In Eure, we know how to receive. After the “Normandy 2024 Home Trophy” awarded to Fanny Georget of l’Hostellerie d’Acquigny in Acquigny, it is Claire Antonini, from the restaurant L’évidence in Romilly-sur-Andelle, who receives the 2025 Gault & Millau trophy. “I was very surprised to receive this award,” admits the 27-year-old room manager, who has been running the restaurant open since July 2021 with her (future) husband Alexis Bennis, 31, chef de cuisine, a Gault & Millau hat since this year. The Yellow Guide reviewer was reportedly impressed by the couple’s ability to manage a room of 38 seats together.
Laurent Philippot
Claire Antonini still can’t believe it: “We do a lot of restaurants and we see people in the dining room. It’s true that we compare ourselves a lot and that’s what surprised me, but the customers tell us that they feel good there, that I am always friendly, that I always have a smile and that everything passes”, says the holder of a professional cooking baccalaureate and a BTS Management in hotel and catering obtained from the Décretot high school in Louviers (Eure). The one who had never done service before having her restaurant in the Andelle valley reveals her secrets for her guests : “Be relaxed, welcome them as at home and make them feel good there, especially if they feel good there.”
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The restaurant has built up a loyal clientele of regulars who make no mistake: “I’ve been eating at restaurants every lunchtime for forty years,” entrusts this client, and “I come here once a week. It’s excellent, we are very well received. I recommend”, he said while waiting for his Norman rump steak.
Up to twenty kilometers per day
Claire Antonini is however shy: “Even looking someone in the eyes, I have trouble” more “At service time, I transform. It’s a pleasure to serve people”. Little highlighted and faced with recruitment difficulties, catering jobs are demanding jobs and require good physical fitness. Claire Antonini had fun counting: “When it’s full noon and evening, I do twenty kilometers. I walk a lot, I go back and forth constantly”. In the kitchen, Alexis Bennis makes around ten: “At the end of the day, we are exhausted, with our fifteen hours of work a day”.
It was Alexis who received the call from the guide who warned of the distinction: “I was shocked” confides the chef, “delighted that for once we are rewarding Claire’s work which is very good and which is very rare”. The thirty-year-old is still surprised by this price, often awarded to restaurants with more staff, but “When I see Claire working, it doesn’t even surprise me anymore” he hastens to add.
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The restaurant L’évidence was selected in the first edition of the Guide to good restaurants in Eure. As good news never comes alone, Claire and Alexis are getting married next weekend.
The twelve winners of the Trophies in Normandy
- Gill (Rouen)Gilles Tournadre, Gault&Millau d’Or trophy
- Symbiose (Cabourg)Charles-Antoine Jouxtel, Grand of Tomorrow trophy
- Pink (Mathieu)Clémence Goupil and Alexandre Néel, Young Talent Trophy
- Ivan Vautier (Caen)Ivan Vautier, Techniques of Excellence trophy
- The ace of clubs (Bernières-sur-Mer)Anthony Valette, Cuisine of the sea, lakes and rivers trophy
- Maison Caillet (Valmont)Pierre Caillet, Exceptional Terroir trophy
- Le Ciro’s (Deauville)Adrien Antzenberger, Today’s Tradition trophy
- Pastry shop Myriam Guédrat (Deauville)Myriam Guédrat, Pastry chef trophy
- The Impressionists – the farm of Saint-Siméon (Honfleur)Delphine Borner, Sommelier trophy
- The obvious (Romilly-sur-Andelle)Claire Antonini, Home trophy
- Paul-Arthur (Rouen)Chloé Pannevel, Young indoor talent trophy
- The dovecote (Offranville)Laurent Kleczewski, Prairie and pasture cuisine trophy
