In a fairly meager year in terms of awards, Alexandre Couillon is the lucky winner, the only chef to win the title of three stars in the Michelin guide France 2023. His name was not among those who circulated the most – perhaps because of his isolation. Because it is at the extreme tip of the island of Noirmoutier (Vendée), facing the Atlantic, far from the gastronomic trails, that his restaurant, La Marine.
The story of Alexandre Couillon is not one of devouring ambition. A turbulent pupil, he is oriented towards the kitchen because he has to occupy his ten fingers and there is a hotel school in Noirmoutier. If he moved with his wife, Céline, in the restaurant facing the port in 1999, at only 24 years old, it was at the request of his parents, natives of the island. His seamstress mother and his shrimp fisherman father, who later became restaurateurs, pushed him to take over the business they had bought fifteen years earlier, thus thwarting his plans at the time: then working for Michel Guérard, Alexandre Couillon had planned to improve by working at Ducasse and Robuchon, before flying on his own.
The beginnings are difficult. “Noirmoutier, from the end of September to June, it was the Gobi desert”, recalls the 47-year-old chef. Obliged to open seven days a week and to have 80 seats to compensate for the vagaries of attendance, he chose a “simple and traditional cuisine, without worrying too much about the products”. “With Céline, we were young, carefree, insolent, we wanted to prove that we were capable of doing it”he analyzes.
The birth of their first daughter, in 2002, gives the chief the feeling of not organizing himself properly, especially when, at the age of speaking, she declares to him: “Dad still working. » His frustration is heightened by a conversation with a fisherman in the harbor across from the restaurant he wants to buy fish from. He laughs at her: “It’s too expensive for you!” It’s going to Paris! »
In 2007, Alexandre and Céline finished repaying the restaurant’s loan and plan to stop everything. The Michelin decides otherwise. “We were in the car, discussing the closure, when we heard on Alouette [la radio locale] that La Marine had won a star. » This distinction changes everything, ensuring an increase and regularity in attendance, especially in the regions.
Everything Noirmoutier on the plate
The couple can then begin their culinary transition: this island which will have given them so much trouble, it will make it his playground. He buys a building adjoining the restaurant, moves La Marine there, which only serves about twenty seats. He finds land to set up a vegetable garden on this island dominated by potato cultivation, with two salaried gardeners to provide something to garnish the plates every morning.
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