After 25 years of service in the kitchen of the Elysée, Guillaume Gomez left the presidential palace to become the "personal representative" of Emmanuel Macron in the service of "French gastronomy".
Thursday morning on Europe 1, he recounts the quarter of a century he spent cooking for four heads of state.
INTERVIEW
After having served four presidents, from Jacques Chirac to Emmanuel Macron, Guillaume Gomez leaves the kitchen of the Elysée.
During his quarter-century at the presidential palace, more than two million meals were served, by his calculations.
And yet: "We never go around a function like this," he assures Thursday morning at the microphone of Europe 1. Once his apron hung up in the kitchen of the Elysee, Guillaume Gomez will become the "personal representative" of the Head of State in the service of "French gastronomy".
"Jacques Chirac was indeed the gastronome we know"
In the kitchen of nearly 500 m2, the chef has adapted to the culinary tastes, which he does not reveal publicly, of the four presidents who have succeeded one another since 1997: Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy, François Hollande and Emmanuel Macron.
"This is not something that we chefs, quite simply because it is not our role. I had to work in a different way to prevent a certain weariness from setting in and above all to offer different breedings quite simply to highlight all these breedings ", he says.
At the service of France.
pic.twitter.com/6ntd0R0blu
- Guillaume Gomez Chef (@ggomez_chef) February 24, 2021
It was Jacques Chirac himself who presented Guillaume Gomez with his medal for best worker in France in 2004. “He was indeed the gastronome we know. But he was not the only one. I often say it, it is Nicolas Sarkozy who wanted the classification of the gastronomic meal of the French in the intangible heritage of Unesco ", recalls the chef.
Future ambassador of "French know-how"
At the age of 42, Guillaume Gomez will now occupy a role of ambassador of "French know-how", in particular on the occasion of major culinary events, such as the Paris Food Forum, the World Cup. rugby in 2023 or the Olympic Games in 2024. It will depend for this on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
>> Find Matthieu Belliard's interview in replay and podcast here
His successor at the Elysée is not yet known.
In the meantime, it is his two assistants who will be in charge of developing the menus served to the president, to his distinguished guests, but also to some 800 presidential employees.
Guillaume Gomez was only the fourth chef at the Elysee Palace since the election of General de Gaulle.
"Nicolas Sarkozy defined us like this: 'You are the continuity of the State'."