Hugo Roellinger

The Path

Work at sea is part of the technical background to this cuisine. Early in his career, Hugo Roellinger worked as a merchant navy worker at Merchant navy, before the restaurant discipline took over. That experience does not need to be treated as mythology; it gives practical weight to a kitchen built around tides, salinity, horizon and the marine world as a primary source. Restaurant formation came through the stove. As a culinary trainee at Kitchens of Michel Bras, Michel Troisgros, Pierre Gagnaire, and Michel Guérard, Hugo Roellinger entered a demanding French lineage of precision, sensitivity and control.

The Work Today

The present cooking at Le Coquillage is based on sea and garden products, seaweed and spices. With meat absent, the kitchen narrows its field and gains clarity. Fish, shellfish, vegetables and seaweed carry the structure; spices add warmth, depth and distance without displacing the Breton base. The result depends on alignment between product, sourcing and restraint. The menu *Au Gré du Vent et de la Lune* is described as a poetic tale between sea and land where each dish reflects seasonality and precision. For a working kitchen, that means the title is not decoration: wind, moon, fishing, growing and gathering all point back to timing. The craft sits in choosing when to intervene and when to leave the product legible. Eau de Vie, a cold seaweed infusion served as a prelude, is described as the opening note in an operatic score. Its function is practical as much as symbolic: it sets the palate in a marine register before fish, shellfish, vegetables and seaweed take over. Cold infusion, salinity and seaweed establish the vocabulary of the meal before the sequence develops.

Signature

The signature work includes homard au cacao, vin xérès et trois piments, translucent langoustine tartlet with morels, lobster served in two textures, and lobster with cocoa and a trio of Mexican peppers. Across those named dishes, the craft is clear: shellfish sweetness is set against bitterness, acidity, spice and texture. Breton crustacean cookery is not left plain, but neither is it buried; cocoa, vin xérès and peppers are used as structural counterpoints.

In Their Words “From this ‘marine water,’ I create my cuisine.”

Acclaim

Recognition has followed the restaurant’s defined line of work: Three Michelin stars for Le Coquillage (2025), Green star for Le Coquillage (2020), Two Michelin stars for Le Coquillage (2019), and Cuisinier de l'année (2022). The awards mark a cuisine built from sea, garden, spice, season and sustainability, with Hugo Roellinger’s role evidenced through the consistency of that frame at Le Coquillage.