By Fred Martin
Published on 19 Dec 20 at 20:32
updated on 19 Dec 20 at 21:07
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Trained in Mayenne, Flavien Macé, native Exchange, was the pastry chef a big Swiss restaurant. He caught the Covid-19. He lost thesmell, the taste and his job.
24-year-old Changé, trained at the hotel school High-COIN in Laval, Flavien Macé has been in Switzerland for three years. He was a pastry chef in a restaurant before joining last year as pastry chef the Wenger House, at Noirmont in the Swiss Jura, a prestigious restaurant with two Michelin stars. His friend joined this establishment at the same time as him and should soon be promoted to head of the room. But last spring, the professional prospects of the young Changéen changed.
Tested positive
“Last April, I lost my taste and smell,” says Flavien. The result came out a few weeks later after blood tests: Flavien tested positive for Covid-19. “Completely inappropriate smells give me headaches, it takes over all my olfactory senses, it’s horrible. The young pastry chef then lived through a complicated period.
Migraines in the kitchen
The consequences of the disease have a direct impact on the practice of his profession.
“I couldn’t stay in the kitchen anymore, I had migraines. Everything was unpleasant, nothing was consistent with what I was feeling. It was really strange. The after-effects of this filth have transformed my daily life. ”
–Victims of ghosting
After several consultations, the diagnosis fell: “It would be phantosmia. ” The fantosmie is a form of olfactory hallucination, a problem that causes dysfunction of taste and smell, alteration of smell receptors, taste receptors, and part of the brain related to the perception of smell. If we knew that anosmia, the loss of smell and taste, is one of the characteristic symptoms of a Covid-19 infection, phantosmia is another, even more embarrassing since it is similar the unpleasant sensation of constantly smelling rotten garbage, cigarettes, or even a familiar scent that quickly becomes unpleasant.
“I was thinking of a grippette”
“This kind of impact from Covid is very rare according to doctors, and we do not know if they are final. Today, Flavien is struggling to get treatment for this problem which endangers his professional career.
“I hadn’t imagined it could go that far. We thought it was a little grippette. I haven’t lost a loved one but I lost a lot of things, my palate and my sense of smell, which are essential for my job. Hope it will come back. “
Start rehabilitation
Flavien was arrested this summer. As he has not regained his senses since, he was fired three weeks ago. At the moment, he has no treatment. He must consult specialists to re-educate his sense of smell, but if the problem persists, he thinks of stopping the baking. “I may have to consider changing jobs,” Flavien fears.
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