i. Biography
At La Belle Étoile in La Roque-Gageac, France, Régis Ongaro’s formation reads less like a résumé line than a family inheritance: chef of the house from 1991 to the present, he speaks of belonging before he speaks of technique. “I live in La Roque-Gageac and I have worked at La Belle Étoile since 1991,” he says, adding the sentence that gives his cooking its lineage: “I am the third generation in this house.”
Where It Started The starting point is the house itself. Ongaro describes himself as the third generation there, a phrase that places his kitchen within continuity rather than reinvention for its own sake. The restaurant’s gastronomic spirit is carried forward by Régis Ongaro and Théo Ongaro, father and son, whose work keeps the family story active at the table. That inheritance has a distinctly Périgord center of gravity. Authentic local products of the Périgord are part of his specialty, and Ris de veau is named among the dishes associated with his cooking. In his own words, the appetite behind that work is simple and generous: “I like good living, eating well; for me it is the dream, the basis.”
Who Shaped Them Rather than a named school or single master, the influence made explicit is generational: a house, a region, and a family line. The father-and-son continuity with Théo gives the work a living form, not only as succession but as shared practice. Their cuisine is described as four-hand cooking, where Périgord tradition meets contemporary creativity. That pairing matters in the dishes themselves: not tradition sealed away, and not novelty detached from place, but a conversation between inherited taste and present-tense composition. Radio France published Ongaro’s method for huîtres pochées, crème de topinambour, cresson émulsion iodée, a dish that brings together poached oysters, Jerusalem artichoke cream, and an iodized watercress emulsion. It also published his Ris de veau glacés au café, pousses d’épinards, joining sweetbreads glazed with coffee and spinach shoots, and gratin de fraises gariguettes, sabayon pistache, a dessert built around gariguette strawberries and pistachio sabayon.
The Work Today
Since 1991, Ongaro has led the kitchen in La Roque-Gageac with a style described as gourmet and refined, mixing tradition and modernity around fresh, seasonal ingredients from short supply chains. The cooking is also characterized as refined traditional cuisine in a warm, family atmosphere, with a touch of novelty. Those descriptions fit the family architecture around him. Théo Ongaro is not a footnote to the story but part of the current expression of it: together, father and son sign a cuisine for four hands. The result is a table where Périgord products remain central, technique is kept close to hospitality, and the house’s identity is carried from one generation into the next without losing its local accent.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Régis
Who has Régis Ongaro mentored?
The named next-generation collaborator is his son, Théo Ongaro, with whom he signs a four-hand cuisine where Périgord tradition meets contemporary creativity.
