i. Biography
In Tignes, France, the kitchen at Ursus is built from terrain before it is built from technique. Savoie sits underfoot, mountain air keeps the register clean, and local products are pulled into focus by altitude. Long hikes matter here, not as romance, but as part of the working appetite that informs the plate. The landscape is not backdrop; it is part of the method.
The Path
Training at Grenoble gave Clément Bouvier the discipline of professional cooking and an early grounding in precision and endurance. From there, service as stage at Restaurant de Laurent Petit brought first contact with the pace of a serious brigade. Work with Jean-François Piège at Thoumieux added another layer of pressure and rhythm, the sort that marks top-tier kitchens and shapes a chef’s habits over time. In 2010–2010, Bouvier worked with his father at Exposition universelle de 2010 in Shanghai, a setting that paired technical exactness with the scale of the event itself. Since 2017, he has been chef of Ursus, where those earlier rooms and conditions now read through a mountain restaurant in Tignes.
The Work Today
Since 2017, Bouvier has led the kitchen at Ursus, and the restaurant is built around Savoie and the products of the region. The cuisine does not treat local sourcing as a signpost; it uses it as structure. Flavor, composition, and plate design all point back to the terrain that surrounds the dining room. Long mountain hikes and foraging in the forest are part of the way the food is thought through. Those movements shape how the menu is imagined and how it is presented, with the outdoor world feeding the indoor one. In that sense, the forest is more than reference material; it functions as a working pantry of ideas as well as ingredients. Bouvier has put that idea plainly: "I want people to feel like they are eating at a table in the midst of a magnificent forest, that’s the universe I tried to create here at Ursus." The room aims to hold the hush and texture of woods while still operating as a dining room.
Signature
Clément's signature dishes include My grandfather's potato soup and Cream Fontainebleau. Each name carries a different kind of intimacy: one nods to lineage and memory, the other to delicacy and refinement, together sketching the range of his culinary voice at Ursus.
In Their Words “I want people to feel like they are eating at a table in the midst of a magnificent forest, that’s the universe I tried to create here at Ursus.”
Acclaim
Clément Bouvier has received Michelin Guide, Michelin star (2018). Clément's honors include Michelin star.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Clément
Where did Clément Bouvier train or study?
Clément Bouvier trained at Grenoble.
What recognition has Clément Bouvier received?
Michelin star (2018).
