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Chef Christophe Bonnegrace
Born and raised in Toulon, France (in the south of France on the French Riviera), Bonnegrace knew at age 14 that he didn't want to continue attending traditional school. His mother urged him to consider a future as a chef. "I remember like yesterday," he says of that divining moment. "I said, 'Cooking is for girls.'" Then he rethought the proposition and became an apprentice in the city of Maximin where he slaved away with fellow apprentices six days a week 14 to 15 hours a day for three years, the required number of years to earn his necessary first certificate in the culinary arts. On his days off, he was required to attend regular school courses.
My single room was in how-do-you-say, beneath the roof, slanted roof," recalls Bonnegrace. "The bathroom was outside of the room down the hallway. We had one bathroom for the entire crew. I remember in the mornings being all lined up to use it." He earned 601.25 francs a month, not even $85 a month. "But I loved it, every minute of it. and look at me now. Twenty-one years later, I am here. I am in Las Vegas, Nevada
He beams. Dark-haired and as handsome as any how-do-you-say Canali suit model, Bonnegrace wears his chef's jacket proudly. "My dad and mom knew I was going to last in the kitchen," he recalls. So in September of 1983, they bought him an expensive suitcase of knives. He's still using them and observers in his kitchen often remark that he has kept them in mint condition.
Upon completion of his apprenticeship, he joined the military, a two-year requirement of all young Frenchman. He was a French Commando Paramilitary. Then the call of food lured him to Africa where he spent two years traveling from tribe to tribe to learn all he could about primitive food preparation.
"Why Africa? My cooking style is country style, old cooking. Nowadays we have nouvelle cuisine. My preferred style is cuisine bourgeois. I wanted to know how it was that man prepared food before they were spoiled by ovens and steamers," says Bonnegrace. Before approaching a rural tribe, he'd make a stop at the local city market and buy yards of fabric, shoes, and socks, anything tribal members could possibly desire. Then he'd approach the tribe with his gifts for the people and was always welcomed to stay. "We were doing an exchange." Gifts they wanted for information Bonnegrace craved.
For the next 24 months, he lived with five different tribes, working his way south from Cairo to Nairobi. He learned to cook without electricity, using cut lava rock left in the sun to warm to cooking temperature. He learned to wrap meats-from monkey meat to crickets-in leaves and baked slowly in an underground fire all day long. He returned to France two years later with treasures given him from tribal people including a massive mortar carved from a single tree trunk with a bowl formation at the top and a supporting stand on the bottom. The pestle is carved from one of the limbs of the gigantic tree.
Upon his return to France, Bonnegrace was hired as a sous chef in a seafood restaurant. His wanderlust remained unquenched by his experience to date, and longing to see the United States, he headed for L.A. where he was hired as the sous chef for Café St. Germaine on Melrose Boulevard. A handful of months later, he was talking at the bar with a gentleman who mentioned he was looking for a new chef. "I said, 'What about me?' and we starting talking. Next stop, Bonnegrace was hired as the Executive chef for Aristoff Caviar & Fine Food, formerly an import/export company expanding to operate a 32-seat upscale restaurant.
Bonnegrace's experience there was career-forming. He served patrons as famous as Gene Kelly, Gina Davis, and Georges Marciano. It was time to move onto Vegas. The next four months, Bonnegrace learned humility. Unable to find a real job, he was hired as a personal chef for an older wealthy woman who ate out all the time. Bonnegrace spent most of his time on duty feeding her pet rabbits with produce he was sent out to buy at day's end from the local market. Two weeks later, he quit and landed a job as an assistant chef for British Pub, a lucky move, it turns out because the chef was bumped out within months and Bonnegrace was offered his job. Within six months, he was promoted to Assistant General Manager for the bar, restaurant, et al.
Two years later, he was offered the position of Chef for a newly opened French restaurant, Petite Provence. He loved the job, but the owner passed away and he was again in search of a new position, this one at the Bellagio's Prime Steak House. He transferred to the Mirage Hotel and worked there for three years as Sous Chef. He was offered the corporate chef position for the Sevilla Corporation, a Spanish steakhouse and Nightclub based in Denver Colorado, where he was awarded Chef of the month in Colorado. He traveled to his next venture in Hawaii, where he consulted as Executive Chef/ Food and Beverage Director for The Royal Lahaina resort in Maui. Back to the main land, he was offered the Executive Chef Position at the Little Buddha Restaurant at the Palms Casino Resort, an French Asian fusion Cuisine, where is received the “ Culinary of Excellence “ award. Listed in the top ten restaurants in Las Vegas in 2003, Best Asian restaurant by the people’s choice in 2004. He flew to Sham El Sheick, Egypt to open the new first addition to the legacy of Little Buddha Bar, then was offered the Corporate Executive Chef position by world known Raymond Visan, Owner of Buddha Bar corporation in Paris France. One year later Christophe was approached by Ellis Gaming LLC, a Consulting and Development company based in Las Vegas to join their team running the Food and Beverage and Hotel department. Since, he has been working with Numerous Native American tribes, developed and designed a Hotel casino in the Dominican Republic, including its 2 restaurants, 4 bars, 1 night club.
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