In 1891, Sophie Pic opened her café dedicated to authentic regional cooking above the town of Saint-Péray. Over the years l'Auberge du Pin became known throughout the area, and happy hordes of food-lovers came to savour her poultry fricassées, gratins, black puddings and sautéed rabbit, all of which she cooked to perfection.

Around 1920 André Pic, excellent cook, took over the restaurant and drew customers from all over the region thanks to his reputation and the fact that many people now had cars. They came from near and far to taste his spit-roasted hare, poularde en vessie (poulard cooked in a pig's bladder), Richelieu black pudding, lobster in cream sauce or crayfish from Duzon, the nearby river. In 1934, the Michelin guide rewarded the restaurant Pic with a third star and André Pic decided to transfer his hotel and restaurant to the heart of Valence and opened his new establishment along the celebrated Nationale 7 highway, which crosses France from north to south.

Growing up next to this highway, his son Jacques Pic long dreamed of becoming a car mechanic. Yet it was he who brought the restaurant to full maturity, creating an audacious palette of pairings and tastes, with a fondness for sauces and fish. In 1973, the restaurant again earned three stars and developed an international reputation. Jacques' strong personality could of course be felt in the kitchen, just like his high standards, sincerity and humility.

In 1995, it was the turn of Anne-Sophie Pic - the fourth in this line of chefs - to enter the kitchen.

Naturally, Anne-Sophie remembers the special aroma of after school, when the pastry chef would offer her subtle choux à la crème and she would dip into the big copper pots of crayfish that were simmering on the stove. Naturally, her taste developed almost without her knowing it, as a result of her close relationship with her parents, the kitchen and its staff. Even if she knew that her future would be in the kitchen, she still tried to follow another path.

By entering the ISG management school, she left her family cocoon to discover the world and business: she travelled from Paris to the United States, stopping in Japan along the way. There she apprenticed in the world of luxury, from which she brought back other taste experiences. It was also there that she met her future husband.

David Sinapian, her husband, is always active and loves space. He dreamed of becoming a pilot, liked mathematics, chose the same school, the same studies, the same promotion, the same trips - Asia, the USA, then Valence - where he was also born. They must have been destined to meet.

One day, however, Anne-Sophie returned to Valence and told her father that she wanted to devote herself to her real passion. Jacques Pic therefore assigned her to the kitchen and planned for her to attend hotel school, but fate had other ideas and his death in September 1992, just a few months after her return, turned both of their plans upside-down. Anne-Sophie stayed only nine months in the kitchen because she hadn't yet found her place there, and then took care of all the other aspects of managing the establishment. But she knew that her future lay elsewhere, in the kitchen, like her father.

David Sinapian, helped her to "work towards the kitchen" and in 1995, on a September morning, with the support of her mother Suzanne and to everyone's astonishment, Anne-Sophie walked into the kitchen and started her apprenticeship.

Ever since, with David - who for the past few years has run the administrative side of the hotel, which was renovated and enlarged in 1997 - she has presided over the restaurant's future. Today, surrounded by like-minded people, Anne-Sophie, the cook (as she prefers to call herself), creates, invents and innovates.