These chefs share their Christmas memories

Every chef has his or her own Christmas madeleines: a dish from childhood, a smell from the kitchen, a light in the house. through their stories, a whole heritage of sharing and generosity is revealed. From gilded poultry to rolled logs, from gingerbread to oysters from the sea, their Christmases tell the essential story: the joy of being together around a meal made from the heart. Six chefs confide in Gault&Millau and share a little of their Christmas magic with us.

Maxime Frédéric: logs and Normandy farms

For Maxime Frédéric, pastry chef at Plénitude restaurant (5 toques) in Paris, Christmas smells of land, sea and Normandy cream. As a child, he celebrated the holidays on his grandparents' farm, with homemade poultry and vegetables from the kitchen garden. "My favorite dish was poule au pot, with all the vegetables inside and especially the cream, good bread and cheese," he confides. Already passionate about pastry-making, he prepared his first logs with his grandmother: "I made a specific log for each person. My grandfather loved opera, so I'd make him an opera log."These moments turned into a tradition: even today, the patissier brings his whole family together around the desserts of Pleincœur (his bakery-patisserie in Paris's 17ᵉ arrondissement) and his homemade chocolates. "It's a moment of sharing and happiness," he says. And the magic continues: between the belote games, the youngsters who prefer the galette des rois even during the holidays, and his father who still dresses up as Santa Claus for the grandchildren, the joy remains intact.

matias Indjic

David Rathgeber: a French taste for sharing

For David Rathgeber of L'Assiette restaurant (1 toque, Paris), Christmas meant "eight hours at the table" in the great Auvergne family tradition. "As a child, I hated it," he laughs, "but today, I'm still very fond of it." In his memory, there was foie gras, snails, salmon... and, above all, his mother's stuffed cabbage. "She used to prepare it with leftover potée auvergnate, a stuffing flavored with herbs and onions." He has created a modern version, braised in the oven, served on a generous plate in his restaurant. The chef also evokes his love of seafood, langoustine mayo, beef Wellington and Christmas Mont-Blanc. "Today, I like dishes that are prepared in advance, so that I can enjoy them with everyone." He concludes, smiling: "Happiness, sometimes, is just a scrambled egg with truffles, a good glass of champagne and the family around."

stéphane De Bourgies

Jérôme Schilling: the Alsatian Christmas spirit

In Alsace, Jérôme Schilling grew up with both rigorous and gentle traditions. "Back home, Christmas began on St. Nicholas Day, with the Advent wreath," he recounts. "His mother's manneles, bredeles and tin boxes, filled with some twenty different types of cookie, arestill very much in his memory. "I was always behind her, tasting the raw dough and biting into the warm cookies."The chef also recalls a magical Christmas: "My father had opened an old Sauternes, the cork was covered in tartar crystals, it sparkled like snow in the sun."Even today, he perpetuates these rituals with his children and the staff of Château Lafaurie-Peyraguey (4 toques, in Bommes) where he officiates: advent wreath, goose foie gras, pumpkin and chestnut velouté, and, of course, berewecke, the candied fruit bread macerated in brandy. "Christmas is a time for sharing, no matter how different we are."

karine Faby

Olivier Nasti: 40 years of velouté and memories

For Olivier Nasti(La Table d'Olivier Nasti, 5 toques in Kaysersberg), Christmas has always tasted like poultry velouté. "My grandmother asked me to make it in 1984, when I was an apprentice. Since then, we've made it every year as a family." His childhood dishes included "foie gras, snails, smoked salmon, oysters, poularde aux morilles". But more than the dishes, it's the spirit of sharing that he remembers: "For me, Christmas is about putting a cooked dish on the table and sharing it." In Alsace, bredeles, kouglofs, berawecka and manneles punctuate the month of December. And on St. Nicholas' Day, it's the ritual: "With my children, we make manneles, drink hot chocolate and eat a clementine." The chef likes to remind us that Christmas is above all "a moment of simple love, sweet and spicy".

© Ilyafoodstories

Nina Métayer: Christmas for pastry elves

For Nina Métayer, Christmas is a double experience: in the kitchen and with the family. "With my teams, we're all little elves at the service of others to prepare the logs", she says. But after the rush, it's time for a little sweetness. As a child, she would decorate the tree on the 24th, baking shortbread to hang on the branches and dates filled with marzipan. "It smelled of Christmas trees and cookies," she recalls. Today, the pastry chef keeps this ritual: everyone pitches in for the meal. "Between salmon koulibiac, laughter and happy fatigue,she especially savors the moment on the evening of the 25th. "That's our real Christmas, the one with the feeling of mission accomplished, when all our pastries have been delivered."

mathieu Salome

Guy Savoy: the golden goose and the poetry of remembrance

For Guy Savoy(Restaurant Guy Savoy, 5 toques d'or in Paris), Christmas has always been the golden color of roast goose. "It was the only day of the year we ate it, and my mother used to brown it perfectly, with apples and chestnuts."The chef also remembers the "perfect cylindrical" shape of the bird, which he found "magnificent" as a child. "Nine Christmases out of ten, we make the same goose again," he confides. alongside, a gratin of cardoons, a Lyonnaise specialty dear to his father, completed the meal. And to finish, there was "always a chocolate log with orange salad". At Guy Savoy, the taste of childhood Christmas has never faded: simple, true and deeply luminous.

restaurant Guy Savoy

Michel Sarran: his mother's grilled foie gras

For Michel Sarran (4 toques in Toulouse), Christmas has the simple, sincere flavor of the Gers. "When I was a child, it was a Gers Christmas, in a small village, in a farming environment," he recalls. No great cuisine, but exceptional products and a "very good cook" mother, who later opened her own farm inn. Among his most vivid memories is one dish: foie gras grilled over an open fire. "Simple as pie, but you need extraordinary livers that hold together. The result was breathtaking. Even today, for me, this style of dish is the symbol of real cooking, the kind that doesn't lie, that has taste." Served hot, sometimes transformed into a terrine the next day, this foie gras sums up for him the essence of the festive season: sincerity and sharing. "Today, I can eat anything, even a croque-monsieur, as long as I share it with loved ones."

anne-Emmanuelle Thion

The spirit of Christmas, between heritage and transmission

through their memories, these chefs remind us that Christmas is not just a meal, but a moment of transmission. Behind every roast bird or cinnamon cookie, there's a learned gesture, a preserved memory. All, in their own way, tell of the link between cooking and emotions, between the table and memory. And while menus may evolve, the essential remains: the pleasure of getting together, cooking for one's family and friends, and keeping alive the festive spirit that, year after year, brings people together as much as it comforts.