 A chef and he's a true poet in two languages as you will hear my job here and I'm not going to be pushy but he said that if he messes anything up I have to be like a game show and tell him the right word so I'm not being a jerk. Thank you Christine. You know as every French guy my English is horrible. Horrible. Horrible. But I'm trying so I can't speak really but I'm going to try. To try. Dear young chefs from all corners of the world I would like to salute you and I would like to express my honor and my gratitude for being here today. Thank you Rene and thank you for all your team. Not only for having invaded me here but more especially for having created this space for meeting and sharing in which spirit and reflection are more present that culinary performance. We are all little hairs of the ground history of humanity question what is cooking or another question how to feed nor to die first I will try to tell you a bit about my personal story second my need to draw upon historical references third my need to give meaning to life as well to cuisine so that it becomes a medium of expression and finally the duties and the freedoms of world chefs I consider myself lucky to have been born in Kankau a small fishing port in Brittany in France in a house that was built by a family of space merchants in the beginning of the 18th century I grew up listening the songs two songs about the open sea and hearing about extraordinary tales of boats that had come back from India and from America's because my parents were part of the provincial bourgeoisie they had people over dinner nearly every evening most likely to forget about the difficult years of the second world war my mother cook a lot but I would always eat in the kitchen because it was not I was not allowed to eat at the dinner with the adult it was a beautiful childhood during which I never had to pick up a conch shell to listen to the sea we could all just run down the street and here is dancing and singing in our ears we learn how to school school row school in about even before we learn how to ride bicycles but at the age of 13 my father abandoned my mother and I and the clothes and the house closed upon like a clam as a teenager without much parental guidance I was ready and willing to get into any sort of trouble I could everything everything from taking off on my motorcycle to explore Eastern Europe as a communist to open up on a boat and racing against our friends say English I did however always make sure to study so that my mother would not be upset I studied chemistry but was stopped short as the victim of a homicide attempt five young people tried to kill me by hitting me with a crowbar it was a gratuitous act of violence like in the clockwork around several operation later not knowing if I would work again or not just laying there looking up at the hospital telling for all's on end I was in 20 years old and I promised to myself to construct my second life under the motto forever young never an adult during two years of physiotherapy with a total loss of interest for the sciences and a rejection of Cartesian rationalism every night at the weekend my old school friends who had become fishermen oyster farmers and farmers along with those along with those who had become students yes scientists would meet at the house to cheer me up my mom began cooking again and the oath came alive as it had been before oysters muscles prawns lobster crabs John Dory bass soul albalon soul feet lamb small potatoes leeks artichokes asparagus from the Monsign Michel Bay all these came through our kitchen after two years my desire to leave bounds back I wanted to tell stories of the joy of living between the sea and the sky but I was never a painter nor a musician and even less a writer not true writer very good you're hired I was a I was just a scientist I understood I understood that sharing my joy for life would mean opening my home and my table but I had never touched a pot I was 24 years old but my second source of motivation came when I met Jane my wife since then nothing would stop me from completely expressing the joy of living in this small port of Brittany for more than 35 years I've been trying to communicate this story the enchanting spell of the Monsign Michel Bay the beliefs of old Celtic Brittany and the history of maritime adventure that the Corsair city of San Malo was built upon Corsair it's not here private not a pirate we have a long discussion about yeah kind of like Corsair it's a pirate no I'm not pirates as a French I have a king and god pirates are nothing but only freedom to give you a better idea of my spirit of my culinary style I will describe the creation of my first dish which I designed in 1982 the year when we first with Jane we first opened the doors of the Maison de Bricourt a French brother had just finished his thesis on the French East Indian company he had started telling me of all the 17th and the 18th century merchant ships would come back to San Malo from all the corner of the world they were full of spices and I'm going to open some little boxes some some of these would come from China like any star star anise star anise excuse me a Sichuan pepper fleur de lice and also came from the Malacu islands such as cloves or mace and cloves and mace and cloves some of them come from Middle East like Cummins and Coriander some of them come from this great country India to find first the black pearl the black pepper cardamom cinnamon tamarind and ginger also there were the ones that came from the Americas such as chili chili picking this one the best one one of the best one favorite and vanilla of course for the chinently forest in Mexico I've not heard Chinese people when I speak so at the end of the 17th century the globalization of the flavors had already occurred within the walls of San Malo while elsewhere people who didn't have timekeepers were still unable to know their position on the open sea you can imagine I wanted to pay homage to this whole human adventure when I made my first dish I use the John Dory that my fisherman friends had been bringing me every morning so cabbage that my farmer's friends had grown me near the Monsamichael Bay and a mix of 14 spices that I created and refined as I went along very slowly because I didn't I didn't know I knew nothing on my very first menu I wrote Saint-Pierre Tour de Zan which roughly translates to John Dory back from the Indies but it's not from India it's from the East Indies and West Indies with it I just define the frame of my creativity it's very important that I didn't have to get as Alain has told us to get the frame of the creation each person each each each way we had to find it expressing my natural environment at its freshest the freshest of fish the freshest of harvests and recognizing the contribution of the men and women who produce them expressing my cultural environment in evoking the history of maritime adventures that in San Malo and Brittany and France in using all the world spices and treasures brought down by Celtic chimney as treasures like a nose in the perfume's universe we have created more than 30 blends of spices people in the region understood almost immediately what I was getting at and that it was the history that I was communicating however the culinary journalist took quite while to understand what I was doing and in particular the people at Michelin why would I ever use spices that were unknown to traditional britainic cuisine they would ask some thought that my spices were even polluting french cuisine itself and it was a fight with Alain Soudrengs with other friends to go against this conservatism of the french politics and meaning and then the Goaimeo talks and the Michelin star still arrived for the Goaimeo in 1994 to Michelin star in 1988 and three Michelin star in 2006 18 years after the second one that's almost a generation alive after that unfortunately because of El's problem I had to close a three-star restaurant I couldn't do the same work anymore with Jane and all the crew we decide to continue with the Maison de Recours but with a little difference we developed the second table the coquillage in an effort to provide an unprintorious healthy elegant generous and joyful style of cuisine more free it is more complicated than getting three Michelin stars but it is also it's it but which is definitely more interesting with my team I continue to design new dishes but I can't interpret them by myself anymore also with Jane we decide to try to give something back to the men and women who make our unique style of cuisine possible the small scale growers of pepper cardamom cinnamon and vanilla and all the other spices that had grown anonymous anonymity anonymity mostly anonymity mostly thank you today we buy we buy them more than 40 tons of spices for a price which is higher than the fat rate price all of our spices are delivered to concal to the old three-star kitchens where they are roast ground steamed and mixed and then made into our signature spice blends these blends which reflect my britain born french palate allow people from all walks of life to sing their own song in the kitchen and not necessary with spices hot exotic cooking every morning our blends are delivered all over the world a recap I am happy to have been forced to transmit my knowledge to my chefs and it's very exciting every morning to translate to to to to share to transmit I feel more useful in sharing my knowledge with thousands of people all over the world the people who use my signature spices blends and who are intimately linked to the small scale growers who are so often forgotten as well as those who love cooking with the best produce this historical reference of oceanic spice roots during the age of the discovery are my first source of inspiration they allow me to design for today and to catch a glimpse of the future the basis for my creativity is the history of the maritime adventure which is utterly linked to the 70s and 18th century quest for spices but my interest in the subject goes beyond just the discovery of the ocean professor it is really about the question of why people have valued spices so much something that goes all the way back to the edge of egyptian pharaohs this question fascinates me but I don't have time to answer it today the important thing for every one of us is not to spread ourselves too thinly don't make the fly you understand this make don't make the fly yeah don't make the fly don't make the fly and don't be like a fly going everywhere I try to work in harmony and in resonance with these places on this planet without saying too much about it to people who come to taste my cuisine sometimes in wanting to justify and explain everything we end up forgetting what the most important part is pleasure and taste often think that we are in a transition period for two culinary expression to answer your question Renée after technical super performance and all its scientific accent and everything that it's so much more than natural and local can't we just make our way back to the basic of cuisine itself that is the nourishment of other people linking a rigorous focus on taste and the present knowledge of health in an effort to redefine what good really means maybe that means even calling apart our primal instincts as the painter Paul Gauguin did when he painted between impressionism and abstraction what is about the future of an abstract cuisine I can cook elsewhere than in this region of farmers and fishermen and sea adventure as to the question of how I sit with myself as regards French cuisine I have always on square that I feel closer to the chefs of the sea and the ocean that to the chefs in Burgundy out near the sea just as in this Viking territory that is Denmark all of us look out how to the horizon the infinite this horizon that pulls and that pulls on us like a magnet out to the beyond the sea is a convenient convenient convenient belt a convenient belt convenient belt thank you running bringing humans together while the earth separates in looking at the sea we wonder if we have just arrived but we know that we could leave tomorrow on wood a mast and a piece of a sail this ocean is our most beautiful pantry but it is often in danger all along the cliff sides are wide airs and seaweed and sheltered from the wind a little kitchen garden and then there is this constant desire to live in order to come back someone better or of this message in a battle that can land at your feet and in your kitchen containing seeds bark leaves and roots all from another coastline with another sun in reality just like music painting and literature cuisine doesn't have a border or a national flag cuisine is something else cuisine is something different from football some people say that it is a minor heart but close to the poetry but which plays the fundamental role of extending life in every corner of the planet that's a very special thing for this art or minor art doesn't care to conclude to conclude i have spoken to you about my culinary commitments having been led by the 520 relation to chefs from 62 different nations in the world that despite my pitiful level of english i will tell you i will tell you off a few of my conviction today cuisine is a subject of world of worldwide importance caught at the crossroads of social economic and environmental issues we and especially you your generation are the actors in this significant time in which chefs can influence the world for a better future we must we must influence the distribution of wealth by buying directly from the growers themselves we must we must influence nature so that it is not destroyed by over production we must we must influence the preservation of a biodiversity of our minimal species species we must influence the preservation of the biodiversity of fruits and vegetables but above and beyond all that influence the recognition of the cultural differences on our planet chefs must sustainably develop their respective regions in the overall effort to improve the world we are all involved in promoting responsible responsible culinary tourism so through traditions some which more avant-garde but all of them brought by your terroir and its sincerity i have almost finished in the world village that we are we must position ourselves against the junk food but also against the mediocre standardization of international gastronomy which calls itself a luxury product we have to free world chefs so they can really realize free their most intimate cuisine we must associate ourselves with the producer the growers and the fishermen all over the planet so to protect humanity's country which is not you and more specifically the ocean we must support fair trade promote knowledge and fight against wastage we must reconcile the city and the countryside we must reconcile the poor and the rich finally from the most simple to the most refined of cuisine from the most traditional to the most creative we must each and every one of us protect and promote the diversity of cuisines and forms of hospitality everywhere in the world there are the material heritage of humanity chefs all over the world must join the movement for humanity to feed itself better what is cooking that's the question since politicians politicians never take responsibilities it is up to us chefs yo this is a huge opportunity for us to build a new world more human more equitable more healthfully with more pleasure and happiness thank you renee to have done this thank you all your volunteers that are here today and tomorrow and thank you finally mad on you