Ô 30 Restaurant

The story of the Ô30 restaurant begins long before it opened, somewhere between the bustling markets of Dakar and the great institutions of French gastronomy. Seydou Diao, the chef, grew up in Senegal in a family of shepherds, where cooking played a central role. His mother cooked every day for the whole family, and vegetable gardens and animals were part of daily life. It was there, as a child, that he learned to cut, gut, and prepare meat—skills he would master long before he even began his formal training.

His path to the kitchen, however, was not a straightforward one. To please his father, Seydou first pursued a science track in high school, then studied economics in college. But the call of the kitchen was too strong. He eventually enrolled in a vocational program in culinary arts at the Alexandre Dumas High School in Illkirch, and everything fell into place. He went on to gain experience at top restaurants in Strasbourg, Monaco, and Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, where he discovered rigor, high standards, and above all, the richness of the four seasons—a concept that doesn’t exist in Senegal. He also trained under a Japanese chef at La Voile d’Or, then under Alsace’s first master sushi chef, refining a technical approach that would enrich his culinary palette.

It was Alsace that ultimately won him over. There he found genuine, passionate, hardworking people—values that resonated deeply with his own. It was in this region, with its local producers, its Vosges hunter, and its direct sourcing from the fish market, that he chose to establish his venture.
In November 2022, Seydou partnered with Wilfried Schnell to open Ô30 at 30 Rue des Juifs, just a stone’s throw from Strasbourg Cathedral. The concept was clear from the start: Afro-fusion cuisine, where African flavors and ingredients—such as sweet potatoes, cassava leaves, hibiscus, Tanzanian coffee, and thiéré—meet the expertise and local produce of France and Europe. A cuisine that reflects the chef’s personal history, layer by layer, dish by dish.

Three years after opening, the restaurant has established itself as a must-visit destination on Strasbourg’s gastronomic scene. The menu changes twice per season, the daily special changes every lunchtime, and Seydou never recreates a dish exactly the same way twice. It’s a philosophy of constant evolution, driven by a deep conviction: stagnation is the worst enemy of this craft.