|Places| Le Doyenné restaurant, in restored former stables; left: chefs James Henry (left) and Shaun Kelly PHOTOS CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT: LUKE BURGESS (2), MARINE BILLET A How a pair of Australian chefs transformed an overgrown estate in the Parisian countryside into a detour-worthy culinary retreat with local ingredients and global credentials. By Gisela Williams lready several years before the era of coronavirus lockdowns and many pandemic-inspired exoduses to the countryside, the two Paris-based Australian chefs Shaun Kelly and James Henry were spending much of their free time riding their bikes around the outskirts of the city, searching for a space – an old warehouse, Full Transparency or perhaps a garage with a backyard – that they could turn into a culinary dream project of their own. While the two of them had had enormous success in Paris during a dynamic moment in the city when outsiders were shaking up the traditional culinary scene (Henry, now 40 years old, had won raves for his restaurants CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM 15
