Laëtitia VISSE

Chef : 1 restaurant

Presentation

Although it's a bold statement to make, few children of opera singers have gone into the restaurant business. My parents never encouraged me to follow the classical route and pursue higher education at all costs," comments Laëtitia Visse. Their credo was always to encourage me to do what I loved. And that was cooking."

The young woman, born in Paris in 1990, entered Ferrandi, where she spent four years learning cooking and pastry-making. "At the same time, I worked at Tante Louise, Les Bookinistes and Alain Dutournier before joining Cyril Lignac as a pastry chef at Le Quinzième."

But this life of brigade work in the world of fine dining didn't appeal to her, and it was with Thomas Brachet, at the Beef Club and then at Les Arlots, that the young cook found her calling. "With Thomas, I was able to work with very fine meats, cooked in a coal-fired oven. I really liked it because we could also afford to experiment, even if it meant making mistakes sometimes."

Laëtitia Visse was at a turning point in her life. "I needed to get away from Paris, for personal reasons. I didn't know much about Marseille, but the city appealed to me, me being a bit of a recluse. I arrived without knowing a soul, with my cat in my suitcases. I joined the kitchens of La Relève, a small restaurant in Endoume. I was in my element there, working with fine meats and homemade charcuterie."

Passionate about charcuterie, "so much so that I once asked for a pusher as a birthday present", Laëtitia left La Relève, which was closed due to a danger order. "I've always been an independent person. For me, this closure was a wake-up call, convincing me that I had to open my own restaurant."

The Covid epidemic began in the spring of 2020. "I didn't know many people in Marseille, and had been advised against setting up my own business.Then I heard that a butcher's shop under the Place de la Castellane was for sale. It was the only establishment I visited, and I fell in love with it - it was there or nowhere else."

The opening was thwarted by successive confinements, but the young woman and her team held firm. I'm passionate about charcuterie," she says, "but I know that there are still some preparations, such as head cheese, with which I'm not 100% satisfied. I'm always on the lookout for ways to improve, and whenever I have a bit of time, I criss-cross France to learn, but also to meet my producers. This is essential for me."

F. T.