Masters/Fine Dining Restaurant/Plénitude

Plénitude

No.14 World's 50 Best 2025 — elite chef

Fine Dining RestaurantFine DiningFranceWorld's 50 Best

Veronica's Take

In Paris, Plénitude, ranked No.14 in the World's 50 Best Restaurants 2025, is reshaping French fine dining under the precise touch of chef Arnaud Donckele, a sauce virtuoso who makes them the focal point of each dish. Donckele, also the chef behind the three-Michelin-star La Vague d'Or in St-Tropez, presents a seven-course tasting menu where a sardine shines with a zesty green Eden sauce and langoustine is elevated by a delicate sabayon. His philosophy is one of balance, allowing the sauces to lead the way in a culinary dance that has solidified his reputation as one of France's top chefs.

plenitude Chef Arnaud Donckele is one of France’s most accomplished cooks, with a laser focus on sauces as the centre point of each dish. The seven-course tasting menu might include sardine served with a piquant green Eden sauce, while plump langoustine comes with an airy sabayon, but it’s the vegetable, seafood or meat accompanying the sauce more than vice-versa.

Accolade

List: World's 50 Best Restaurants · Rank: 14 · Year: 2025

Key Facts

The people behind Plénitude

Arnaud Donckele

profile

Executive Chef

Arnaud Donckele (born March 29, 1977, Rouen) is a French chef who currently runs two Michelin 3-star restaurants: La Vague d'Or at Cheval Blanc St-Tropez and Plénitude at Cheval Blanc Paris. Named Gault & Millau's Chef of the Year in 2020, Donckele grew up surrounded by charcutiers-traiteurs and trained at École Ferrandi before rising to become one of France's most decorated chefs.