For 20 years, Chef Guillaume has been cooking for the soldiers in the barracks overlooking Poitiers. Passionate, he is the winner of the most prestigious cooking competitions in the world, including the Trident d’Or. He wants to pass on his know-how to the service of new recruits. Meet.
It never stops. If he is not in the kitchens of the Aboville barracks in Poitiers, Chef Guillaume is abroad to take part in a cooking competition. Or at the Fourriers school in Querqueville in Normandy, where he trains future clerks.
This Monday, he has just returned from a trip to Paris. “I took part in a charity evening organized at Les Invalides by the CEMAT” (the Chief of Staff of the Army, editor’s note), explains the cook. “We raised funds for soldiers injured in combat”, he indicates.
During this prestigious evening, he reunited with the former chef of the Élysée, Guillaume Gomez, and the high-profile chef, Thierry Marx. “We had already met at other competitions. As he is very close to the armies, we meet often. They are public figures who remain above all cooks like me”.
Cook, he has been for almost thirty years, officially. Unofficially, it all started in his mother’s kitchen when he was a child. “I was always behind my mother when she was cooking”, remembers the one who is the last of a family of three. He lists, from memory, the dishes that his mother cooked. “Blanquettes, sautéed veal, beef bourguignon“.
I have always deeply respected the sacrifice of soldiers who commit to protecting France.
In 1996, he began cooking studies. Chef Guillaume began as an apprentice in an Italian restaurant in Saumur (Maine-et-Loire). Five years later, a seasoned clerk with a wealth of experience in culinary establishments, he applied for the army as a catering agent. “My brother-in-law told me that the army was recruiting. I have always deeply respected the sacrifice of the soldiers who commit to protect France”, slips the civilian now in the service of the armies. In 2008, he became second in the kitchen and a year later, he took on the chef’s hat. “Yes, it was very fast”, abounds the young chef, who recognizes that he has sometimes had “generational conflicts”. “I supervised people who were older than me. I felt more advanced than others. But overall everything went well”.
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At home, when he was a child, there were five of them. Today, this is still the case. Married, Chef Guillaume is the father of three daughters. At the barracks, he cooks daily quantities for an entire regiment. This Monday, it will be necessary to cook precisely “38kg of pork chops, 18kg of cod, 20kg of Camargue rice”. Add to that”three liters of liquid cream”, to feed the 277 soldiers on duty. “And we waste nothing. We usually”, specifies the Chef. 80% of the products come from the EDA, the army commissary, and the remaining 20% from market gardeners in Poitou. “For fresh products, we favor the short circuit”.
Some time after becoming a chef, a commander particularly satisfied with his work offers him to participate in military cooking competitions. In addition, Chef Guillaume is a regular on individual podiums. He is notably the winner of the Tipiak Prize. “At first I felt like an impostor”, says the 41-year-old chef.
However, the commander’s intuition is correct. At each of his participations, Chef Guillaume stands out from his competitors. In 2017, he participated for the first time in the Trident d’or. Ce inter-army cooking competition organized by the Commissariat of the Armed Forces is organized within the prestigious Paul Bocuse Institute in Lyon Écully. He finished in third place and walked away with the silver trident title.
A customer eats even before tasting the dish: he smells, he looks at it, he sees the dish before eating it. For all these reasons, it has to be beautiful, good, light.
Two years later, in 2019, it is the consecration. For his second participation in the Trident d’or, Chef Guillaume won the competition in pairs. A victory that the Chef owes to the dishes he has made, namely his “Andalusian ride” and an “can cooked on the trunk”, he recites from memory three years later.
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This victory is actually only the beginning of Chef Guillaume’s saga in culinary competitions. From now on, he is setting out to conquer international competitions. In 2019, he joined the French military kitchen team to participate in the world cooking championships. They are held annually at Fort Lee in the United States. This is the year of victory for France. Among the 22 international teams, the tricolor batch is crowned champion of France thanks to its team made up of two military chefs and two chefs from civil society, including Chef Guillaume.
In cooking competitions, I always defend French cuisine. It’s part of our heritage. I want to promote France wherever I go.
During the cooking competitions in which he participates, Chef Guillaume has only one idea in mind: to defend the French culinary heritage. “I try to make a difference, to import techniques and recipes with me. This is how we stand out”. “But hey, I can’t put a Poitou broyé in all my desserts”, launches this Poitevin of heart, in a smile. “You always have to adapt and when I cook, I adapt. I am also thinking of the overseas territories”, explains the Chef. He assures that he particularly likes to prepare a sausage rougail typical of the island of Reunion or the famous Tahitian salad of French Polynesia. On his right wrist, a blue-white-red bracelet that he never takes off.
Thanks to his successes in competition, Chef Guillaume enjoys a whole new media exposure, which inevitably reflects on the barracks of Poitiers-Saint-Maixent. When questioned, Captain Adeline recognizes that the Chef is a showcase for the Poitou barracks. “I tell everyone to come and see how good the food is here. It’s a source of pride to have a great chef just for us”.
Gifted in the kitchen, he is also, and above all, gifted in passing on his passion. As head chef, Guillaume must regularly train new clerks. Franck, the director of services at the Aboville barracks, boasts of his qualities as a teacher. “We are sorely lacking in staff so it turns a lot in the kitchens. You always have to explain, train, reframe when necessary. And the Chef always succeeds. He always manages to adapt.”
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For several years, Chef Guillaume has been regularly involved with the apprentice training center in Poitiers. Objective: to make the trades within the army better known and to convince the younger generations to serve. “We need to recruit, we need more people in the kitchen, and I’m trying to show that we don’t just eat potatoes in the army. You can also eat good food there.”, defends Chef Guillaume.
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