Ludovic Kientz

The Path

The making of Ludovic Kientz runs through Alsace in the old apprenticeship pattern: learn the room, learn the brigade, then earn the right to lead it. Training at Hôtel-Restaurant Oberlé in Kilstett established the base, and the move to Au Crocodile in Strasbourg, France in 2005 put that base under pressure in a kitchen known for discipline. From apprentice / brigade member to chef by 2010–2017, the progression at Au Crocodile was steady, not theatrical, and the 12-year climb there gave shape to the technical control and regional continuity that define his work. Ownership entered later, but without breaking the line. Since 2018, Ludovic Kientz has been chef and co-owner of Au Gourmet, while also serving as Executive Chef of Au Crocodile. The structure is familiar in trade terms: early service, long repetition, then the responsibility to both cook and steer. In his case, the handover from brigade work to authorship stayed anchored in the same region, with Alsace providing the frame for each step.

The Work Today

At Au Gourmet in Drusenheim, France, the work is tied directly to Ludovic Kientz’s 2021 Michelin Guide one-star recognition. Since 2018, he has run the house there as chef and co-owner, and the award marks the point where a long apprenticeship in fine kitchens became publicly legible. The star did not introduce a new direction; it confirmed one already built from repetition, structure, and the accumulation of standards. The cooking is described from the inside out: sauces and taste first. That puts Kientz in a line of cooks who treat sauce as architecture, not ornament, and flavor as the final test of the kitchen’s discipline. The emphasis stays on fundamentals rather than display, which fits a career built through brigade work, chef responsibility, and the shift into ownership at Au Gourmet. Taken together, his positions describe a practical profile: chef and co-owner at Au Gourmet since 2018, Executive Chef of Au Crocodile, and a cook whose signature remains centered on the basics that hold a menu together. The recognition, including the 2021 Michelin Guide one-star, sits on top of that foundation rather than apart from it.

In Their Words “The Michelin star was a goal we had set for ourselves in three years, with Sandie, so we achieved it, but it is not an end in itself.” “The base of my cooking, the taste of good sauces, was taught to me by Emile Jung.”

Acclaim

The honors attached to Ludovic Kientz are compact but specific: Michelin Guide, one star (2021), Michelin Guide, one star, and Gault & Millau, Young Talent (2020). They track a route that begins with training at Hôtel-Restaurant Oberlé, Kilstett and work at Au Crocodile in Strasbourg, France, then settles into leadership at Au Gourmet in Drusenheim. Read that way, the awards register not as decoration but as markers of sustained kitchen standard over time.