© Arthur Delloye
Already known as an excellent horseman, France's favourite chef has been playing polo for 10 years. And not just anywhere, since Lignac is a regular at the Chantilly polo club (Oise), which boasts 205 hectares of forest, as well as the Argentine pampa. A country where he goes every year to join his polo friends.
Their ritual? A maté (traditional tea) before the match, an asado - the typical Argentinian barbecue - afterwards. Since 2023, the chef has moved to Saint-Tropez and plays for the village Polo Club. Understanding his mount, working tirelessly, Cyril Lignac likes to point out that this sport has much in common with the profession of pastry chef. The man is his own sponsor, and his polo shirt is often emblazoned with the words ‘La Pâtisserie Cyril Lignac’.
In his 5 boutiques and 4 restaurants in Paris:
© DCD
The Michelin-starred chef Adeline Grattard (for her restaurant Yam'Tcha) has been riding horses since she was five years old and got her own at 15 (at the same time, the future chef spends nights cooking egg rolls and samoussa for her friends at the riding club). What's her favourite thing? Looking after her horse rather than shining in competition.
The native of Burgundy stopped riding at the age of 20 to devote herself to cooking, but the discipline remained a thread running through her life. At the age of 24, at a horse-riding competition, the chef met Chi Wah, the graphic designer who had produced the competition poster. A passionate cook and her future husband.
Another enthusiast? Christophe Pele, the chef at the very chic Clarence (two Michelin stars). Four or five times a week, the chef swaps his apron (or his Céline suit) for a nag. It's a practice the 55-year-old started as a child and recently resumed.
© DR
When it comes to the oval ball, Hélène Darroze (‘best woman chef in the world’ 2015 in the annual 50 Best rankings) and Guy Savoy (chef of the best restaurant in the world on several occasions) are big fans.
She grew up with a rugby-playing father, and her parents still call her every Sunday to tell her the results of the club in Villeneuve, her home village in the south-west of France.
Guy Savoy** started playing rugby at the age of 12 in Isère. Very close to the French team, the chef even drew New Zealand (as France's future opponents) when the 2023 World Cup pools were drawn. At 70, he prefers to talk about the team rather than the brigade in his restaurants. In rugby, as in the kitchen, everyone can fulfil their potential, because each job has its own special requirements,’ he says. He plays the captain and the coach.
© DR
With 17 marathons to his name (all of which he has completed), Michelin-starred chef and TV star Thierry Marx** is as much a runner as he is a cook. It's a discipline he started at a young age, as a judoka, to keep up with his weight categories. And after an hour's running (and a ravenous appetite), it's a good way to brainstorm ideas for dishes.
The chef is such a firm believer in sport as a means of promoting well-being that in 2017 he set up Pass'Sport pour l'Emploi, an association that helps people find a career path in the sporting professions.
© DR
A little obsessive, the 2005 World Pastry Champion** first decided overnight to run the Paris marathon and then to climb the summit of Mont Blanc (even though he's afraid of heights). It wasn't until his wife told him, ‘Stop hurting yourself, do a sport you enjoy’, that Christophe Michalak took up tennis at the age of 40 (in 2013).
After refusing in 2018 to play against the immense Djokovic at Roland Garros - his biggest regret, he didn't dare - the budding tennis player won season 3 of Stars Set and Match at Roland-Garros in 2021 (a competition organised alongside the tournament in which three French celebrities battle it out on the stadium's courts).
Why this obsession with tennis? Unlimited scope for improvement, the importance of humility.
Several boutiques in Paris:
At the head of the Datil restaurant, which was awarded a Michelin star this year, Manon Fleury also knows how to handle a foil. The 32-year-old began fencing at the age of 10 in her village near Auxerre in Burgundy-Franche-Comté. As a teenager, she joined the fencing ‘pôle espoir’ at a secondary school in Orléans (Loiret), where she trained ten hours a week (and cooked scones and lemon tarts for her boarding school friends).
In 2007, at the age of 16, she won a bronze medal in the European junior sabre team championships. After the baccalaureate, she finished fencing and went on to study literature and cookery.
The rest is history...
