Sarah Mainguy, chef from Nantes, is a candidate for season 12 of Top Chef -
Marie Etchegoyen / M6
At the head of a tapas restaurant in Nantes, Sarah Mainguy likes "popular cuisine, inspired by the bistro, grandmother's dishes and street food".
A profile which contrasts with the candidates often coming from the big houses but which allows a creation "without limit".
At 25, Sarah Mainguy is presented as the “anti-conformist” candidate for the new season of
Top Chef
, which starts this Wednesday evening on M6.
The chef of the Vacarme restaurant (opened in Nantes city center in 2019) where you can taste tapas and natural wine, wants to stand out with her “no-frills” cuisine, far from that offered in the big houses.
Interview.
How did you become the chef of your own restaurant when you were 25?
Being a chef has always been a desire and even a goal, because I am someone who loves to create.
After the Ferrandi school, I worked in a lot of Parisian bistros where I had more assistant positions, like at Mary Celeste.
With my partner, who is from the Nantes region, we told ourselves that opening a restaurant in Paris would be a bit complicated because there isn't necessarily room for everyone.
We also wanted another living environment so we decided to come to Nantes.
With Vacarme, this is my first chef's job!
What is your cooking style?
Popular cuisine, inspired by the bistro, grandmother's dishes and street food.
I put it in my sauce to make it more funky, a little more gourmet.
Inside all of this, I really like working with wild plants, as we do in Scandinavian countries.
For example in the evening in tapas, I will make a madeleine, except that it will be with seaweed and accompanied by a tarama of smoked seaweed.
I have a kitchen without fuss, quite raw, without 10 billion things on the plate.
However, I don't have a signature dish.
I am eternally dissatisfied to the point that I usually never like the dish I made the day before!
How did you find yourself in
Top Chef
?
It was the team that contacted me during the first confinement.
Basically, I would not have imagined myself on the show because the TV did not attract me very much.
It was the competition side that decided me, the desire to discover myself more at a time when I had learned a lot but where I needed to move forward.
I'm not someone who has enormous self-confidence, especially at work.
I took
Top Chef
as an opportunity to kick my ass, it did!
I gained several years of experience in a short time.
Was it difficult for you to rub shoulders with candidates with a more “gastronomic” profile?
What's great this year is that everyone has their own style, we learn from each other.
The high level of the candidates put pressure on me but I was able to be different by taking the opposite view.
At home there is less code, fewer boxes, we can create without limit… We combine things that in traditional cuisine are almost blasphemy!
I like that there are no rules, like I do in my restaurant.
It's quite a friendly place because it's tapas, you can eat cheese before what is supposed to be the entrance.
We drink wine and laugh.
The restaurant is called Vacarme, I let you imagine… (laughs)
What's the hardest part about the show then?
The stress !
I felt like my heart was going to stop beating every two minutes.
There are a lot of surprises, it's a race against time… You mustn't lose your temper and sometimes it's difficult.
Of course, stress is part of our daily life but this is different, we have great chefs around us who add additional pressure.
In our kitchens, we're going to take certain shortcuts, but that's impossible.
And then there are sometimes trials that do not suit us.
Why do you think very few women are seen on the show?
Girls may have less desire for competition, less desire to compare themselves in a profession that is very masculine.
But I think it's really important to show that you can come from any culinary background, and that even if you're a girl, you can manage to go far.
It's a shame that we were only four [out of 15], it would have taken a lot more!
With the Covid, we imagine that you will unfortunately have time to watch TV on Wednesday evening?
Yes, we will be with friends and we will drink wine in front of M6, even if we try to stay active, for our mental health.
Recently, we launched nightly take-out tapas.
Seeing the restaurant at a standstill is heartbreaking when you put in savings and a lot of envy.
We hope to come out in good health and with the restaurant still standing.
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Top chef
M6
Gastronomy
Nantes
Television