“I became a“ committed photoreporter ”because I couldn’t see myself doing this job otherwise”

“I started cooking very young, out of necessity. I lost my mother when I was a teenager. My parents having been divorced for a long time, my father was already living elsewhere, in the countryside, and my three older brothers and sisters (I am the last of five siblings) had left home. My brother, Jean-Baptiste, and I moved alone to an apartment in Nantes, at the age of 16 and 15. We became adults very quickly. That’s when I started cooking.

However, I was not immersed in the culture of the stoves. My mother had a complicated relationship with food. She prepared good meals for us, but did not like the constraint of the daily kitchen, the obligation to prepare food in the evening for all her kids. My father never cooked a lot but always had fun putting together simple and fun dishes for lunch. From these meals, I keep beautiful memories, moments of sharing and living as a “large family”.

After my mother passed away, I started shopping. I bought fish, vegetables, good pastries. My brother and I didn’t like the same things and rarely cooked together. But the dish that reconciled us was the gnocchi: we both loved it.

Little by little I perfected myself in cooking, and I learned to make them myself. I love their texture, this semi-soft, semi-sticky side, which goes well with all kinds of ingredients, sauces, and seasonal vegetables. It’s a simple dish, but quite delicate to make: you have to find the right balance of humidity to achieve the perfect consistency, neither too dry nor too sticky. It is a “doudou dish”, which repairs and comforts.

Love to drink it and eat it

At the start of my graduate studies, I instituted “saucisson sauvignon” aperitifs among my classmates, and I started taking pictures of these great gourmet gatherings. This newfound conviviality certainly explains my love for food and drink, people, and photography.

I abandoned the studies of interior architecture which did not inspire me more than that to start photographing cooks, peasants, craftsmen, products and dishes that I love, which have meaning in my life. eyes, and taste too. I became a “committed photoreporter” because I couldn’t see myself doing this job otherwise.

Recently, I bought a large house with my partner, Simon, who is an organic farmer in the Loiret. I bought myself a cream separator, with the idea of ​​having a cow one day. Maybe I will become a farmer, or create a table d’hôte, an artists’ residence … In any case, that’s what I played when I was little: I imagined myself living in self-sufficiency in my family. farm with animals. Simon wants to feed the world. I don’t know if I’ll be able to, but these gnocchi can already treat a few. “