Alain Perrillat-Mercerot

Lycée hôtelier de Bonneville provided Alain Perrillat-Mercerot with the formal discipline that underpins a professional kitchen: precision, rhythm, and respect for the work. From there, the apprenticeship stage began at Auberge de Letraz in Sévrier, followed by a second placement as apprentice / trainee in second year of brevet professionnel at Capucin Gourmand in Vougy. Each step added the routines that matter in trade kitchens: attention, discipline, and skill built through repetition.

That sequence led Alain Perrillat-Mercerot to Clos des Sens, where he became chef. The title signaled accumulated command rather than a break in method. School, apprenticeship, then chef is a familiar route; here, it is carried with steady control, each stage seeming to prepare the next.

At Atmosphères in Le Bourget-du-Lac, France, Alain Perrillat-Mercerot works in tandem with Delphine Pontet, who shares the restaurant’s direction. Together, they have presented local gastronomic cuisine for more than twenty years, maintaining a cooking style anchored in the surrounding region and held to the standards of fine dining. “I prepare them by instinct, like my cooking,” Alain Perrillat-Mercerot says. The line points to a kitchen where judgment is practical, not theoretical, and where instinct and technique meet in the daily work of service.

At Atmosphères, that instinct is expressed through the steady making of dishes, the balancing of flavors, and the upkeep of a house style that has developed over decades. With Delphine Pontet beside him, Alain Perrillat-Mercerot has maintained a form of continuity that values patience, refinement, and ongoing improvement. At Atmosphères, longevity is not just elapsed time; it is sustained practice.

Alain's honors include Michelin star for Atmosphères. He opened the hotel-restaurant with his wife Delphine Pontet in 2001.