Sébastien Jondeau Is Now a Restaurateur, Too

Add restaurateur to the numerous hats worn by Sébastien Jondeau, a longtime ambassador and males’s product advisor for the Karl Lagerfeld model.

He lately grew to become half proprietor of Anima, an Italian eatery at 78 Rue du Cherche-Midi in Paris that’s in style with stylish locals together with sure style figures, actors and musicians.

“It’s a brand new journey for me,” stated Jondeau, who has ambitions to open new eating places beneath the identical banner in locations like Saint-Tropez, for instance, not removed from his residence base of Ramatuelle, France.

Having spent 20 years working on the elbow of Lagerfeld till his demise in 2019 — as his bodyguard, confidante and private secretary — Jondeau additionally wolfed up loads of wonderful Italian meals as he accompanied the German designer on tons of of journeys to Rome for Fendi, the place Jondeau now lends his inventive contact to sports-minded males’s merchandise.

Jondeau has a been health fanatic and sports activities fanatic since his teen years, burning off his carb consumption with boxing, kite browsing, foil board, jet snowboarding, mountain biking, motocross, and all method of coaching and excessive sports activities.

Whereas he watched his weight rigorously, too, Lagerfeld sometimes tucked right into a Margherita pizza at Anima with Jondeau, who additionally ordered pies to go for his boss close to the top of his life, reducing it into little squares when sickness bought the very best of him. On a minimum of one event, the 2 males scarfed pizza seated in Lagerfeld’s Rolls-Royce Phantom.

Jondeau has lengthy been nice buddies with Anima cofounder Marco Marzilla, an ex-impresario for Daft Punk who remains to be a fan of their live performance merch, and will be seen within the restaurant sporting different cool band T-shirts: Cassius, LCD Soundsystem, Orbital, Aphex Twin and The Beatles.

The brand new companions haven’t any plans to vary the smooth, but informal 80-seat restaurant, decked out with leather-based banquettes and a black and white Calacatta marble consuming counter.

“It really works very effectively,” Jondeau enthused. That stated, he and Marzilla plan to prepare extra occasions on the restaurant, and maybe do partnerships with cooks from completely different nations and areas.

Anima makes a speciality of Neapolitan delicacies, and bestselling dishes embrace vitello tonnato, tagliolino with lemon and capers, fried calamari, and the Margherita and Trastevere pizzas.

“I like Italian meals,” Jondeau enthused. “Additionally, I actually just like the environment of this restaurant, the perspective, the individuals who go there. It’s stylish, however on the similar time it’s very easy-going.…It’s a easy place within the sixth arrondissement with very lovely and good meals.”