Filipino sisters Tatiana and Katia Levha manages to blend their two worlds together. Mixing traditional French cuisine with their Asian heritage at their effortlessly cool neo-bistro Le Servan.
“I love eating, I’m always thinking about eating,” confesses Tatiana Levha. “Eating is what got me into cooking in the first place!” And the same goes without saying for the other sibling, Katia Levha.
Their love of eating has led the sisters into doing a complete U-turn with their studies and switching to something more concrete. Before long, they figured eating and cooking would go hand in hand. With Katia honing her hospitality skills at various places such as Mandarin Oriental, Le Baratin and Sauterne, whilst Tatiana impresses the French capital’s culinary elite cooking at Michelin-starred restaurants L'arpège and L'astrance, inevitably the duo were always destined to open a restaurant together.
In 2014, the sisters opened their buzzy 40-seat bistro in a quiet area of Paris's 11th arrondissement. Their food steps away from the constraints of the star system and they’ve forged their own culinary path by using inspiration from their multicultural upbringing. Their Philippine background is reflected in a lot of their methods, ingredients and Asian-inspired French dishes.
“The food we cook and serve at Le Servan is basically an extension of ourselves, we wanted to serve something personal, something that resembled us,” Tatiana explains. “We have a profound love for Parisian bistros: the atmosphere, the service, the food and we want to provide an accessible place for all friends and family alike.”
Initially, Tatianna had her concerns about opening a restaurant with a family member, as that could spell tensions in the workplace, but after three and a half years since opening things have turned out better than expected. “We love working together, we're very complimentary of one another and it’s been so much fun!” She smiles.
“The food we cook and serve at Le Servan is basically an extension of ourselves, we wanted to serve something personal, something that resembled us”
Right now, it seems that Paris is an exciting place for young chefs to flourish. “One of the best things about opening up a place in Paris is that it’s a very eclectic, dynamic and welcoming place,” Tatiana says. “It's quite a small milieu of young restaurateurs in Paris, everyone pretty much knows each other and it makes me super proud to be French!”
When asked about what the sisters have in the pipeline for 2018, they’re keeping schtum about their secret projects. But one thing we do know for certain is that we can expect plenty more French-Asian mixture in their cooking in an even more casual setting.