Isa & Hugo, one shared South
From Paris to La Destrousse
The great houses
Hugo and Isabelle trained where French cooking forgives nothing. Isabelle first cut her teeth at the Hôtel du Castellet, in the Var, before heading up to Paris to Michel Rostang. Hugo at L'Agapé, then at Le Jules Verne, beneath the Eiffel Tower. And, together, at Maison Blanche on avenue Montaigne. Years of brigades, of dinner-service fire and beautiful tables, where they learned rigour, precision and an absolute respect for the ingredient.
We weren't only looking to open a restaurant. We were looking for a place of our own, in the South, to cook the way you welcome friends. — Isabelle & Hugo
A house of their own
After years spent serving other people's tables, one certainty took hold: to cook in a place of their own. With ingredients they recognise, growers they call by their first name, guests who come back because they live ten minutes away. The South was calling — its light, its markets, its olive oil, its wines. They looked for the right house, the one where they could set down everything they had learned. They found it in La Destrousse: an unpretentious village house at the foot of the Étoile massif, a stone's throw from Aubagne and Marseille.
Today, in La Destrousse
In taking over L'Entre Terre et Mer, Isa and Hugo fill the house with new energy, faithful to what matters: flavour, sharing, and the time a good meal deserves. Provençal cooking, precise and generous, marrying local produce with the flavours of the sea. Fine bottles chosen with passion. A short menu that follows the seasons. Isa is most often at the stove, Hugo in the dining room — but the mood decides, and it's not unusual to see them swap aprons. Push the door open: here, you're a little at home.