To understand Anne-Sophie Pic’s cuisine, one must first get to know Anne-Sophie Pic the woman. Her famous last name, her chain of restaurants across Valence, Lausanne, Paris, London, and Hong Kong, and even her total of 10 Michelin stars that make her the most decorated female chef in the world, are nothing compared to her story of perseverance and dedication to a craft that has, all along, been in her blood. The world loves to tell the story of how she lost the third star of her father’s restaurant following his death, and how she went on to regain them before becoming a powerhouse name herself. What they tend to leave out is how she did it all as a self-taught woman chef, in a time when the French culinary scene was at its most demanding.
Coming from three generations of great chefs—her great grandmother Sophie started the family restaurant Maison Pic in 1889, before her grandfather André took over, followed by her father Jacques—Anne-Sophie didn’t want the restaurant life. She opted to study business management and went on to work for the likes of champagne house Moet & Chandon and luxury jeweller Cartier before something called her home. She retook her place by her father’s side to learn that art of cuisine after “finding the right timing and moment to come back”. Unfortunately, her father passed away a short two months after, and she was thrown into the helm of a restaurant and world she was just starting to learn about. It was then that she realised that her father had been preparing her for this calling all her life.
As a child, meal times were micro lessons when they discussed flavours, textures, ingredients, and how they all come together to form an equilibrium. Eating was not just an act of staying alive, it was also a conscientious experience where he imparted secrets of the kitchen and all that stands extraordinary cooking apart from the ordinary. She might not have wanted to be a chef, but she came from a long line of chefs and, because of that, the heritage will always be part of her.
“My father was my biggest role model, of course, who put me on this path. I was taught how to cook in a restaurant. We used to live in the same area—my house was the restaurant. When you belong to a family in a specific industry, you know a lot about this industry because you are exposed to it every day. But that doesn’t mean you are entitled to the talents. You have the heritage but you have to find your way to continue the tradition. That can be a strength or something you take for granted.”
“For me, as I grew up in a restaurant, I didn’t want to do this job. It was a job that took up every day of your life. I decided to study business, but I decided to come back home and learn cooking from my father. Unfortunately, he passed away two months after, so I had to find my own way. My heritage and my childhood helped me a lot.”
“He really trained my palate from my childhood days. Eating was not just something you do to keep alive. It was so important to him to eat consciously. He was always sharing remarks, telling me about what to pay attention to with food. I listened and learnt from him. The balance of food and all that, I was learning since I was a child. I heard his comments. He trained me to really understand cuisine. My parents were really great lovers of restaurant. They loved what they did and it influenced me a lot.”
“It took time for me to discover my calling. I had to find my right moment to come back. After my studies, I was a dreamer. I always liked to dream. When I finished my studies, I had to decide on the rest of my life and, driven by a beautiful internship in the Champagne region in Epernay, I went to Moet & Chandon. I learnt how to make champagne and it brought me back to the kitchen. The fermentation, the ageing, the assemblage, the maturation—it was alchemy. It was very close to the universe of cuisine, because it made me think of how incredible the alchemy is.”
“I also worked in Paris for Cartier. During this time, they were making all the accessories for Yves Saint Laurent and more. As a young woman, it was fascinating to discover. They’re all French-rooted Maisons, and to see their magic also made me come back to my roots.”
“There are more and more women in the culinary industry. There was no legitimacy for women to be in this industry for a long time. My grandmother was a great cuisinier, but she wasn’t a chef. She was in the kitchen making beautiful dishes. The recognition of women, especially in the French culinary industry, took a long time. For the women who first started, it was difficult for them as well.”
“When I first started, there were people coming from industries outside of food—like Michel Bras, Mark Veyrat, people who were self-taught. That made a lot of impact. It opened a lot of the minds of chefs to other possibilities—that there can now be women in the kitchen or self-taught chefs, and that was very good.”
“The development of the culinary scene in the world is something amazing. France has always been a good supporter for learning how to make a brigade; this knowledge is something chefs from all over the world come to learn. Ferran Adrià came to Valence to be taught by my father on this. There was no real construction of this in other places except France. France was the leader.”
“I think all these culinary developments is something very special and exciting. It gives a lot of good things to French cuisine because healthy competition is always good. It’s a struggle but also a source of motivation. It’s good to always keep a lot of curiosity and an open mind.”
“Other chefs found a good way to take what was good in French cuisine and make it wow. I consider the sauce, for example: French people were very frustrated and found it heavy. At the start, I concentrated on how to make it lighter. Chefs all over the world consider sauces very fascinating. The Nordic chefs deal very well with catching sauces and making it great. The beurre blanc, for example, was completely abandoned in France because it was so heavy.”
“To stay relevant and in good competition that allows you to push your boundaries, you have to be aware of what is wrong in your industry, and how to make it better and improve. It’s also the curiosity and the exchange between chefs. It’s very important.”
“The kitchen has taught me patience because it takes time to find balance, to find a good team. Most of all, it has allowed me to exercise my curiosity.”
PIC restaurant has recently opened in the Beau-Rivage Palace in Lausanne, Switzerland. For more information, please visit their website.
Illustrations by Dawum Jeong
