Virginie Protat in portrait

Virginie Protat's first culinary memory: She has loved her grandmother's Gâteau aux Marrons for as long as she can remember: "Even for my 31st birthday in the summer, my mother baked it for me."

She caught the gastronomy bug as a young girl when she helped out in her uncle's bistro: "I was fascinated by the energy there and experienced how good food can make people happy."

Profile of Virginie Protat

Name: Virginie Protat

Age: born in 1990 in Lyon

Career highlights: Virginie Protat began helping out at her uncle's brasserie at the age of twelve. Later, she attended the renowned Institut Paul Bocuse in her hometown of Lyon and cooked in several prestigious French restaurants. She satisfied her wanderlust with stints at the top restaurants Baduzzi in Auckland, New Zealand, and Verde in Sydney, Australia. Tantris DNA was her first time as head chef. In 2023, she left the restaurant and returned to her native France.

Privately: Virginie Protat prefers to spend her free time in nature; her second passion is photography.

Virginie Protat: a French chef in Munich

Virginie Protat showed courage when she signed the contract at Tantris DNA: "I didn't speak a word of German and had never been to Germany before." Nevertheless, she was determined. Even when she first arrived in Munich for the interview, Virginie Protat fell in love with the city immediately: "A very charming metropolis, not too big and with lots of green spaces. I walked through the English Garden and knew: This is where I feel at home."

It was also helpful that she knew Benjamin Chmura, head chef of Tantris, from their shared training at the Institut Paul Bocuse in Lyon, and head pastry chef Maxime Rebmann is a good friend. The two of them had put her in touch with the Tantris owners, Felix and Sabine Eichbauer. And besides, Protat likes challenges: "It's good to leave your comfort zone every now and then."

As announced in May 2023, Virginie Protat is leaving the Michelin-starred Tantris DNA after almost two years to return to her native France. The former head chef of Tantris, Benjamin Chmura, will now take over the overall management of both kitchens at Tantris Maison Culinaire.

What is Virgine Protat's cooking like?

For Virginie Protat, the product is always paramount. During her training, she learned that refined craftsmanship is essential to showcase it to its best advantage and bring out its perfect flavor. "It gives me great pleasure to pass on the great classic skills to my young chefs. For me, that means pure culinary emotion."

She repeatedly goes through with them how to fillet a fish, prepare a sauce stock, and process each individual vegetable in such a way that its natural flavor is brought out to the fullest. She is convinced: "Only when you have internalized this know-how can true creativity emerge."

Discover another top chef: Clare Smyth: A portrait of the fine casual dining chef.

What is Virginie Protat cooking?

During her last stint at Tantris DNA, Virginie Protat cooked reinterpreted classics: Homemade pâté en croûte with sweetbreads or terrine de foie gras were staples on her menu, each one seasonally varied. Chef Virginie Protat is particularly fond of her pike dumplings with sauce Nantua, a traditional crayfish sauce. "A specialty from my home region; we often ate it at home on Sunday evenings."

At Tantris, she opted for a lighter version, making the pike dumplings fluffier by using plenty of egg whites instead of cream, and using less butter and crème fraîche in the sauce with its pronounced shellfish flavor, adding a few drops of lemon to balance the taste. And depending on market availability, Virginie Protat would sometimes offer frog legs with melted Breton salted butter, fresh herbs, and garlic – something almost impossible to find in Germany these days.

Virginie Protat celebrates the product

Under Virginie Protat's culinary direction, Tantris DNA featured extensive tableside filleting and carving. How did the guests react? "Guests love the action at the table, partly because it brings them much closer to the product," says Virginie Protat, reflecting on her time as head chef at Tantris DNA. "For me, it symbolizes eating together, sharing food, just like it used to be in a family."

She served sea bass baked in salt dough, just as she had learned from Bocuse: stuffed with vegetables. Her clever touch: the fish was deboned and skinned before cooking, and she recreated the scales with slices of carrot, so that guests were in for a surprise when they cracked the crust.

The star of the presentation, however, was the beef fillet Rossini, which, upon carving, revealed its delectable interior: melt-in-your-mouth tender fillet of Chiemgau pasture-raised beef cooked in shortcrust pastry, luscious foie gras, and marinated Périgord truffles – all enveloped in spinach and Parma ham. At the table, the classic, intensely fragrant Sauce Périgueux, made with Madeira and truffles, was poured over it. A feast for all the senses!