Arès (France) (AFP)

"Your vegan boui-boui will never work!"

: less than five years after this spike struck by a neighbor, chef Claire Vallée won the very first star awarded by Michelin to a restaurant serving "vegetal gastronomy".

ONA (for Non-Animal Origin) made its nest in 2016 in Arès, on the Bassin d'Arcachon, in a quiet street and a building resembling a house, without any particular character.

A simple decor between white and gray, plants that form a green wall, a cramped kitchen and around fifty seats in the dining room and terrace.

But "140 varieties of herbs" that grow on the terrace and hundreds of spices stored in boxes.

"A small restaurant in a small town," says Claire Vallée, just 41 years old, whose phone is overheating.

Even the New York Times is calling.

"My life has changed but I never imagined how much ...".

It was during a year in Thailand that "the click came", says this doctoral student in archeology, "self-taught" who cut her teeth in Switzerland, first indoors and ended up as conductor.

"In Asia, we work a lot on plants, roots and plants. This cuisine really moved me."

But in a South-West associated more readily with a generous and meaty cuisine, and at the edge of a shellfish basin where the oyster is a way of life, open a restaurant without meat, fish, shellfish, eggs, cheese and any other animal product did not make sense.

Moreover, when Claire Vallée, then head of another restaurant in Arès, wanted to start her own business to make "cuisine that has taste and meaning", the banks said no.

This native Lorraine then had to go through a crowdfunding campaign, obtain two honorary loans, call on an "ethical bank" and mobilize through social networks her "ants", some 80 volunteers who did work for two months.

ONA quickly gave its first fruits: two "toques" at Gault et Millau then a "plate" at Michelin.

And with the star has also arrived a "green star", which rewards its eco-responsible approach.

"A full box", welcomes Claire Vallée.

- "Committed creation" -

Its gastronomic menu (59 euros) offers "ten plates" each comprising "20 to 30 items" (vegetables, herbs, spices, fruits, cereals, seeds, oilseeds, seaweed, plants, flowers, etc.).

"Ultra fresh" and seasonal products.

Of the "made minute", with some preparations.

"Creative, committed, which can confuse", she says, "but in general it pleases!"

Before its closure due to a health crisis, Claire Vallée worked in associations "fir, porcini, sake" or "celery, tonka and amber beer".

Its vegetable foie gras is based on cocoa butter, with chestnuts, mushrooms, cashews and shallots.

"Since I was very little, I taste and I feel everything, I travel a lot. I made an internal library, I know how to organize and I test a lot", explains the chef who affirms to have kept from her archaeologist training "the taste for research, the desire to dig".

"It is the role of a chef to experiment", assures the one who cites Alain Passard and Pierre Hermé among her references, likes Thai curry and prepares a cookbook.

The small but dynamic quadra does not see itself as the standard bearer of veganism: "The word has a little bad press in France, it has been hammered a little by somewhat extremist currents".

"We are a vegan restaurant because we have removed animal cruelty from our plates, but I do vegetal gastronomy", explains Claire Vallée.

"Before talking about politics, I try to convince with my cuisine" a clientele who, she says, are "95%" neither vegan nor vegetarian.

Vegan in the private sector, she has to make a few sprains for "professional reasons": "When I go to other chefs, I cannot ask them for an entirely vegan menu ..."

© 2021 AFP