” I don’t know. It is already unbelievable”. The answer of Camille Saint-M’Leux, the chef of Villa 9Trois in Montreuil who has just obtained his first star in the Michelin Guide, to the question “What can we wish you for the future?” is explosive to say the least. Cautious? Jaded ? Rather incredulous even two weeks after this first gastronomic consecration. “I’m not very expressive but yes, I’m in heaven”, confides the young 27-year-old cook.
“The star is a childhood dream,” he explains calmly. I’ve wanted to do this job since I was little, not “just” a cook, but a starred chef, it’s really my inspiration. The one who comes out of his kitchen with his big white apron, his clean jacket. And to achieve this, Camille Saint M’Leux did not drag: from Taillevent in the 8th arrondissement of Paris to this first star at Villa 9Trois in Montreuil, barely ten years have passed. Meeting with the now only Michelin-starred chef in Seine-Saint-Denis.
A deep-rooted dream
Camille Saint M’Leux, “originally from Nantes but with a strong Breton culture”, studied at the Ferrandi school in Paris, before an experience in London and then a “decisive” work-study program at the Taillevent. “I then joined Michaël Bartocetti at the Shangri-La in pastry,” reveals the native of Nantes, whose vocation was confirmed very early on. “In ninth grade, I did my internship at Atlantide in Nantes, with chef Jean-Yves Guého, and there I knew, I had no doubts about what I would do later”.
After this apprenticeship in desserts, Camille Saint M’Leux joined the team of Christian Le Squer at the Cinq, a 3-star establishment, for a year and a half at the George V. There he closely rubbed shoulders with his dream of starred cuisine, before attempting the experience in Australia for a year in 2019. “I brought back the way of using aroma, as well as a decisive experience and research on umami, which I had not necessarily identified before traveling. With iodine, that of my childhood and my Breton influences, these are the three pillars of my cuisine. »
He returned to France just before the Covid-19 crisis and launched an organic artisanal ice cream shop with raw milk. “Each beginning of the week, I went to get milk from the farm,” he recalls. But the call of the kitchen is too strong for Camille Saint-M’Leux who decides in 2021 to return to the hotel and catering industry. “Two years ago, one of the two owners of Villa 9Trois called me. They had just hired a new director and had thought of me for the kitchen,” says the young starred chef. Although a little taken aback by the name and location, the young chef doesn’t hesitate long to go solo for the first time. “I fell in love with the place, the project”.
A daring bet
It must be said that the Montreuil establishment, which has existed for almost 30 years, was not the obvious bet to launch gourmet cuisine in Seine-Saint-Denis: bought five years ago, Villa 9Trois served, he confession of the current chef, “a bourgeois cuisine, beautiful pieces of grilled meat with potatoes or even sole meunière”. Camille Saint M’Leux has other ambitions for the restaurant, baptized at its creation Le Gaillard. “I had to convince the owners to get into the race for the star”. But how ? “By lowering the number of covers from 100 to 55 on average three months after my arrival, by transforming the menu towards a more gourmet cuisine and by creating tasting menus”, he says.
“Of course this 180 degree turn was not easy, we had two or three months of doubts, recalls the chef. We lost 40% of the regular clientele”. In short, this leap to the starry peaks was a very daring bet for the entire Villa 9Trois team. And yet. “We quickly captured a new clientele, which mainly comes from Seine-Saint-Denis: business leaders, politicians”, describes Camille Saint M’Leux, who recalls that thanks to the department’s proactive policy of attracting companies with significant subsidies, the 93 can pride itself on having important offices on its territory, “in particular many companies in the construction industry”.
Place aux étoiles in Seine-Saint-Denis
In the evening, make way for the “pleasure clientele”, as the chef calls them, “those we call foodies”. “My cooking is quite simple, the technique is at the service of simplicity,” he says. “It’s totally different from what Jean-Claude Cahagnet did (at the Auberge des Saints-Pères in Aulnay-sous-Bois). But it is the first to have dared to set up in Seine-Saint-Denis and to have gone to look for the star, so it inspires respect. It was a great project”.
“I don’t intend to be the only starred in the department,” continues Camille Saint-M’Leux. It’s a big department, there’s room for everyone and I think Greater Paris will confirm that in the years to come”, he adds, conceding “probably having underestimated the issues political and social aspects of his project”. “Since the announcement of the star, we have received many messages from Montreuil residents, the mayor, deputies. All this convergent energy is very positive, I hadn’t measured it when I started. I had especially seen the outsider side of Seine-Saint-Denis, ”he analyzes.
To two stars and beyond
Announced only a fortnight ago, the classification of the little red guide is already having repercussions on Villa 9Trois. The team of 24 people, including the kitchen and the dining room, is registering “a lot of new customers and reservations for two to three months, a phenomenon that we did not have before”, confides Camille Saint M’Leux. “This first star for us is a validation of the bet attempted. From now on, we want to go further and push in this direction of course, but perhaps not go together right away. Finally, we want to take the direction anyway, ”he blurts out a little confused.
“It was my dream and then finally once achieved, life does not change much in the end. I don’t know if I’m really going to realize at some point, ”continues the young chef. Stars on the menu and in the eyes, Camille Saint M’Leux is ultimately like a child who realizes his childhood dream. “That was the goal, yes. It came as a relief and an encouragement, happiness comes after”. To the second star perhaps, poke Didier Deschamps?