Marseille chef Coline Faulquier was praised by the latest Michelin Guide – Mathilde Ceilles / 20 Minutes
- Marseille chef Coline Faulquier won a star and was named young chef of the year 2021 by the Michelin guide.
- A title awarded in full confinement which seems somewhat unreal to him … to the point of forgetting it.
- On the eve of the long-awaited reopening of her restaurant, the young perfectionist chef confides her doubts to 20 minutes.
We’re going to talk to each other frankly. Crossing the doorstep of Signature, Coline Faulquier’s restaurant located in the eighth arrondissement of Marseille, we didn’t expect to chat with the Marseille chef. And yet it was in the middle of a furniture assembly session that the former finalist of Top chef welcomes us. “We changed a lot of things during confinement,” lists Coline Faulquier. My team was doing the take out and for a week, for example, I redid all the tiling. “
For Coline Faulquier, it’s time for the last preparations before a big day. The chef leaves the drill for a while, opens a beer (Marseille, please) and settles down at the back of her restaurant. His arm hints at a new tattoo, which reminds, if need be, that this reopening may not be similar to the hundreds of other restaurant reopening that France will experience this week.
” Oh yes it’s true ! I’m zapping a bit “
Above a saucepan, a design evokes Marseille with a star at the end. In the midst of a health crisis, this winter, Coline Faulquier was raised to the skies for the Michelin guide, winning the ultimate distinction, less than two years after the opening of her establishment. The famous red guide also elected her young chef of the year, shining all the spotlight on the Marseillaise.
But when we mention this last title, awarded when she had finally taken a little time to see her family in Martinique, the young chef has a reaction as surprising as it is eloquent on her state of mind. ” Oh yes it’s true ! I zap a bit. An embarrassed smile settled on the face of the stunned boss.
“I have the impression that it is never good enough”
“I don’t really realize it,” she laughs. Of course I am proud. I’m not going to say it’s just cooking, but here we are so right. I’m the one answering the phone. People are always surprised that I don’t have a switchboard operator and a driver! I am like everybody else. At first, we don’t pay each other! “
For this reopening, Coline Faulquier, not a big fan of sequins and rhinestones, is indeed more of the stress type, an overactive perfectionist tendency. “I feel like it’s never good enough,” she slips with a smile. I am never satisfied. It’s a bit painful. But I am learning to live with myself! “
“Shit, we risk losing it”
Newly starred in this funny context, Coline Faulquier feels expected, despite the success of the take-away sale she offered during this confinement. “I wonder if I’m ready to reopen,” she breathes. I think I lack the maturity and the confidence to know how to say: “Listen, sir, this is how we cook asparagus. If I cook it crunchy, I want it crunchy. . ” I am very quickly to doubt at the slightest remark. This is what I dread. “
And to confide: “We wanted her, the star. Now, I didn’t think she would come so soon in such a complicated year. Now that she’s here, I’m like, “Shit. We might lose her.” I’m afraid. I would have preferred that he put it on me next year and that I was more sure of myself. “
A success that she attributes above all to her team, and in particular to her two closest collaborators. “I was more happy to tell them than to tell myself. ”An affection which is not only words: if the young chef does not open her restaurant, which is already full, only this Friday, it is because June 9 is the birthday of her chef. room, which the whole team will celebrate with dignity… as customers in a restaurant in Marseille.