Gault-Millau’s first non-French Chef of the Year, Mauro Colagreco talks to Douglas Blyde about realising his restaurant vision…

Mauro Colagreco at MirazurMy grandmother thought people ate with their eyes. But I’ve learned that while colours touch the closest memories, food’s aromas awaken the oldest ones.

I left Argentina for France in 2000 to study the building blocks of cuisine. I began in an atelier by the Atlantic then moved to the three Michelin-starred La Côte d'Or in Burgundy. The chef, Bernard Loiseau, was the first person to introduce me to the closed profession of haute cuisine. This special man constructed an image of energy and success, advising: ‘never give up – when you have an idea, go to the end.’ Perhaps it was strict adherence to his own rule which ultimately killed him.

The view from MirazurI moved to Paris to join the six-strong kitchen brigade at Restaurant L’Arpège, headed by the crazy and spontaneous chef Alain Passard. Passard rejects beef in favour of birds and vegetables, which was something which shocked me as an Argentinean. He is the only man I know who can go to the fridge, take a humble onion, and craft a plate costing €60! I started on the vegetable section where he tasted all that I made. To supply those impeccable vegetables, he has three farms whose fields are tilled by horses.

After L’Arpège, I worked with 40 others at Alain Ducasse, Plaza Athénée. Although more formal, it was a good experience, teaching me organisation, which is an important attribute for a South American! My final employment was at Le Grand Véfour, a grand restaurant dating to 1784. But, six years after I had landed in France, it was time to spread my wings.

Mirazur, in MentonI wanted a restaurant by the sea. When I found Mirazur, which gracefully overlooks the gleaming Côte d’Azur, metres from the Italian border, it had been closed for three years. While breathing life back into Mirazur’s glamorous shell, I discovered markets brimming with the famous Menton lemons, which bulge to 600g, and have a thick, sweet peel. Inspired by Alain Passard’s farms, I sowed terraced gardens. We worked with 40 varieties of tomato last season, exploring the possibilities for cooking, puréeing and drinking them. We even devised a pre-dessert of green apples and green tomatoes that sums-up my style of food – looks green, tastes green.

Because they expected Provençal dishes, locals didn’t understand my food at first. But my kitchen is different to the French model. There’s only one Frenchman; the rest come from Argentina, Brazil, China, Italy, Japan and Venezuela. And, fearing classification, I tried to avoid Argentinean products. But you can’t deny your heritage, and South American touches seep in, such as quinoa, macaron of ‘mate’, dulce de leche and arroz con leche alongside chilled oysters with pear and shallot cream and deconstructed Vietnamese spring roll.

At Mirazur I’ve become the first non-French chef to win Gault-Millau’s Chef of the Year award in 2009, and in 2011, the restaurant was named one of the top 10 restaurants worth a plane ride by the New York Times. I never dreamed this could happen. But I sometimes wish Bernard Loiseau, who taught me so much, and inspired my attention to detail, as demonstrated with the 40 varieties of tomatoes I grow, could have lived to taste my food. mirazur.fr