Corentin Poirier-Martinet, allegro con brio pastry chef

What is Corentin Poirier-Martinet after? Honors? To see him in this freshly revamped hotel lobby on the Basque coast (the Regina, now under the Experimental Group banner, renovated by decorator Dorothée Meilichzon), it's unlikely. To listen to him, to decipher his (already) long career, to detect this mixture of nonchalance and assertive determination, the pastry chef is rather an opportunist. By this we mean someone who knows how to seize a perch, how to seize a chance, how to try and see, with no preconceptions, and who imposes no barriers on himself. He saw " two friends become MAF [Meilleur Apprenti de France, Editor's note]. I said to myself, if they've done it, I can too ". He worked hard - " a lot " - trained hard - " really hard " - and won the Grail. Having passed through Ferrandi and obtained his baccalauréat professionnel boulanger et pâtissier (with honors), he was now an apprentice at the École de boulangerie et pâtisserie Paris.

A young man of conviction

He doesn't chase accolades, but gives himself the means to be noticed, and by the right people. Stints with Laurent Duchêne, Cédric Grolet, Guillaume Gil, Yann Couvreur, Ramon Morató, Amaury Guichon... Corentin Poirier-Martinet is making his way. A road that will lead him to set off, to hoist the sails. It would be New York, with Dominique Ansel, where he would stay for two years. Alas, Covid-19 was to be the undoing of this exile. A blessing in disguise, surely. Château de Brindos, owned by the Bordeaux hotel group Millésime Collection, in the Basque country, reinvents itself and reopens in spring 2022. The pastry chef was given carte blanche, or almost. He settles in and discovers " pâtisserie de terroir ", its ability to absorb and transcribe an emotion, a color. When Corentin Poirier-Martinet heard about the Villa Albertine program, he thought, "Why not me? "They've never had a chef in residence? - So what? "Nor have any of the other French Academies abroad, apart from Zuri Camille de Souza at the Villa Medici in Rome in 2022 - " so what? "You have ten days to hand in your application? - So what ? What are we waiting for? "He builds up his project, " but I already had it in me, without really having put it down. All I had to do was pick up a blank sheet of paper and get going. And off he went, with the help of his partner, Léa Florian, sommelier at Château de Brindos, sending in his application at 11:57 p.m. for a deadline of... 11:59 p.m. " It was hot ". He imagines what he can bring to such a program, is not afraid, assumes, explains. The young man is so convinced that pastry-making - and cooking in general - is a major art form, on a par with painting, sculpture, literature or cinema; that a pastry chef plays a score with as much precision as a composer, that he designs a dessert with as much commitment as an architect, and that he therefore - like any other chef - has a place at the Villa Albertine... that he convinces the jury and wins it, his place. He'll have to leave Brindos - " it's probably also time for me to do my own cooking and stand up for what I believe in...".

Making his mark

Among all the Villa Albertine branches (10 cities in the United States), the chef chose San Francisco. " Because it's the city closest to an exceptional terroir that can be applied to patisserie... Because it has a very rich gastronomic scene, mixing culture and influences. the emergence of the "farm-to-table"... Because it's at the heart of technological innovation, home to several universities ands and research centers conducting studies on the links between diet and health, the environmental impact of agriculture and food production..." He sees this hub as the ideal place to create bridges and links, and to imagine a pastry that, with a French DNA, highlights the country flavors of the Grand Ouest. He will have ten weeks on site to carry out his research and work. Corentin Poirier-Martinet isn't looking for honors, but he's leaving no stone unturned to create a style, impose a trademark and leave a mark. A book project (to be published by Les Ateliers d'Argol) at the end of the residency is on the cards. The same goes for a restaurant in Biarritz, in association with chef Maxime Chentouf. The chef wants to be a " committed witness who, through his cuisine, can act as a spokesperson and address societal and environmental issues "... So, what's he after? He's not running, he's giving himself the means to do what he loves and what he's so talented at. That's all there is to it.