Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues Geneva

Four Seasons Tenure

• Since 2017
• First Four Seasons Assignment: Sous-Chef de Cuisine, Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues Geneva

Employment History

• Le Pont de Brent, Montreux, Switzerland; Lameloise, Chagny, France; L’Esperance Marc Meneau, Saint Pere Sous Vezelay, France; Restaurant Pierre Orsi, Lyon, France

Birthplace

• Nantua, France

Education

• Baccalaureat Professionnel, Cuisine et Arts Culinaires Apparentés, Général, Lycée Hôtelier François Rabelais, France

Languages Spoken

• French, Italian

In his role as Banquet Chef, Martial Facchinetti has a straightforward strategy for creating meals that his high-end clientele at Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues, Geneva will remember: Stick close to home. “I really want to feature only products from the region, so guests will have a distinctive cuisine to complement their stay.”

Chef Martial keeps his menus simple, local, and synched with the seasons, with modern takes on classic dishes pieced together from ingredients sourced within 200 miles of Geneva. His goal, he says, is to please picky event planners that are always hungry for the next dining trend to dazzle their clients. “The way we stand out on the banquet scene is by giving guests something they can only experience here at the Hotel.”

Whether for seated dinners, cocktail receptions, weddings, or conferences, every group gathering at Hotel des Bergues is a standout, with six salons, including four with private outdoor terraces overlooking Lake Geneva or the River Rhone and one with blue velvet walls ideal for board meetings. There is also the historic chandelier-bedecked Salle des Nations, site of the first gathering of the League of Nations in 1920.

Local products have always been essential to Chef Martial’s culinary identity. “It’s just the way I cook.” He arrived at the Hotel in 2017, joining Michelin-starred Il Lago for two years before stepping up to lead the banquet operation. He began by perusing local markets – “I do that in my spare time as well” – connecting with producers from the region around Geneva, and gradually developing a small but reliable network of sources.

There’s the cheese maker with distinctive takes on Gruyere and Vacherin Fribourgeois, the latter of which he went even further with by creating his own version with beer – “it’s fantastic stuff!”; and the fishmonger offering fresh-caught fera from Lake Geneva, which Chef Martial serves smoked amid a detailed presentation of vegetables to dazzle the eyes and the palate.

And there is much more. “One guy knew another guy, who knew another guy, who knew another guy,” he remembers. “It just grew.”

So did the Hotel banquet kitchen. After launching in a small kitchen on the first floor, Chef Martial sold the Hotel’s dining committee on the need for a new space and had it outfitted with new equipment while building a talented brigade – all in line with a budget, of course. He admits it was challenging because all of his experience had been in restaurants. “Cooking for 100 is totally different from a table for two. But I was looking for a challenge and a chance to work with a different cuisine, so it’s all been good.”

Raised with two brothers in the Jura Mountains along the western border of the French Alps, Chef Martial was drawn to the kitchen as a child, preparing meals for the family with his mother and grandmother. “I know it’s a cliché, but it’s true!” he insists. “They’re wonderful cooks.”   

His career got off to a bright start with an apprenticeship under a Meilleur Ouvrier de France at Michelin-starred Restaurant Pierre Orsi in Lyon, followed by a turn at L’Esperance Marc Meneau in Saint Pere Sous Vezelay, which earned a third Michelin star while he was on the team. Chef Martial has aimed high ever since, working exclusively at Michelin-rated restaurants throughout his career, each of which gained an additional star while he was present.

Of particular note was his last stop before joining Four Seasons, working with Chef Gérard Rabaey at Restaurant le Pont de Brent in Montreux. Recognizing the depths of Chef Martial’s talent and creativity, Rabaey pushed him to compete in the World Championship of Pâté en Croûte showcasing the French country classic of pastry with meat filling. Chef Martial took the challenge in 2012 and won the Grand Jury Prize at the finals in Tain-L’Hermitage, France, with a pâté en croûte with duck and chicken from the Gruyère region. It was one of several championships he has participated in over the years.

Chef Martial would like to keep his Michelin star streak going at Hotel des Bergues, but Michelin doesn’t rate banqueting operations. That hasn’t stopped him from striving, though, as bringing gastronomic cuisine to event spaces remains his challenge.

When not transforming local provisions in the banquet kitchen, Chef Martial is thinking about the same. “I’m always on,” he says. “I’m never off.” He is, however, a dedicated husband and father of two. He loves teaching the art of cuisine to his children. “And they really love to learn.”