History
Preamble
True to the motto of this iconic house:
< A picture with 3 generations of cooks.
In the heart of Riedisheim near Mulhouse, Mariella Kieny and the team of the restaurant La Maison Kieny open the doors of their House, a warm, intimate and hushed place, dedicated to the pleasures of the table. The seventh generation Kieny has created an experience that is as much a reflection of the historical values of this 1850 house as it is a challenge.
Mariella Kieny welcomes guests from Alsace and elsewhere with a generosity that is matched only by her determination to carry the colors of this family house.
Alongside Laurent Kieny, Jean-Marc’s brother, and Chef Emmanuel WELLER, Mariella Kieny combines the Kieny heritage with the future.
The genesis
5 children, Farmer
PHILIPPE KIENY – born in 1786
10 children, Farmer
MARC KIENY – born in 1825
3 children, Cafetier
In 1850, he acquired the property located at 7 rue Basse, now rue de Général de Gaulle, and transformed it into the “Café du vieux Château”, in reference to the Counts of Thierstein and Lords of Besenwal. In this same building, the Kieny family ran the first post office in the community from 1881 onwards. Towards the end of the 19th century, the café “Zum Alten Schloss” became the café “Zur Post” and later the “Restaurant de la Poste”.
JOSEPH KIENY – born in 1871
1 child, Innkeeper of the “Café de la Poste
Thanks to his wife Anne-Marie (née Schaller), an excellent cook, he transformed the café into a well known restaurant. He was simultaneously the receiver of the PTT and a grocer in two rooms on the first floor of the house.
MARCEL KIENY – born in 1899
2 children, Cook
With the efficient support of his wife Alice (née Mendele, who died in 1944), he turned the restaurant into a renowned table. He had received excellent culinary training in renowned restaurants. He himself became a remarkable apprenticeship master, President of the Jury of the CAP Cuisiniers and advisor of the technological education. His daughter, Marie-Louise, affectionately known as Marlyse, worked behind the counter with great care until her death. André, his son, took over the business in 1954.
2 children, Master-Quideman
After studying at the Lycée Hôtelier de Strasbourg, he did internships in various great restaurants: Etretat, Plombières, Uriage, Aix-les-Bains, Versailles and in England. He took over the family business in 1954. His wife, Liliane (née De Bernardo), assures with smile and courtesy the tasks of the Housewife.
Like his father, André Kieny was very involved in training and professional organizations:
– President of the Jury of the CAP Cooks
– Technology Education Advisor
– Member of Prosper Montagné
– Culinary Advisor
– Chevalier des Palmes Académiques
– Knight of Agricultural Merit
– Silver medal for technological education
JEAN-MARC KIENY – born in 1962
2 children, Chef of the Restaurant de la Poste
6th generation, heir to the recipes & culinary joys of his father and great-grandmother. Jean-Marc was elected 1st Hope of French Gastronomy in 1988 by the magazine Le Chef. He is married to Mariella (née Pidala). He is an alumnus of :
Pierre Gaertner, “Armes de France” in Ammerschwihr, 2 Michelin stars
Jacques Lameloise, “Lameloise” in Chagny, 3 Michelin stars
Louis Outhier, “L’Oasis” in La Napoule, 3 Michelin stars
Emile Jung, “Le Crocodile” in Strasbourg, 2 Michelin stars
Hans Stucki, “Le Bruderholz” in Basel, Switzerland, 2 Michelin stars
LAURENT KIENY – born in 1966
2 children, Master pastry chef-chocolatier-glacier
Twice finalist in the Best Worker of France competition. He is married to Martine Bader. He has built a solid reputation as a Master Pastry Chef, Chocolate and Ice Cream maker, his establishment is located next to the restaurant.
1st MICHELIN STAR – in 1990
MARIELLA KIENY – takes over the Kieny house – in 2017
The values of Maison Kieny
EXCELLENCE
A tradition since 1850, the foundation of the Family’s heritage.
Tradition and modernity
In the heart of the Grand Est, to make the Alsatian territory shine through a cuisine revealing the talent of the best producers, by shaping each gesture in the capacity of artisan cook and pastry chef.
The transmission
The ambition to bring to the highest level each Woman & Man who participates in sublimating the experience of the customers.
The new team
Mariella Kieny
The mistress of the place
More than a professional experience, it is a life experience that Mariella is building.
With Jean-Marc, then a young cook working alongside her father, Mariella learns, is moved and falls in love.
Together, they are going to pursue a perpetual quest for excellence, she in the dining room, and he in the kitchen.
Their generosity is quickly rewarded with a star.
Today, Mariella lovingly watches over this historic house, and signs a personal card, both new and faithful to the values of this emblematic House Kieny.
With grace, Mariella orchestrates a service in her image: generous, delicate and refined.
To assert itself without denaturing this 1850 House, such is the mission that Mariella has entrusted to herself for the next few years.
Emmanuel Weller
Chef de cuisine
Alsatians have a special place in their hearts for gastronomy. In the case of Emmanuel Weller, from Mulhouse, it arrived like a wave that takes everything with it. She will take him around the world, before bringing him back to his roots.
In Emmanuel’s story, Alsace is an introduction as well as a conclusion. It is with her that he sharpens his first knives, in the kitchens of Oscar’s Bistrot and of “Il Cortile”, the starred table with Mediterranean accents in Mulhouse. Chapter 1.
The rest of the story is set in Asia. From Laos to Japan, passing through Vietnam and China, Emmanuel the Alsatian plays leapfrog between countries, ricochets on cultures, picking up the best of each here and there. Everywhere, he discovers the richness of the products, the diversity of the flavors, the rigor of the techniques. It rubs itself in the umami, understands the depth of the tastes and their length to put emotions in the papillae. In Laos and Vietnam, he learned the power of zenitude. In Japan, he was exposed to the sense of detail, the meticulousness of the gestures, the goldsmithing of the cuts. In Kyoto, he accompanied Alain Ducasse’s restaurant “Benoit Kyoto”, as sous chef. In all, the Asian adventure lasts 12 years, 12 years of continuous learning, driven only by the quest for ultimate taste and excellence.
Florian Felix
CHEF PATISSIER
The memories of his grandmothers’ chocolate cakes have left an indelible mark on Florian. It is decided, he will be a pastry chef. In Cannes, he trained until the complementary mention in restaurant dessert, before pushing the door of the famous Martinez hotel. The experience is short but anchors the vocation a little more.
It was at the Paloma gourmet restaurant in Mougins that the revelation jumped to his heart. During his 3 years of experience, the restaurant obtained its 2nd Michelin star. In his small brigade of pastry chefs, Florian is learning at a rapid pace and is even talking about a metamorphosis. The chrysalis becomes a butterfly, a young professional who is more than passionate about his work, with a well-honed technique. Little by little, he sketched out the contours of his own signature made of simple and frank tastes. The experience was so conclusive that he was offered the position of pastry chef for the opening of another Paloma restaurant in the Czech Republic. For a validation, it is already a consecration.
In Prague, he has carte blanche to reinterpret French pastry with modernity. He plays with the classics, takes them to a new dimension, de-sugarizes, lightens and dresses them up with elegance.
Adrien Stoffel
The butler
Shy, it is during a training course at the Clos des Sens in Annecy, that he reveals himself in room.
In 2006, with his diploma in hand, he joined the Ecomusée d’Alsace in Ungersheim as a supervisor. In 2008, he joined St Hippolyte, at the foot of the Château de Haut-Koenigsbourg as a Chef de rang. In 2011, while looking to evolve, the Kieny restaurant recruits a Chef de rang.
The agreement is immediate. After his interview, the young man is hired and performs his first service a week later.
Curious and passionate, he expands his knowledge of wines every evening, after the service. In 2014, the position of Maître d’hôtel became available, and he immediately applied.
For the Kieny family, transmission is a key value. Developing the talent that makes up their team is essential. The position is entrusted to him.
Naïn Gamboa
SECOND OF KITCHEN
Naïn’s first stop was in the Drôme Provençale, at the Clair de la Plume, the starred restaurant in Grignan. From clerk to half chef de partie, the young man who is interested in everything begins his learning of the language of Molière and at the same time of French gastronomy. His gluttony for learning then took him to all the regions, a true tour of France of taste and specialties, from Brittany to Vaucluse, through Burgundy and Occitania. Each new experience is an additional pretext to feed his curiosity a little more. Seafood, butter, olive oil, wine, in his lesson book, the chapters have the taste of French lands and traditions.
When he brought his young talent to Alsace, as head pastry chef at Maison Kieny, Naïn had already understood what makes the charm of the fine houses. He likes well-ordered brigades and meticulous service, he likes the rigor imposed by the stars and also the warmth of real living spaces. For more than a year, he immersed himself in the gastronomic Alsace of the Maison Kieny: inspired by the best of the past and turned towards the future. After having seized the opportunity to open a restaurant in Mulhouse as a chef, Naïn returns to Maison Kieny with the firm ambition to accompany it towards its future, as second to chef Emmanuel Weller.
Between the two men, the similarity of age and complicity are the two pillars of a beautiful fraternity which fluidifies instantaneously the exchanges. This is the Alsace of Maison Kieny: it federates talents and influences to live with its time. In his mission book, Naïn wrote the word excellence in capital letters.
Noé Meyer
HEAD OF PARTY
Originally from Alsace, Noé put on his first apron as a child to help his mother in the kitchen and quickly took his first steps towards independence. After the second year of high school, when the choices of school orientation come back on the table, the kitchen also comes back, like a distant echo. His discovery course at the Kieny house was a revelation, even more, an illumination.
Trained at the hotel school in Colmar, it is naturally at the Maison Kieny that the young boy does his CAP apprenticeship. Three years which will validate a little more his new choice of life. The beautiful products, the noises, the smells, the rigor of the star-studded brigade, the gunfire, all this atmosphere made of emulation and exigency hits him directly in the heart. A baccalaureate and a BTS later, Noé is ready to put his young talent into practice. By chance or not, his meeting with Naïn Gamboa, then head of the Tandem in Mulhouse where the young man is doing his BTS, will be decisive. It is he, the rigorous but benevolent big brother, who convinces him to continue his journey together at Maison Kieny.
Since September 2022, Noah has returned to the House of his beginnings, where everything started and continues. Half chef de partie dedicated to the garnishes, he integrated into the new team with the evidence of those who are in their place. In charge of two trainees, at only 21 years old, Noé takes on responsibilities that match his motivation. Distribution of tasks during the setting up, supervision, transmission, then stress of the service, minute cooking, the young man blossoms in a fraternal atmosphere and within a brigade trained to excellence. The signature of an Alsace in movement, which relies on its past to write its future, corresponds perfectly to its philosophy.
A young talent in the making, he and his peers will one day be cooking the Alsace of tomorrow.
Accomplished sportsman, amateur photographer, well in his body and in his head, always smiling and enthusiastic, Noé is the stuff of which future greats are made. There is no doubt that at Maison Kieny, he has found the springboard to fulfillment.
The Kieny experience
The atmosphere
The historic location combined with a refined and contemporary decor, gives the Kieny experience a character worthy of the great meals of yesteryear, and the freshness of a first date.
The place
The restaurant is composed of two large dining rooms, and the discreet and thoughtful wait staff contributes to a timeless and exceptional experience.
