Nicolas Fontaine

Nicolas Fontaine is Executive Chef at Dorfstuben in Baiersbronn, where the kitchen’s specialty is Traditional Swabian-Baden Black Forest cuisine. His career shows a steady progression through demanding kitchens, each stage adding technique, pace, and precision to his work. He began with formal study at BTS in 2002, then entered the professional kitchen at Michel Kayser in 2002, where he developed the discipline needed to work under pressure and maintain exact timing.

In 2005, Fontaine moved to Pierre Gagnaire, a setting known for exacting standards and creative momentum. By 2009, he had become chef of Gaya, taking on the responsibility of leading service and ensuring that experience translated cleanly into the dining room and the pass. That step marked a shift from absorbing a system to being responsible for it. His career continued to advance in 2016, when he opened Grande Maison de Bernard Magrez for Pierre Gagnaire.

Opening a kitchen requires building rhythm and defining standards from the start, and this role reflects the trust placed in him at a decisive moment. In 2019, he became Executive Chef of Duende and Brasserie de l’Imperator, another position that underlines the confidence repeatedly shown in him when leadership was required. Fontaine’s work at Dorfstuben sits within a regional culinary tradition shaped by continuity as much as technique.

Traditional Swabian-Baden Black Forest cuisine calls for attention to detail and a restrained approach, with the chef working within a language already understood by the region. In this setting, his role is to honor the tradition while applying disciplined craft. Across his career, Fontaine has moved from apprenticeship to command, from learning kitchens to leading them. The path from Michel Kayser to Pierre Gagnaire, Gaya, Grande Maison de Bernard Magrez, and Duende, before Dorfstuben, reflects a chef trusted to inherit, build, and lead. His current work continues that line, grounded in experience and shaped by the standards of the kitchens that brought him there.