
Georgiana Viou is self-taught and pours her soul into her food, blending her Beninese heritage with the riches of the Mediterranean. Viou learned to cook at her mother’s restaurant, but she came to Paris 25 years ago to study and worked in communications before the call of the kitchen took over. At her Nîmes restaurant, Rouge in the Margaret - Hôtel Chouleur, you’ll find some of the most stylish plates in the south of France. The tasting menus are bursting with local seafood lifted by saffron, basil, coconut, and spices, as warm and convivial as the space itself. At Viou’s bistro Gigi, the cooking is equally exquisite though more casual, and complemented by bespoke cocktails and an impressive wine list.