Franck Medrano creates the city’s first Lyonnais cork. Opening planned for the end of May on Place des Caladons.
When he turns the key to open the door of his Lyonnais cork La Table d’Antoine, at the end of May, on the Place des Caladons, Franck Medrano will not realize a childhood dream. Above all, he will rediscover his teenage years spent and enjoyed in a brasserie on the famous Place Royale in Nantes.
Under the orders of his boss father-in-law, “rough and uncomfortable”he did everything. “From washing to serving, I’ve been to every position”, remembers the young man of the time. And, obviously, that of talking to the client.
A diploma in a sector he already knows
Precious memories for the boy who left school at 14, quicker to wipe the traces of glass from the zinc than those of chalk on the blackboard.
Because his career in catering was not going to be served to him on a platter, it was on his own initiative that Franck Medrano knocked on the door of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) to follow, with a on the one hand classes as a waiter, on the other hand his apprenticeship in an establishment in Saint-Sébastien-sur-Loire, in the suburbs of Nantes. “I wanted to have a diploma. It might as well be in the profession that I already knew”underlines the new Lunel resident who has just celebrated his jubilee.
When the plates flew at… Loiseau
He completed his studies at L’Auberge du pont-levis, in Nantes, rated 17 in Gault and Millau and a star Michelin. His guide? The chef “Monsieur Bertin”. It was he who recommended Franck Medrano to the great name of French gastronomy Bernard Loiseau.
The chef of the Relais which bears his surname, in Saulieu, in Côte-d’Or, was then at the height of his glory just as much as his way of transmitting his knowledge was often virulent.
It seems that Loiseau lived up to its name as the plates flew across the pharmacy if a millimeter of a finger was placed on their edge. “He then had the entire order of the table redoneremembers Franck Medrano, with a look where amazement and admiration are still intertwined. This happened to me once, not twice!”
A bit of career for the Nikko hotel chain
After six months alongside the one he names “the Alain Delon of gastronomy, both through his ego and his omnipresence in the kitchen and in the dining room”the future boss of La Table d’Antoine is continuing his career in the establishments of the Nikko hotel chain.
He is just 18 years old and it is another big name that attracts him to Cannes, on the French Riviera. Carlton propelled him to the level of head chef in a few weeks. But like a “gastronomy and hotel backpacker” thirsty for experience, Franck Medrano continued his journey and joined the team at Relais du Val d’Orbieu, in Ornaisons, in Aude.
He leaves for military service in handcuffs
This is where the two gendarmes come for military service, which he has managed to avoid as he travels around France. “I left and traveled on the train in handcuffs”the future boss of the Lyonnais stopper Lunel still laughs.
What followed were the commandos in Mont-Louis, a transfer to the Collioure barracks, a campaign on the aircraft carrier Foch and in Kosovo in the ranks of the Blue Helmets. Back in civilian life, Franck Medrano returns to Régina, in Valence. “I worked from 4 p.m. to 4 a.m. and I started catering for the guys who were coming out of the club and were hungry”remembers the waiter who thus quintupled his pay.
Which is not entirely to the taste of his boss who wants to impose a fixed rate on him. Franck Medrano throws away the cloth and returns to Saint-Nazaire to a restaurant that displays a Michelin macaroon.
A car accident in 1996
He continues at L’Océan, at Le Croisic, also a macaroon with the famous gastronomic guide. He holds the position of second maître d’hôtel. Until a serious car accident in 1996 deprived him of his only means of transport.
“It was a tough time. Every morning, I went to the shipyards to take any jobhe remembers, while his wife is expecting their first child. I also passed my heavy goods vehicle licenses and connected Saint-Nazaire to Madrid for a transport box.” Going through the south, then. A region that he had promised to show his wife around. “We left with my two daughters to spend a month of August in Sète, we never came back!”
Tired of chasing customers
First settled in Frontignan, the family then lived according to Franck Medrano’s professions. For the Revel group, then Scales, of which he became general manager for the Mediterranean region. A logistics and transport company that he left in 2019 to create X Trem handling, his own company, in Saint-Gilles.
At the same time, he set up his timber trading business in Saint-Laurent-d’Aigouze. Until giving up everything, in 2023, tired of this race for customers and jobs that has stuck with him for decades.
A chef from a cork
Based in Lunel since October 2023, because he wants to return to his first love – catering and its customers – Franck Medrano responds to the municipality’s call for tenders for premises in Caladons. “We already loved the city. Every Sunday morning, we come to the market to enjoy a few oysters and a good glass of wine. It’s an atmosphere that we have always liked.”
An art of living that Franck Medrano wants to transmit through his new restaurant. “It is for this and in this spirit that I wanted La Table d’Antoine to be a Lyonnais cork.” Sharing, conviviality and family spirit will be on the menu.
Just like the specialties of the city of Gones. Sapeurs’ apron, pike quenelle, Mamie Rose cove… and so many other dishes that will be made by a chef straight from a real Lyonnais cork.
