“Gluttony is a celebration of life”

You have been elected to the Academy of Fine Arts, where you will be welcomed in a few days. How do you feel?

Right now, I’m on edge thinking about the day when I will speak in praise of my predecessor, Michel David-Weill, collector and great patron. I sent my speech to his wife, Hélène.

She regrets that I didn’t know her husband because, according to her, we would have gotten along straight away. His words soothed me, even if they did not erase the anxiety, which returned as the date approached.

What does being the first chef to become an academician inspire in you?

Pride naturally, but also a regret: that this recognition did not come sooner. For a long time, even cultivated minds did not perceive the importance of cooking, as if it were not worthy of fully entering the field of the arts. However, certain voices had formulated it with striking clarity. George Sand said: “Making jams is as important as making a book. »

You have published a series of books on writers’ cuisine. What do you remember from it?

There are many writers who have exalted cuisine. Rabelais thus nourished the language and imagination of the table. He had already understood that cooking expressed an essential part of humanity.

And what can we say about Maupassant! (Guy Savoy grabs a sheet and reads) “A purely human creation, unknown to the first living, perfected from age to age, growing with civilizations, disdained by barbarians and the plebs, misunderstood by the mediocre, despised by fools – which is a glory -, infinitely variable despite the centuries and the work of great cooks, gluttony resides in the exquisite delicacy of the palate and in the multiple subtleties of taste, that only a hundred times refined sensual soul can possess and understand. True gourmands are as rare as men of genius. »

Maupassant reveals that gluttony has nothing to do with gluttony or gluttony. It excludes gross excess. It is not a fault, but a celebration: that of the land, the sea, the products, the gestures and the know-how.

Why is this text so important to you?

Because it places cooking exactly where it has always been: in intelligence, sensitivity, creation. Why don’t we learn it at school? Young minds might have dared to say they wanted to become cooks.

Society’s persistent contempt for this profession perplexes me, especially given what it involves intimately. There is the magic of working with a product; the fact of touching, of tasting what we do. In fact, cooking is the art of instantly transforming products steeped in history into joy.

Did you feel this contempt?

At 15, driven less by rebellion than by a deep conviction, I declared: “I will be a cook or nothing. » At the Bourgoin-Jallieu high school (Isère), my teachers did not understand my choice. I was a good student and they warned me: “If you don’t continue your studies, you will miss out on something. »

So yes, I asked myself the question: what if they were right? But my determination took over my doubts. Their reaction was a profound injustice towards all those who chose the food profession.

Where did this vocation so early on come from?

From my father, Louis, gardener, and my mother, Marie-Léonie, cook. They formed a duo of absolute nobility. Every morning, before leaving for school, my father would slip an apple into my schoolbag. At recess, my first comfort was to bite into the Winter Banana, whose name made me laugh, or into the Canada Reinette, with its slight floury side.

It was then that I understood, without yet being able to formulate it, the importance of texture, of crunch, of what gives rise to sensations in the mouth. But also the long time, the fragility and the strength of the living: everything that gives its value to a harvested product.

And your mother?

His journey inspired me. It started from a small municipal refreshment bar in Bourgoin-Jallieu to turn it into a renowned restaurant. As a child, I first felt a form of jealousy towards his customers. I felt like they were stealing my mother. As a teenager, when I assisted her, then replaced her one summer when she was unwell, I understood the importance of the bond with them.

In the kitchen, she pushed the cooking of her gratins and tarts until this dark brown border appeared around the dish. We didn’t eat it, but it was infused into everything else. She taught me that I had to dare, push the gesture, seek the right intensity.

You like to remind people that the restaurant is the last civilized place on the planet. For what reason?

Because I don’t see any other place where well-being is thought of in its entirety. In the theater or at the opera, the emotion is strong, but discomfort can arise. In the restaurant, on the contrary, everything is done to please you. Around the table, the guest – a term I prefer to that of customer – is welcomed into a world dedicated to them. Nothing is demonstrative, everything is attentive. Time, space, relationships: this territory belongs to him. Basically, the restaurant cannot be explained, it must be experienced!

The French gourmet meal has been listed as UNESCO’s intangible heritage since 2010. Why were you involved in this application?

We had to be the first. Every country has a cuisine, but France has shown the world the way. Our uniqueness is due to an exceptional geography, where anything can grow. This diversity of products has given rise to unique know-how. Take Bresse poultry: it is the result of a detailed understanding of a terroir and the behavior of an animal. The French spirit is embodied there and it must be preserved.

Its transmission is important to you. How do you conceive it?

For me, transmission does not happen through big speeches or presentations, it happens in the moment. A gesture is not fair? We correct it immediately. A restaurant is a living university: we learn to observe, to listen, to progress every day.

Those who work with me are between 18 and 25 years old, roughly the age of my grandchildren. They come from Mali, Morocco, Korea… Coming from a dozen different nationalities, they make cultural diversity a strength, both through their ability to adapt and through the enrichment they derive from it collectively. I find them brilliant, because they are curious about everything and eager to be useful. Quite honestly, I wouldn’t be able to do what they accomplish.

At 72 years old, are you considering retiring?

Unless forced, and the worst would obviously be a health problem, I don’t see myself stopping at all. Especially since my passion transformed into a form of addiction, proof, if ever there was one, that healthy addictions exist. And then, tell me another job where, from the morning onwards, we are immersed in immediacy?

Precisely, how does this instantaneousness manifest itself on a daily basis?

It all begins with receiving products from the land and sea. Touching them, looking at them, is already connecting them to their origin. When I pick up carrots, I still see them in their field. When I look at a lobster, I imagine it on its seabed.

In the kitchen, the moment they arrive, my mission to give them another shape begins. In an increasingly virtual world, it is this physical connection to reality that thrills me more than ever.