Eye patch crossing his face, cane in hand and accompanied by two large Rottweilers. This is not a pirate’s lair but the apartment of chef Jérémy Biasiol. It is here, in Villeurbanne, with his parents that the starred settled in 2019 to relearn how to cook. His goal: to beat his handicap to regain the high level and participate in the competition for the best worker in France three years later.
Because since his lightning stroke in 2019, the task is much more complicated. Suffering from hemiplegia, the starred chef has the entire left part of his body as well as his eye paralyzed. Gestures that previously seemed so simple to him become very complicated. However, Jérémy Biasiol can trust his experience and his determination. He who has rubbed shoulders with the greatest chefs and set up his own restaurant knows all the workings of this profession.
Glory to Hong Kong
If he cooked from his youth with the greatest like Paul Bocuse and Alain Ducasse, if he was Madonna’s private chef like an American millionaire, it was in Asia that Jérémy Biasiol’s career took off. Coming on “a whim” to “give cooking lessons in Hong Kong”, the chef recounts with amusement his adventures on the Asian continent. A journey that will even lead him to open his own restaurant called “Mirror”. A sober place, “very small and without a tablecloth or silver cutlery”, but which will appeal to the inhabitants of the island as well as stars like Jackie Chan or Donnie Yen.
The chef’s recipes are a success, so much so that in 2011 he received the ultimate reward: a star in the Michelin Guide: “It was impossible to book for four months. And after the star, it went up to six months,” he recalls. Jérémy Biasiol is proud of this award, he only has one thing in mind, to get three stars.
Anonymity in France
But in 2014, it’s the “umbrella revolution” in Hong Kong. Pro-democracy demonstrations paralyze the country for several months. “The main roads on the island were blocked”, preventing people from coming to his restaurant: “I spent whole evenings at zero cover”, says Jérémy Biasiol. To stop the bleeding, the starred chef has no choice but to close his establishment. “When I had paid for everything, I was at zero at the end of the month. It was economically impossible. “A deep tear which according to him” will later participate in his stroke “.
If he continues for a period the restoration in Asia, Jérémy Biasiol is quickly forced to return to Europe. First in Germany, then in France. A difficult return, where he chained bad experiences and quickly realized that his fame did not follow him: “I built my career abroad. In China I had a reputation, a lot of press. Whereas in France, nobody knows who I am. »
Goal, MOF 2026
In July 2019, while working as a chef in a restaurant in Belle-Île-en-Mer, Jérémy Biasiol suffered a brain stem stroke. For the doctors, he will never be able to walk again and even less cook, the starred chef intends to contradict them. And that goes through the competition for best worker in France 2026.
Today, it is in his apartment in Villeurbanne that he trains to relearn each forgotten gesture. More than a consecration, the chef wants to show that he is “handi-capable”. On the day of the competition, he should have more time, or a team to help him, but there is no question of obtaining a “diploma at a discount”.