© Lastre sans apostrophe DR
‘If we win, you and I are going to open a shop’, said Marion Sonier to her partner Yohan Lastre during the competition in 2012. The Gard native was then sous-chef at la Tour d'argent, while she was a cabinetmaker. The gamble paid off, and the pate en croûte (pig, chicken, duck, veal, rabbit, pigeon, foie gras, pork fat and fir spirit) went gold. Four years later, the couple opened a grocery shop where the pate en croûte (sometimes with fish or vegetables) is king. The duo also gave pride of place to bourgeois dishes (coq au vin, guinea fowl with cabbage, lobster bisque) sold in jars.
The Association pour la Sauvegarde de l'Œuf Mayonnaise (ASOM) likes to hold competitions between recipes on restaurant menus. This year, it was the recipe from Moulin à Vent (voted Bistrot of the Year 2023 by the Pudlo des Bistrots) that won.
Chef Maxime Plateau prepares it with red cabbage pickles, old-fashioned mustard and crunchy breadcrumbs (€8 a plate). Other competition winners include chef Clément Chicard at Bouillon Pigalle (2019), Sébastien Devos at La Rôtisserie d'argent (2021), and Grégoire Simon at la Grande Brasserie Bastille (2022).
Sicilian yellow tomato, San Daniele cured ham, provolone, mozzarella di buffala, toasted almonds, organic fig jam... This is Peppe Cutraro's Campione del Monde pizza, on the menu at his three Parisian addresses.
The dough? Crunchy and light, because the man mixes three flours (low in gluten), constantly moistens it during production and never raises his oven to more than 375°C. A native of the working-class districts of Naples, the thirty-year-old was also awarded the title of Best Pizza Maker of the Year in 2022.
At Peppe pizzeria napoletana :
© Natalia-Koroshayeva
His flower-shaped hare à la royale with potato espuma and sliced porcini mushrooms impressed the judges at the World Championship of Lièvre à la Royale.
The recipe is identical to the one the chef offers in his Paris restaurant. Trained in some of the best restaurants in the world (such as Michelin multi-starred Gérald Passédat in Marseille and Guy Savoy at la Monnaie de Paris), the Gault&Millau 2023 ‘Young Talent’ defends traditional French gastronomy.
His dishes include pâté en croûte, tarte aux cèpes, crêpes Suzette and the famous royal hare (only from 10 October to 20 January, during the hunting season).
© Paris Je t'aime
At the age of 22, Yazid Ichemrahen has been selected for the French national team. With his two team-mates, he won the championship with an ice-cream cup inspired by a compass, mignardises on a parchment and an eagle sculpted on the ice (in reference to the painter's work on birds).
Now known as the "pastry chef to the stars ’ (and with 1.5 million followers on Instagram), the entrepreneur orchestrates the sweet side of the Royal Monceau hotel. This summer, he will be offering a one-euro snack every Wednesday at the Palace, with orange juice and yoghurt cake.
It's an inspiring story when you consider that the world-famous star was placed in foster care and various homes from an early age. Her story is told in two books, one of which has been adapted into a film, À la belle étoile (2023), co-produced by Jamel Debbouze.
After a preparation worthy of a top-level sportsman (life put aside, gestures rehearsed hundreds of times, drawings and models constantly reworked), Christophe Michalak then head pastry chef at the Plaza-Athénée won the World Pastry Championship as a trio. The winning creation? A winged nymph in chocolate and another in sculpted ice cream.
Now 50, the chef from the Oise region of France runs four restaurants** and regularly gives masterclass classes open to all (€140 per session per person).
Christophe Michalak's boutiques in Paris:
© Samaritaine - Neulo
His dessert of tart apples, coconut and cumin won unanimous praise from the jury. A spicy creation, with no frills and straightforward flavours, just like the pastries of this Auvergne native, now chef at the very luxurious Grand-Hôtel de Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat (Alpes-Maritimes) and head of a Parisian boutique with desserts that smell of Provence. The 31-year-old sweet maestro has been awarded the ‘Passion Dessert ’ prize by the Michelin Guide in 2023 and 2024.
The grandson of a farmer, Gérard Taurin** grew up with a love of milk and cream in Normandy. Trained at Lenôtre (where he stayed for 32 years), Meilleur Ouvrier de France and winner (with two colleagues) of the world ice cream championship in Turin, Italy, the sixty-year-old now runs several shops.
At Gérard Taurin's, the organic milk comes from cows in the Perche region, the cane sugar is French and everything is produced in Mortagne-au-Perche in the Orne region, the village where the sixty-year-old lives and travels in his 1950s ‘deudeuche’.
© Guillaume de Laubier
5000 at the start, Xavier Thuizat at the finish. In 2022, the Burgundian won the title of Best Sommelier of France (in the same week as Meilleur Ouvrier de France). This title was awarded after spectacular tests such as the blind tasting (four minutes to determine the grape variety, dosage and terroir of four wines, and to suggest two pairings with a dish).
Since 2017, Xavier Thuizat has been head sommelier at the one-star Michelin restaurant L'Écrin at the Hôtel de Crillon (where the menu is created according to the wine chosen). He was also recently appointed head sommelier at Air France. The Michelin guide also awarded him the grand prize for sommellerie in 2024.
While the winner of Top Chef 2023 is more of a pie man (last year, the 25-year-old opened Groot, a street-food restaurant dedicated to pithiviers, with another candidate from the show, Albane Auvray), he also handles pizza dough with brio.
In a duo with another Ardéchois (Maxime Mathieu, already French acrobatic pizza champion in 2021), Hugo Riboulet presented a gourmet pizza with fennel seeds and bulbs in the competition organised by the Association of French Pizzerias.
