France's sushi team signs historic treble at the 2024 World Cup

Every year, Japan welcomes chefs from all over the world for the World Sushi Championship. The objective? Carry out a series of tests to determine the best sushi chef. They are based on technical knowledge, hygiene, fish cutting and, above all, the free creation of platters. For several years now, sushi chefs in France have been improving their skills, achieving top places in previous editions of the competition. This year, there were 22 competitors from 11 different countries, and to say the least, the French contingent made their mark on the competition.

A historic result

This is the first time that France has achieved such a result. Quite simply, every step of the podium was decked out in blue, white and red. " It's an achievement", according to French team coach Eric Ticana. Alexis Luong, one of the 109 of the 2024 edition, chef of the Onaka restaurant (2 toques) in Nice, arrived on the third step of the podium behind his compatriots Vincent Broggi (1ᵉʳ) and Jérémi Seguda (2ᵉ). For the 2021 French sushi champion, "it's a real achievement and the reward for several years' work." "For the past month, I've been training on Sundays and Mondays for this, on top of my restaurant business. It really wasn't easy to manage my role as business owner and world championship competitor at the same time.

In this Olympic year, Eric Ticana and Alexis Luong were all the more delighted to be able to stand on a podium in this way: "We saw ourselves as the BMX racing guys (finishing in the top three at the Olympics, a first in 100 years)", the two French team members tell us in turn.

A lot of hard work

It took a lot of hard work and training to achieve these results. The first Frenchman to take part in the World Championships was Eric Ticana. The chef of the Goma restaurant in Val d'Europe is now the coach of the French team. "When I went there for the first time in 2016, I got a slap in the face. Our level wasn't good enough, and I wanted to do something about it, because France is first and foremost the country of gastronomy," he confides. To achieve his goal and obtain the coveted title, the chef decided to create the French championships in the discipline, while accompanying the winners as part of the French team. Throughout the year, and more specifically "over the last two months, I've spent several hours on the phone with each of them to prepare for the event. We exchanged photos on WhatsApp if we couldn't see each other to improve the creations and push the cursor further", explains Eric Ticana.