Gaby Benicio

Gaby Benicio is a sommelier, restaurateur, and founder of the gastronomic restaurant Äponem, L’Auberge du Presbytère, located in the village of Vailhan in the heart of the Mediterranean landscape of the Hérault region in southern France.

Her work explores the connections between gastronomy, living agriculture, food culture, and local terroir. Through a deeply plant-focused and sensitive approach to dining, she promotes an engaged form of cuisine and sommellerie, designed as spaces for transmission, memory, and dialogue between producers, landscapes, and guests.

Awarded the Michelin Guide Sommelier Award in 2023, she has developed a long-standing reflection on wine as a cultural and agricultural expression of living ecosystems.

A former literature student at the Sorbonne and PhD candidate at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales, and also coming from a background in photography and artistic creation, she brings a humanistic and contemporary vision of hospitality, attentive to the ecological, agricultural, and social challenges shaping today’s food world.