Guillaume Besson

Technique and discipline were built early at Lycée Hôtelier d'Illkirch, before service set the tempo. From there, Guillaume Besson moved into the kitchen at Richard Coutanceau in La Rochelle, a step that brought schoolhouse basics into a professional line of fire. He later became Head Chef at restaurant on Île d'Oléron in Île d'Oléron, then worked as cook at Au Crocodile in Strasbourg (from 2009). Read in sequence, those posts show range acquired by repetition: training, pressure, responsibility, then a broader working vocabulary across coast and inland.

Since 2016, Les Funambules has been the place where those hours and shifts settle into a more personal register. Guillaume Besson’s cooking there is shaped by movement between kitchens, but it is not scattered; it is methodical, responsive, and built from experience that has been carried forward rather than left behind. The progression is incremental, each stage tightening the line between instinct and execution.

“\"There, I was able to test things quite freely.\"” That line points to a kitchen where technique could be exercised without being flattened by routine. Freedom in this context is not the absence of structure; it is the working space that structure makes possible. For Guillaume Besson, that kind of room to test and adjust seems to have been part of how the craft kept moving forward.

The signatures sit on a clear axis of contrast: sweetness against savor, richness against cut, marine against earthy. Veal with green asparagus, mimolett and wild garlic potato works in that register, pairing veal with spring vegetables and the layered savor of mimolett. Dashi, octopus, cockles, potatoes and lemon moves to a more coastal language, with mineral and bright notes in play. Veal carpaccio, foie gras, fried bread, sesame leans into texture as much as flavor, using tenderness, crunch, and richness in the same frame.

Across those dishes, Guillaume Besson uses familiar products without overloading them. The point is not complication for its own sake, but control: each element has a function, and the plate stays legible. That gives the cooking its shape, with balance built through placement and proportion rather than volume.