Guest of Michel Denisot, the media chef Cyril Lignac explains having learned cooking with his “two mothers”, two women who forged his “DNA and his backbone” as a cook.

And it is because it is women who taught him the art of cooking that his cooking is today based "on emotion".

INTERVIEW

The saying goes that "behind every great man hides a woman".

In the case of Cyril Lignac it is not one, but two women.

Two "mothers" who gave her a taste for cooking.

Guest on Saturday by Michel Denisot on Europe 1, the media chief looks back on these two "icons" who gave him the keys to success.

As he says, if his cooking today is based "on emotion", it is because he "learned it with women". 

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With his mother, "this is where it all starts"

The first to build Cyril Lignac's "DNA and the backbone" is his mother.

"This is where it all starts, we give you the weapons to fight in life."

A nurse who "comes home late at night and leaves early in the morning to go to work", Cyril Lignac's mother does not have much time to spend behind the stove.

“I grew up in a modest family, and since she was active, she often made sautéed veal on weekends that we ate for three days. But she made it home and it was very important to her and for my culinary and taste education. "

Principles, "good bases, sensations, and emotions that regulate my whole life", he abounds. 

Strong in his basics and passionate about cooking, Cyril Lignac joined the Saint-Joseph hotel school in Villefranche-de-Rouergue for two years before meeting his "mother in the kitchen": Nicole Fagegaltier.

With "500 francs from his grandmother", the future chef and a friend will eat at the Restaurant du Vieux Pont, in Belcastel.

A real shock for Cyril Lignac who said to himself "that's cooking".

"When I ate, it was such a strong emotion that I told myself that I had missed a step [in hotel school]."

Nicole Fagegaltier, the one who gave him "all the keys"

He then decides to do his apprenticeship under the leadership of the starred chef - one of the few women to have obtained this distinction - who will "teach him cooking", build "the second part of [his] spine and [his] DNA ".

"She finally gave me all the keys to be able to open the doors to this cooking profession and give me the chance to come to Paris."

Now famous after having proven himself in the biggest restaurants of the capital, Cyril Lignac has not forgotten his native Aveyron.

As proof, his favorite dish is the Aubrac prime rib: "a cuisine icon, a festive meal."

"For me, these are my roots, my terroir, and when I go back down to Aveyron I will eat a prime rib with aligot. My madeleine de Proust."