GASTRONOMY
Jean Imbert, Chef of the Hôtel Martinez
On 3 May 2023, Jean Imbert became the chef of the Hôtel Martinez in Cannes. At the helm of the Plaza Athénée since June 2021, succeeding Alain Ducasse, Chef Jean Imbert managed to spring a surprise by winning his first star for the restaurant “Jean Imbert au Plaza Athénée” after just 9 weeks in operation. In March 2022 he became the first chef of the historic Christian Dior boutique at 30 Avenue Montaigne.
His journey did not end there, as he became the Chef of the legendary Venice Simplon-Orient-Express in April 2022 and of the legendary Le Brando hotel, nestled in the heart of the Tetiaroa atoll, in February 2023. Jean Imbert also heads up the Hôtel Cheval Blanc St-Barth. Imbert created the ToShare concept, which he developed with his friend Pharrell Williams. He was voted Chef of the Year in 2021 by Quotidien magazine, and in 2019 by GQ magazine.
He is considered one of the 50 most influential French people in the world by Vanity Fair. The youngest graduate of the Institut Paul Bocuse, he is also known as the iconic winner of the TV show Top Chef in 2012.
La Plage du Martinez
In Spring 2023, as the Cannes Film Festival kicked off, La Plage du Martinez unveiled more than just a new décor – it has been transformed into a chic, timeless boat deck, with Chef Jean Imbert at the helm.
For the decor and furniture, it is the designer Rémi Tessier who gives his signature touch, imagining Director’s Chairs with the names of actors and directors that the chef admires…
Martin Scorsese, Grace Kelly, Cary Grant, and Audrey Hepburn top the list. The dining room and arbored terrace have a breezy, yachting spirit with navy blue, to recall the Mediterranean, and warm terracotta.
Nothing was left to chance: specially designed Bernardaud tableware, Biot glasses, leather coasters with the hotel logo… and everywhere a decor with a chic yachting ambiance, evoking a nautical spirit with a charmingly outdated charm. Brass, lacquered wood, and touches of deep blue unfold between the interior and the spacious terrace overlooking the famous pontoon, from which one can already imagine boarding a vintage Riva. A chic and relaxed atmosphere, the Mediterranean way of life in a nutshell, which the chef also wanted to express in the plates: “We are on a beach restaurant, we have chosen a convivial table with some dishes served and shared in copper and earthenware.”
The menu features traditional cuisine and sharing plates, with strong influences from the Mediterranean and the French Riviera, with a highlight on fresh, seasonal products from local producers. To begin, the starters include: vitello’focaccia, pineapple tomato & local
condiments, jean’s avocado arugula salad with lemon and grilled octopus vegetables skewer.
The meal continues with dishes cooked over an open fire: lamb chops rosemary baked potatoes, poultry ‘à la diable’ violin zucchini… or roasted in the oven: ‘vivi baisos’ style stuffed red mullet or riviera sea bream like at SDO. For a sweet finish, the menu features a large selection of desserts, including my grandma’s cherry clafoutis, pistachio & morello mille feuille, frosted melon, ‘calisson’ ice cream, and iced tiramisu.
A smaller menu is also proposed for the seaside area where new elegant sun beds take center stage.
What if it was the most natural, self-evident act in the world for Jean Imbert to decide to explore the magic of Cannes for himself? He has been a movie buff since he was a child, brought up on the silver screen and anthology films at home. More significantly, though, he has been involved in the Cannes Film Festival since his youth, coming to cook here at 16 years of age, working in the clamor of the back kitchens while sneaking unobtrusively into official screenings between meal services on the Croisette.
A year after taking the culinary helm at La Plage du Martinez and overseeing all the kitchens of the Hôtel Martinez, an iconic, world-renowned Croisette establishment, Chef Jean Imbert opened in May 2024 the doors to the hotel’s gourmet restaurant, La Palme d’Or, the opportunity for him to pen a new page of his epicurean epic.
“I started working in Cannes when I was 16, cooking when I needed to and going to see movies when I could! So it seemed predestined that I’d open a restaurant here one day. And I wouldn’t have done so anywhere other than the symbolic and emblematic site that is the Hôtel Martinez in
Cannes.”
Jean Imbert
There was no doubt about it for Jean Imbert – steeped in westerns, film noirs, the great gangster classics –, who found himself daydreaming about what might be happening on the first floor of the Hôtel Martinez, when the Festival jury gathered every year, behind closed doors, during the event. Be it a twist of fate or long-determined destiny, on May 13, the day before the Cannes Film Festival opened, the jury met, symbolically, at La Palme d’Or restaurant.
La Palme d’Or
Cuisine born of sunshine and the sea
For this new adventure at La Palme d’Or, Jean Imbert was eager to do things simply and spontaneously. It would be gourmet cuisine, of course, but easy-going and instinctive, centered on fish served in its
exquisite raw state or grilled over a wood fire, along with other delicacies from the Mediterranean.
A restaurant that celebrates a freer, sunnier ambiance, an experience truer to the real Riviera. The menu features à la carte dishes for guests to choose as they wish, and there is a tasting menu for more curious diners. Chef Jean Imbert has naturally put together a team of people who know the region and its secrets inside and out: Alexandre Elia, Executive Chef of the Hôtel Martinez, and Christophe Nannoni, Chef of La Palme d’Or. Such experience means he can confidently source his ingredients from a local ecosystem and fishermen proud to bring in fresh, flavorful catches from the waters between Théoule-sur-Mer, Menton, and Marseille, like John Dory, capon, and bonito.
“I want to serve gourmet, sea-sourced cuisine that is simple, relaxed, and straightforward, a way of paying tribute to the edible jewels of the Mediterranean – ingredients one would never find in Paris – and the
specific skill and know-how of the region’s fishermen.”
Jean Imbert
Jean Imbert composes a fresh and original score, a work performed by a youthful team and Restaurant Manager Mathieu Maisonobe. The culinary theme gives pride of place to fish, seafood, and other gems from the sea, all caught and handpicked by local producers and fishermen. For the chef, serving in-season saltwater delicacies is a self-evident composition in the unique setting of the Hôtel Martinez, on a terrace with endless views of the Mediterranean and the Riviera’s horizons.
For cocktails, the restaurant has a bar in solid teak, an updated homage to the Christina O, a legendary yacht from the 1940s, perfect for sipping refreshments at the counter.
For the sweet last movement, virtuoso Pastry Chef Loïc Voron is the artist, and Jean Imbert has chosen to offer dining-room service on a dessert cart, for a millefeuille prepared tableside, freshly made as guests look on. There are chocolate and berry soufflés, or even tempting frosted lemons with six citrus fruits, served natural, candied, and iced and selected with local small farmers.
The world of cinema as setting
For an immersion in moviemaking magic, La Palme d’Or restaurant has created a unique table experience, where all guests find themselves surrounded every dimension of the cinematic world.
Just imagine: a menu crafted to resemble a film script, produced on a typewriter, with handwritten notes; dishes presented like storyboards, the work of four designers who have explored the worlds of epics, westerns, and science fiction.
Or how about a coat-check receipt that looks like an old-fashioned movie ticket, and a dessert menu designed like a call sheet, that precious document mailed to actors and actresses nominated for a prize at the Cannes Film Festival. A masterstroke by the brilliant design team of
Violaine & Jérémy.
In its new setting, La Palme d’Or has changed its look, taking you into an exceptional, timeless décor styled to resemble a vintage boat, with lacquered wood at every turn. In the center of the dining room stands “the big jury table,” a tribute to the tables d’hôtes that Chef Jean Imbert so prizes, above which hovers the Palme d’Or reinterpreted as a monumental chandelier. To execute this transformation, Jean Imbert once again joined forces with designer Rémi Tessier – the Genius behind the metamorphosis of the gourmet restaurant Jean Imbert au Plaza Athénée, as well as La Plage du Martinez unveiled in May 2023 —, alongside many French craftspeople and carpenters.
“I had envisioned the very special, glamorous atmosphere of vintage yacht interiors from the 1930s to the 1960s. The cuisine so wholly focused on seafood aligns perfectly with this vision.
Jean and I have long shared a passion for boats and the notion of timelessness is fundamental to our respective work, but always with an added twist that makes the place unique, just like the cuisine, but nevertheless rooted in the collective memory.” — Rémi Tessier.
A timeless experience
In the restaurant’s dining room, where all the staff are dressed in tailor-made ensembles by Aimé Léon Dore, Jean Imbert has also distributed (and hidden!) an astounding array of objects gathered over many months to form a cinematic cabinet of curiosities: old movie posters, relics, scripts with handwritten notes from silver-screen legends, even the boxing trunks worn by Robert De Niro in Raging Bull. For the décor, much of the tableware was also drawn from unusual sources and antique shops, but the historic local glassworks of La Verrerie de Biot also served as a seasoned supplier.
“We wanted this restaurant to provide guests with a moment when time stands still, a place where those who love the movie world can find themselves immersed in all that fascinates them, surrounded by original screenplays with handwritten notes from celebrated actors or directors, or legendary film props and accessories that took us months of time and travel to find.”
Jean Imbert
To intensify this feeling of being transported to a parallel universe, being on a boat sailing into a dreamworld, the premises are dotted with portholes, providing fascinating glimpses throughout the restaurant of bottles from the wine cellar, posters of movies that won the Palme d’Or, even the chef’s kitchen and the wood fire over which the fish is cooked with such flavor. As though you had become Captain Nemo in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, scrutinizing the seabed. Take note, too, that there is a secret room adjacent to the kitchen, a hideaway known as “Jean’s Cabin,” that holds a few place settings for an uncommonly enjoyable experience.
The Martinez Bar is an elegant, iconic establishment on the famed La Croisette, a venue where time stands still for hotel guests, visitors, and locals alike.
In a lavish setting of fiery reds, deep shadows, and shimmering gold, the Martinez Bar stands majestically open to La Croisette or discreetly tucked away through the hotel lobby.
Designed by Rémi Tessier, the space channels a chic, high-energy lounge where classic elegance takes center stage. Vibrant damask fabrics drape plush sofas, resting atop opulent Persian rugs.
Above, an architectural ceiling adorned with red decorative glass and gold leaf is punctuated by towering octagonal columns. These striking structures—wrapped in moiré fabric, mirrors, and glass—shape the space with refined grandeur, evoking the immersive acoustics of a luxury sound
system. Guests gather around these columns, drawn to the sleek, elongated bar, a tribute to the glamour of the 1930s. Tiffany lamps cast a warm glow, enhancing the sophisticated ambiance—a seamless fusion of conviviality and opulent luxury.
This exclusive setting guarantees absolute privacy, making it the perfect backdrop for hosting distinguished guests and unforgettable ‘soirées’.
The Martinez Bar is a dazzling setting in which imagination and fantasy run free. The retro-glam soundtrack sweeps you back to carefree years and you can unearth unforgettable musical gems from the vinyl bar, a collection curated by a New York record storefrequented by Chef Jean
Imbert. On weekends – and four evenings a week in July and August –, a DJ spins tunes that set the night alight. When the weather is fine, the bar stretches out onto a patio adjacent to the Martinez’s lush gardens, where you can watch the sunset blaze over the Esterel Mountains, or
gaze at La Croisette’s palm trees shimmering in the moonlight.
Martinez Bar
A dazzling new venue on La Croisette
Delphine Grossmann has become part of the Hôtel Martinez team to oversee the bar and fashion the cocktail menu. She now introduces a sophisticatedly creative cocktail selection, crafted like a musical score in which every note has its place. Each of these beverages is presented in an original scenography that draws guests into stories inspired by music, movies, and the Hôtel Martinez’s colorful history. Delphine meticulously mixes select spirits, balancing bitters and combining aromatic or fruity botanicals with homemade infusions and syrups, crafted as naturally as possible for the gratifying pleasure of sipping true-to-life tastes. The deliberately concise – yet thoroughly refreshing – original cocktail menu features creations that resonate with the venue’s 1930s style, as well as newfangled versions of classic concoctions. Delphine Grossmann’s art and talent are driven by her love of bringing people together: fostering encounters, encouraging discovery, sharing her know-how, and applying her mixology skills to pour emotions into a glass, giving guests a tangibly immersive experience.
To accompany these extraordinary beverages, Jean Imbert designed a menu of sophisticated dishes, a collection of made-to-be-shared edibles skillfully orchestrated by chef Alexandre Elia.
The selection showcases creatively presented botanical and seaside delights, such as Jean’s signature “avocado de Jean,” served here as a perfectly seasoned guacamole that guests prepare themselves – using mortar and pestle – when they are ready to eat. There’s also socca
boasting the key ingredients of Niçoise classics, tuna and bonito sandwiches or burgers, the “petits farcis” stuffed vegetables of local fame, and crispy langoustines. Then “caviar caviar” presents itself, a surprising combination of Imperial Gold caviar and eggplant dip. Desserts are available, too, of course, that sweetly and surprisingly reinterpret a handful of renowned cocktails.
A fun, friendly, and free state of mind
Le Sud is part of the vibrant heart of the Hôtel Martinez, embodying the spirit of the Grand Café of the Roaring Twenties, where aristocrats, artists, and writers from the across the globe mingled and imagined ways to remake the world. This emblematic Croisette establishment keeps pace with the rhythm of Cannes life, welcoming night owls, early birds, bathers, and film-festival fans at all hours in a fun and friendly atmosphere. Provence-style pétanque is played here, a chance for people-watching and taking in the lively life of the Croisette.
Here, the ambiance changes with the light and the hour, transitioning from the gentle bustle of sunny mornings to an evening exuberance on a par with the hotel’s heyday. The Le Sud staff, with discreet elegance and a warm welcome, serve with aplomb no matter the ambiance.
An elegant & versatile establishment
Beneath the benevolent sun smiling overhead, whether indoors or outdoors, Le Sud invites you on a Mediterranean cruise in sophisticated yachting décor, the hotel’s stylistic signature. The vision of architect Pierre-Yves Rochon came into being in Le Sud in a modernized and contemporary Art Deco style.
The premises are versatile, adapting to every daytime and nighttime moment and caprice: The breakfast counter, for instance, transforms into a bar come evening.
The lighting is subtly orchestrated, evolving as the day progresses, invigorating during the day, subdued in the evening. The décor is in myriad shades of blue, from the velvet benches to the tableware and uniforms.
When the weather is fine – which, on the Riviera, means all year long – the premises open onto a garden and a terrace to let guests enjoy the view and effervescent street life that is so quintessentially Cannes.
Le Sud
Lobby-bar restaurant
A neo-Mediterranean brasserie
Le Sud tempts us to travel to and through the tastes of the Mediterranean. The refreshing, colorful cuisine takes inspiration from the land, sun, and sea of this captivating region.
The Chef expertly reinterprets the great brasserie classics, while adding a subtle Southern touch to a club sandwich, a salade Niçoise, and much more. Bountiful platters meant to be shared, alive with Italian, Greek, and Lebanese influences, make cocktails and special moments with friends and family brighter still.
The menu gives pride of place to local, fresh, and seasonal ingredients, prepared with both simplicity and sophistication, showcasing the region’s bounty and Mediterranean culinary traditions. Whether it is for a drink or a meal, an on-the-go snack or a leisurely sit-down feast;
for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or a midnight snack; alone, with a partner, or in a group; after the beach or before a game of pétanque … Le Sud’s continuous service appeases every craving, at nearly any time of the day or night.
Unconventional cocktails: the quintessence of Martinez spirit
The bar menu has been updated, keeping the establishment’s signature cocktails while expanding the choice of alcohol-free cocktails. The gin trunk, harborer of surprising spirits, has many wonders and discoveries in store for novices and connoisseurs. The cocktail names are nods to the Martinez spirit, the Cannes cinema culture, and the surrounding landscape, from “Roaring Twenties” to “Punchy Punch,” from “Action!” to “Spritz Mimosa.”
Breakfast: a friendly, flavorsome waking ritual
Breakfast has become an experience in its own right: We now associate it with ever-greater creativity and refinement so we can pleasurably start our day with a personalized waking ritual that suits our whims and appetite: comforting indulgences, balanced nutrition, or unabashed epicureanism.
On the Riviera, where people take time to enjoy life and where mornings stretch languidly to midday, breakfast is a special moment that sets the tone for your hotel stay. It is served at the Le Sud restaurant, the hotel’s beating heart, a place open to every time and tempo, from
sunrise to starry night, with Jean Imbert unspooling a delicious script in long takes: breakfast, lunch, snacks, afternoon tea, dinner.
A light-drenched space where you can sit inside beneath a Cocteau-style artistic sun, in the mid-season glass-enclosed room, or outside in the tree-shaded garden on the Croisette.
Breakfast is when guests cluster around a superb buffet from which everyone can compose their own tailor-made breakfast and savor it slowly while spending time with loved ones.
Le Sud celebrates the nuances of the Riviera with its contemporary décor by architect Pierre-Yves Rochon, taking inspiration from the hotel’s emblematic colors. The setting tempts guests to sample an exquisite array of regional tastes.
The menu is brimming with breads and brioches, moist cakes, fresh-baked pastries – be they plain or fancy –, as well as fruits and vegetables of the season delivered by local growers. All this is complemented by traditional Mediterranean tapenades, pestos, and hummus for healthy, high-energy salads.
This sumptuous buffet is the Martinez’s delicious commitment to helping guests start their day with an exceptional gustatory experience, with top-quality local foods served with a passion for authentic and environmentally friendly Mediterranean cuisine.
Beyond this diverse and distinguished eating opportunity, the Hôtel Martinez is resolutely committed to a responsible policy of reducing food waste.
The time for indecent excess is over and the staff see to it that the buffet is regularly restocked in keeping with demand, while avoiding waste, so that everyone can help themselves at any time and food resources are respected.
Local spirit
At La Palme d’Or restaurant, and at all the restaurants of the Hôtel Martinez, the chef insists on working with local fishermen, especially Marius, who delivers the most superb Mediterranean seafood – including John Dory and mullet – directly to the kitchens. The lamb is from Aveyron, the pigeon from southwest France.
The vegetables are organic, and Cannes’ Marché Forville is where Christian Sinicropi finds the asparagus, zucchini, and herbs he uses in his compositions. The sole criterion for selecting zucchini blossom: that it be from Jean-Charles Orso, former rugby player for the French national team, who has made this botanical gem his specialty. Philippe Auda, down the coast in Fréjus, is the source for the region’s finest turnips, radishes, and chard.
Local wins again for the oysters from the Mediterranean and Cap Corse, as is the case for the tuna and citron. Shellfish and crustaceans bring the taste of Italy, and the olive oil is made a few fathoms away, by the monks at the island monastery of Saint-Honorat, visible from the shore.
Sweet creations
Julien Ochando, Pastry Chef at La Palme d’Or since 2013, is the creative genius behind the desserts served at the Hôtel Martinez. Born a Burgundian, he began his career in 2001 with Jean-Michel Lorain at La Côte Saint Jacques (three Michelin stars) and climbed every rung of the career ladder, from commis to chef de partie.
But it was on the French Riviera, and at the Martinez, that his occupational dreams came true: He now oversees a staff of ten and, with Christian Sinicropi, creates the dessert menu for the restaurants and bars of the Hôtel Martinez.
With a splash of extravagance, with creativity and taste as his watchwords, Julien Ochando performs sweet feats with his desserts, always designed to dovetail harmoniously with the chef’s cuisine, working with a smile to create sprightly delights like espresso cupcakes, a berry tart inspired by lemon meringue, and traditional cakes in feather-light interpretations. One of his latest creations is a cocoa-bean-inspired chocolate dream, an earthy, woodland personality with flavors of roast cocoa bean and a crumble topping of flaked cep mushroom and toasted buckwheat.
La Palme d’Or’s décor, the work of interior decorator Sybille de Margerie, is the ultimate homage to the Cannes Film Festival. From the floor etched with stylized palms to the gold-trimmed cladding, from bronze statues to celebrity portraits, from color to black and white, the restaurant exudes the very soul of Cannes.
Beneath subdued lighting, warm shades of red, ocher, and beige enhance the comfortable ambiance. The restaurant’s terrace, the quintessence of dining pleasure, offers views of the palms, the Croisette, and the Mediterranean, while the lounge and cellar end every meal on a happy note.
The Mouvement concept
Chef Sinicropi, innovator of all and imitator of none, brings a new culinary experience to La Palme d’Or restaurant. Starting with the menu in cube form and based on the principle of Mouvement, movement. A philosophy founded on living things – in which the ingredient is embraced as being in a state of constant change – and the desire to explore new realms in cuisine.
As a prelude, his appetizers are utterly southern. A ceramic drawered creation shelters his personal version of the Barbajuan, fritters stuffed with Swiss chard and grated cheese. Sardines are eaten in marble form and the bottarga as a crisp lollipop wrapped in a crisp olive crust.
Gone is the classic starter/main course/dessert parade: the menu features a Mouvement on each face, a key ingredient express in three dishes. Depending on the theme and chosen ingredient – lobster, oyster, lamb, farm pigeon, tastes of the sea, vegetables – the chef leads a three-step waltz, interpreting the ingredient’s texture, then its evolution over time, then its surrounding terroir. He creates accords with the sauces the way a “nose” formulates perfumes and crafts the very tableware that allows his compositions freest expression.