He is a chef off the beaten track who was crowned “Chef of the Year 2021” by his peers during the 35th Magazine Trophies Leader, a few months after winning a third star at the Michelin Guide for its 2021 edition. A chef who grew up in Africa, who has traveled a lot. And whose dishes take us far, far away…. “I am proud to tell you that I am a cook”, simply blurted out
Alexandre mazzia at the end of his thanks for his third star. A cook, yes, but an “explorer cook”, who does not hesitate to cross any obstacle to compare the textures and flavors that he has brought back from his many travels. Or to fight against all odds – both against the Covid-19 pandemic and against a somewhat finicky administration – to be able to continue its activity at the helm of a food truck instead of its confined stoves.
In November 2020, 20 minutes was there a soup of toasted bread with onions and Comté matured 36 months, a pelamide with satay accompanied by a semolina with orange blossom, spices and fresh herbs, a fondant with the madeleine and tangy lemon. All accompanied by verbena mint tea served lukewarm. Not to mention the croq-mazz, a croque-monsieur with milk-fed veal, white balsamic pickle, spicy hummus and smoked eggplant caviar made in just 60 units, for 12 euros.
About twenty small creative portions
“Cooking for the food-truck or for the restaurant doesn’t change anything. Passion, rigor and fervor are the same. It’s just a little bit different exercise, my staff also really enjoy it. The most important thing is to know how to bounce back ”, then rejoiced Alexandre Mazzia.
So what about the AM restaurant? 20 minutes had the chance to have lunch there, when the Marseille chef was named Chef of the Year 2019 by the Gault & Millau Guide. The menu then consisted of around twenty small, creative and tasty portions, brought in in clusters and finished at the table. “With my team, we try to conceive your meal as a trip”, explains this native of Congo, who spent the first fourteen years of his life by the sea, near Pointe-Noire.
“I try to put as much of my story as possible in my kitchen,” he explained. By small touches, so that one keeps the memory of a moment, more than of a single dish… ”An unforgettable memory, between a very conceptual“ smoked eel and chocolate ”, signature dish neither salty nor sweet, of a confusing sandy consistency with its notes of metal and iodine on the finish; a “line hake” without seasoning but accompanied by a puree of “burnt-smoked Jerusalem artichokes”; a “langoustine in cassava ravioli”, which almost gave the impression of wriggling in its envelope; a “spoonful of raspberry harissa” which prepared the passage to the other side of the mirror, that of the sweet stages before arriving safely, at the café …
Spices, smoke and chili
“My cooking is based on a tripod: the spices, the smoke and the chilli,” explains to 20 minutes Alexandre Mazzia. This allows me to create bridges between the ingredients, to achieve a correctness, a balance, to find docile and pleasant fragrances, to absorb an excess of acidity… What I do, we like it or we don’t not like, but I do it with my heart, my experience and my sensitivity. »Everything that has enabled him to reach the highest peak in gastronomy today.