Laurent Loudeac (Chef)
Laurent Loudeac was born in Chateaubriant, department of Loire-Atlantique (Loire Valley) in the Northwest. He completed his apprenticeship in a three-star hotel restaurant called La Ferriere, located in a small manor. After that, Laurent went to work in Switzerland for three years, Australia for an OE, and then to London for a year at the Hilton hotel, Kensington.
Laurent moved to New Zealand in 1995 and spent the first year in Pauanui at the Puka Park lodge, where, along with the head chef, he entered Restaurant of the Year at the Auckland Culinary Fare and came in second with a silver medal.
After Pauanui he moved down to Wellington and started working as sous-chef at the fine dining Kimble Bent restaurant at the Park Royal (now Intercontinental), where in 1997 they won the Corban's Food and Wine Challenge for Best Hotel Restaurant.
After a three-year stint at the hotel, Laurent decided to move to Sydney for two years where he worked as sous-chef at the famous Level 41, with head chef Dietmar Sawyer - he then took a position as head chef at Orso Bayside restaurant in Mosman on the North Shore. He was there for a year then moved back to the south-west of France in 2001, to a place called Figeac, where he worked as head chef for two years in two different restaurants enjoying the abundance of foie gras and duck confit and the southern hospitality. He even bought an old stone house from the 18th century and restored it.
Then it was time to come back to New Zealand and Laurent landed in Wellington where he was head chef at Hummingbird for four years. Since then Laurent has won numerous awards. He came third in the Restaurant of the Year at the Auckland culinary fare in 2005, and first prize with his dessert in the Decadence Week and won the WOW edible art award in 2005.
Presently Laurent is expressing his flare for excellence and taste as head chef at the Museum Hotel in Wellington
He hopes one day to open his own restaurant and create a touch of real France in Wellington.
