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Petit Ogre
Food
D'ICI ET D'AILLEURS
Jules Niang : Petit Ogre
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Susie Waroude
French-Mauritanian chef Jules Niang launched an initiative to create four farms in West Africa. Since 2013, he has crafted a cuisine of contrasts with a travelling soul.
“I’m Mauritanian. I was born in the village of Rosso on the banks of the Senegal River,” Jules Niang told us. The self-taught chef of Le Petit Ogre arrived in Nice in 2004. He was then planning a career in the political sciences: “I started cooking as a student job, but ended up staying with it.” Following several experiences working in restaurants, the young man considered opening an establishment in Paris with his cousin. The project was never realised and Lyon presented itself as “a clear choice”. “I really fell in love with this cosmopolitan, young and dynamic city, on the banks of a river, like my town of birth. I like how daring Lyonnaise cuisine is.” Le Petit Ogre could have been born nowhere else.
Ten years later, his restaurant won an award at the Trophées de la Gastronomie in 2022, winning over diners in Lyon who are reputed to be connoisseurs. The traditional cooking of Lyon’s mères (famous women chefs) puts him in mind of his childhood and roots. “Like African cuisine, Lyonnaise cuisine has made an art of transforming simple, down-to-earth ingredients.” In his restaurant, Jules Niang offers a cuisine of contrasts, very different from fusion cuisine, where each identity has room to express itself: “I love to create a conversation between my land of origin and that of Lyon, to create a true culinary journey. There are no limits, because the inspiration is vast.”
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Petit Ogre
This gustatory duet led him to come up with the project Olel (‘echo’ in the Peul language) for the creation of four “integrated” farms, covering nearly 50 hectares, in West Africa: “They are living places where people produce what they need to feed themselves.” This mix of cultures permeates the restaurant’s menu and the chef’s range of home-made condiments, Mäayo, a blend of French and African influences with flavours including bissap-pistachio, peanut-basil and tamarind-hazelnut. “My work is an echo between here and over there.”
I love to create a conversation between my land of origin and that of Lyon, to create a true culinary journey
Express bio
2004: Arrived in Nice, France
2010 : Moved to Lyon
2013 : Opened Petit Ogre
2020 : Creation of integrated farms and an eco-village in West Africa
2021 : Launch of the Mäayo range
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