Plaza hotel – one of the so-called Parisian “palaces”. Its previous boss, Alain Ducasse, had more Michelin stars than anyone in the world.

Alain Ducasse is one of the world’s most decorated chefs. Photo: Hector Retamal/AFP

And yet that is where Imbert finds himself, having started at its brasserie last week while the restaurant prepares to reopen in 2022. Imbert himself is staying uncharacteristically quiet as he knuckles down to the task. But plenty in the industry are having their say.

For food critic Francois-Regis Gaudry, it’s all too “bling-bling”. “He has neither the CV nor the experience for such a place,” he said, adding that Imbert’s talent for celeb selfies and brand endorsements were decidedly “extra-culinary”.