The Michelin Guide is increasingly adept at keeping the gastronomic world in suspense, most recently with the surprise arrival of a third star on the tiny island of Noirmoutier. Receiving it is a chef with a troubled history, abandoned by his parents, suffering from a serious hand injury, has found redemption in the kitchen.
The news
The French Michelin Guide – increasingly adept at keeping the world in suspense – already made headlines for the preview of its resounding rejection: Two three-star chefs had been demoted. With a global outcry, the monumental Guy Savoy. At the official presentation, it was announced that this prized honor had only one new occupant: Alexandre Couillon, chef of La Marine in Noirmoutier, a small island in the Vendée, already known to gourmands for its famous potato.
@DR
It’s not just any environment. On the contrary, it represents the winning trump card for the 47-year-old chef, who is inseparable from his wife, Céline, and draws inspiration from his garden and the overlooking sea. Born and raised in Senegal until the age of seven, Alexandre landed on Noirmoutier with his parents when they decided to return home and open a café restaurant. Things however, soon took a turn for the worst. So much so, that the two did not hesitate to give management of the restaurant away and leave Alexandre with a foster family, returning to Africa. A troubled adolescence followed, marked by school failures, which only an encounter with cooking at a hotel school could heal.
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After some stints with Michel Guérard and Thierry Marx, at just twenty-two years old comes the twist: his parents proposed that he take over their establishment. Alexandre and Céline would have liked to continue their training, but they accepted the challenge of bringing haute cuisine to a beachside establishment in a location where fine dining has never made an appearance. The strictly seasonal work does not let them sleep soundly, so much so that several times they thought of throwing in the towel. Then in 2007 came the first Michelin star, in 2013, the second, and then the title of Chef of the Year, according to Gault et Millau in 2017. After which, it's a case of raising the bar again by dividing the restaurant in half: on one side La Table d'Elise, a bistro version; on the other, the absolute excellence of La Marine. It is not easy to resist on an island far from everything, moreover on its most remote tip; yet the cuisine now proves to be worth the trip.
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Wild elderflower and candied cucumber sorbet
It includes, among other things, the signature dish: l'Erika. A squid ink oyster with tapioca pearls inspired by the oil spill that washed up on the coast of Brittany in 1999, it’s a testament to a real commitment to sustainability and the environment. And the respect for the subject matter is total. The fish, for example, are slaughtered using the Ikejime technique so as not to generate toxins. The latest battle won was the one to regain full use of his hands after a disastrous fall fracturing all his bones, which aroused the pessimism of doctors, stating "He will recover just 10 percent." But instead, with assiduous reeducation, he is up to 90 percent.
Normountier Oyster
For Alexandre, the excitement is irrepressible, but raising prices is out of the question: "Let's not forget where they come from. All these people who have been with us for years, who have always been there by our side, it is for them that we will continue."
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Source: Les Echos
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Cover photo of chef: @Sipa -Red Bull content pool
