You’re a self-taught designer. What drove you to engage with interior and furniture design? Is it part of a holistic approach to entrepreneurship?

Very early on, I decided my education would not define what the rest of my life would be like, which was fortunate because if it had, I would be now teaching mathematics to a class of unmanageable teens – and probably spending all my free time in therapy.

I had the chance to work with great architects for the design of the first restaurants. Working alongside them, my interest quickly turned into a passion and the regular site meetings into a kind of private master class in architecture. This is where I learned the basics. Additionally, I am a compulsive buyer of art books, to the point where I have accumulated almost too many. Whereas most people just use them as coffee table books, I read them from cover to cover.

Today, it’s extremely satisfying to lead a holistic vision that unifies branding, design and architecture. It is probably what makes PNY so unique as a brand and a leader in its field.

How would you describe your aesthetic?

I would say retro-poetic, lighting obsessed and very business-oriented. I try to tell complex stories in order to make the brand more impactful, sophisticated and interesting. When I’m designing restaurants for PNY, I think of what’s unique and beautiful in America. For instance, in Lyon it’s the story of Hollywood, the glitz and glamour and how it’s all just fabricated illusions. In Bordeaux, the space is like a mid-century space shuttle that crashed in the Palm Springs desert. The aim is to elevate the brand by highlighting what is beautiful and poetic so that selling burgers becomes cool again.

Cinema is a major inspiration for the design of the restaurants. What kind of films are you drawn to and how do they fit with the PNY concept?

I love the cinema. I’m not really into superhero movies but more into beautifully shot films like those of Ingmar Bergman, David Lynch and Wong Kar Wai. Cinema is amazing because you can live an alternative life where everything is perfect like the attraction between the protagonists of Wong Kar Wai’s In the mood for love. Life as a tragedy is perfect. A furtive eye contact lasts forever in a movie. Cinema adds music and photography to poetry. I think it’s the most perfect art ever created. It’s intense, it’s beautiful, it’s poetic. If a space could move you like a movie can, I would be the happiest person on Earth.

How many of the PNY restaurants have you designed personally? Which one is your favourite and why?

I have designed six different PNY restaurants, two of which are still under construction. My favorite one is obviously the next one. Once the work is done, I forget about it and move on to the next project. But because I’, still involved in the business, I regularly visit the restaurants and every time I go, I always discover them as if I were visiting for the first time.

The PNY restaurants feature bespoke furniture pieces including some very unique chairs. How important is furniture design? How do you approach their design?

When I got involved in the design of the restaurants, I felt the moral obligation to create everything, including the furniture. So, I started designing a unique chair for each restaurant. Of course, at first, I didn’t know it was so difficult to design a chair given my lack of architectural education. It feels like a super complex mathematical equation; there isn’t much room for freedom and creativity. Ideas come to me pretty quickly actually but most don’t work. In other words, you need some serious endurance, and that’s all good because it’s the only sport I’m good at.

You have also designed your new apartment in Paris. Tell us a bit about it.

The apartment is designed like the interior of a boat. On the lower “deck”, wood paneled ceilings, sliding doors and built-in furniture add comfort and functionality to the cabin-like rooms while an old lime tree “blocking” the generous views creates a delicious sensation of isolation. An entrance that is a little too small and little too dark leads, by a staircase, up to the “sun deck”, a light-filled space with a glass façade, glass roof and a muted colour palette which changes throughout the day in tandem with the shifting sunlight. At night, under the starry sky, the shimmering Eiffel Tower reminds you that, well, you’re still in Paris.

What are your plans for the future?

Well, so far, my plan is not to have any. They always end up being either deceptive or wrong. I rather prefer to embrace whatever comes next with a lot of enthusiasm. For sure, I would love to work for other brands, to be able to tell different stories, I think that’s what’s really cool.