Jacques and Laurent Pourcel have made themselves a name far outside their flagship restaurant in Montpellier, and in France. The twins founded their first restaurant together with their friend and business partner Olivier Château back in 1988, and since then the three have created and developed a global restaurant empire in China, Japan, Thailand, Morocco, and in Lebanon among others.

Today, Olivier Château heads the global Pourcel group and manages the administrative part of the business, while Chef Patron Jacques Pourcel looks after the gastronomic part of their many restaurants, and Laurent Pourcel is mostly seen in their flagship restaurant Le Jardin des Sens.

Today the brothers have become an international success, but they never forget their culinary heritage of French cooking and most of all the Mediterranean cuisine. A cuisine with influences not just from France, Italy and Greece, but also from Morocco and all the other countries with borders next to the Mediterranean. The brothers’ cooking is mostly based on the same basic ingredients of olive oil, tomato and spices. Their curiosity and constant feeling for development have resulted in a cuisine full of changes. It is fresh, light and delicious. It is simplicity at its best based on top quality produce.

The Pourcel twins were born in 1964 in Agde, in the Hérault region of southern France. They come from two generations of wine-growers, and their mother taught them how to cook Mediterranean cuisine impeccably which gave them a great start in their culinary careers. They worked with some of the best French chefs in the business, like Michel Bras and Pierre Gagnaire, before they founded their own restaurant in 1988. Their culinary path has since then had both ups and downs, but for most of the time their desire for entrepreneurship and culinary innovation has given all of us the possibility to enjoy top cooking far outside their base in Montpellier.

Le Jardin des Sens is not the same as it once was, but honestly, who cares when you have such a great time as you actually have at this French food temple. This restaurant is not to be missed, that is for sure.

Written by Andy