Martin SAULAIS

After several years at La Truffière, the iconic Parisian restaurant where he worked his way up through the ranks, Martin Saulais is now looking for a new challenge.

Presentation

Born in Paris in the early 2000s, the young Martin Saulais discovered a passion for working with customers during a stint at a garden center in Belgium, where he worked to earn a little pocket money while still in high school.

“I was in my junior year of high school at the time, and I decided to drop everything to go into the restaurant business. I rushed to enroll at the CFA in Bobigny, which allowed me to enter La Truffière on a work-study program. I spent three years there and made great strides under the guidance of the director at the time.”

In 2023, he founded an event planning company specializing in mocktails

Thanks to a friend who was an apprentice sommelier already working at La Truffière, the young head waiter, fresh off winning the title of Best Apprentice in Paris, left Paris and crossed the Channel to join Patrick Guilbaud’s team in Dublin, at one of Ireland’s very best restaurants. “ It was an enriching experience, first as a dining room assistant and then as a head waiter. And it also allowed me to perfect my English.”

Back in France, Martin Saulais joined the Chevalier Group, which placed him at Le Pavillon de la Reine on Place des Vosges, a restaurant whose menu was then curated by Mathieu Pacaud.

“At the same time, I had founded the Atelier du Mocktail with a friend —a company specializing in organizing events centered around non-alcoholic cocktails. At the start of the 2024 school year, I had the opportunity to return to La Truffière to work with Christian Sainsard, the longtime owner, and Chef Ambroise Sicart. Working at such an establishment, with such an immense wine cellar, is obviously a tremendous opportunity .”

It’s been a wonderful journey, and the team is running at full steam, but the change in ownership in the spring of 2026, followed by the chef’s departure and the new direction—decided during the summer of 2026—toward a cuisine with Italian influences, will lead to Martin Saulais’s departure as he sets off on new adventures. “ I’m still weighing my options as this summer comes to a close ,” he explains. “ But I won’t be sitting idle for long—that wouldn’t be like me.”