Vincent Koperski & Le Cordon Bleu

Born in 1961 in France, Vincent Koperski graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Le Touquet school of hotels in 1981. After apprenticing, he joined Le Grand Vefour in Paris in 1985 as chef de partie; then chef de partie at Paul Bocuse Restaurant in 1987.  Chef Bocuse then moved him to Rio de Janerio, Brazil in 1988, to be chef of the M. Paul Bocuse St. Honoré Restaurant located in the Le Meridien Hotel.  He then became the executive chef for Restaurant Paul Bocuse in Tokyo, Japan from 1991 to 1993.

Over the next four years, he was the executive chef at Restaurant Bruneau in Brussels, Belgium; Hotel La Chartreuse du Val Saint Esprit in Bethunes, France; Hotel Byblos Mijas, in Molaga, Spain and Hotel Dona Filipa and San Lorenzo Golf Course in Vale do Lobo, Portugal.

In July of 1997, he joined the Renaissance São Paulo Hotel in Brazil as executive chef.  Two plus years later in December of 1999, the television crew of Great Chefs showed up in São Paulo to tape Chef Vincent for the Discovery Channel’s Great Chefs of the World television series.

A year later in 2000, Marriott, who had since bought the Renaissance chain, moved him up to Food and Beverage at the JW Marriott in Rio de Janerio; then as executive chef at the Courtyard Tbilisi in Georgia (eastern Europe); then in 2005, as Food and Beverage and executive chef at the Riviera Marriott in Monaco where he retired in 2015.  In 2016, he accepted a position back in Japan as Master Chef Instructor at Le Cordon Bleu in Kobe, Hyogo, Japan where he remains today.