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Top Chef Featuring Cyril Lignac
BY Jennifer Paterson FOR FR2DAY.COM Mar 5, 2010
Next up in our series on France's Top Chefs (see our previous features on Joel Robuchon and Alain Ducasse) is the chef and television presenter Cyril Lignac, whose talent in the culinary arts belies his young years. Lignac, who was born in Rodez (Aveyron) in 1977 and attended the prestigious culinary school of Villefranche-de-Rouergue, is only 33 and already a sensation.
Earning his diploma at the age of 20, Lignac went on to work at Arpeggio, the three-Michelin-starred Parisian restaurant created by another top chef, Alain Passard. Lignac's luminary mentors don't stop there. Next he worked with Pierre Hermé at Korova, Alain Ducasse at La Grande Cascade and the Pourcel brothers at Maison Blanche and then Jardin des Sens. All of these restaurants are in Paris except for the latter. Jardin des Sens is in Montpellier and brought Lignac back to his roots in the south of France.
He has been compared to British culinary sensation Jamie Oliver. Both chefs are young, attractive, charming, talented, and have become media darlings. Both are only in their thirties, but have managed to move with the times and offer simple, creative and playful cooking that has captivated the masses.
Similar to Oliver, Lignac was discovered by the producers of the French TV channel M6 and stepped into the media spotlight on Oui Chef, a French version of the popular British show Jamie's Kitchen. That same year (2005) Lignac would go on to name his restaurant Le Quinzième, though he claims this is because it is situated in the 15th arrondissement in Paris. Cyril Lignac has a mind for food he likes to share, driven by a deep desire to distil pleasure and pass on his own emotions.His cooking is based primarily on the choice and quality of produce that he makes his own with generosity, flavour and simplicity.
Interestingly, Lignac's next television programs were also inspired by his British counterpart. Chef La Recette and Vive La Cantine, where the young chef fights junk food in schools and tries to improve menus in school cafeterias, is similar to Oliver's documentary series Jamie's School Dinners.
His new programme MIAM- My Invitation to a meal- Each week, Cyril Lignac entertains cooking enthusiasts who will be pitting their skills against his and challenging him to prepare their favourite recipe as well as they do.Yet MIAM is also a programme about cooking and food where you can discover the benefits of certain foods, all the tricks of the trade employed by master chefs and some of the newest ideas to help you make a success of everything you cook - Every Saturday 8.05 pm on channel M6.
Lignac has also ventured into the publishing world. His cookbooks have sales exceeding 1.5 million, including "Chef Generation," Chef 80 Recettes," "Gourmands" and a book for children called "Cyril Lignac & Small Chefs." In 2007, he published a bi-weekly magazine called "Cook by Cyril Lignac." The same year he made his film debut as a voice in the French version of Ratatouille, the studio Pixar movie that charmed audiences around the world.
In 2008, Lignac took over a bistro that first opened back in 1908 in Paris and is now listed as an historic monument. Le Chardenoux (above) is in the 11th arrondissement in Paris. A self-proclaimed lover of traditional "terroir" cooking, Lignac chose to add his own touch to this long-standing restaurant. As he climbed the echelons of the culinary world, Lignac has held onto his passion for Mediterranean food, which he credits to his childhood in the south of France.
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