Translator: eric vautier Reviewer: Claire Ghyselen
I’m really happy to be here tonight,
in my homeland, Touraine.
I will disappoint you,
because today I’m not going to talk about cooking.
but of philosophy of life,
that is, problems,
what can be called chess
that everyone can know in his life.
We have moments where
we ask ourselves questions,
we may sometimes want to –
How would I say ? –
to throw in the towel.
And that’s not my theory,
because,
thanks to this,
thanks to not wanting to give up, always go ahead,
I could finally build myself, sculpt myself.
I always say: the human is a beautiful stone that carves all his life.
And believe me, today, I try to pass it on to my teams.
But,
I had times when I could ask myself questions.
I will always remember it; my mother is in the room.
It was when I was learning.
At the time, I was 16 years old.
And three months after my apprenticeship,
I had a moment of doubt, a moment of weakness,
where I wanted to stop the job.
Why ?
Because I did not feel able to do it.
I did not feel able to say to myself one day:
“I’ll be a chef. “
Because it was far, very far away.
I still saw my boss at the time, who was called Thierry Poidras,
that I respect, and that I will respect all my life.
Still today, for me, it’s a big gentleman,
who did something that I will remember all my life.
That day, that morning, I did not go to work.
I stayed in bed, burned at 16 years old.
Like what, it exists.
And suddenly, it was never in my habits,
because my mother gave me an education where you have to deal with life.
And that day, she could not do anything, unfortunately.
And,
around 3 pm, that is, in the afternoon,
someone is ringing It was him.
He had come from Molineuf, from that little village to Chateau-Renault,
where I lived.
He returns and
my mother said to him:
“I tried to convince him, he does not want to. “
I was ashamed to go down, I was scared.
“Houla, in front of the chief, what can I say to him? “
And I went down.
He was in front of me,
eye to eye,
he said to me, “Listen, Akrame,
you do not have the right to give up. There, you are writing your destiny,
and believe me, you have all the assets to become a great leader. “
I got in the car,
and I will always remember that road,
this road that led from
Chateau-Renault in Molineuf.
For me, it’s not a small stretch of 40 kilometers, it’s the path of a lifetime.
That, I will never forget it, because it was a beautiful lesson of life,
which led me to other life lessons.
There were many other lessons of life,
despite my young age – 36 years old.
It’s true that I can look old compared to the experiences I’ve had,
Because of what ?
From the word “Risk”.
The risk, I love it.
Indeed, there are always things that may not work.
It must be tolerated that it does not work.
If we do not take risks, we do not know.
And,
there have been in my life also meetings,
who also helped me a lot.
A lot helped, because, take for example, Tours, my city that I love,
who is in my heart …
I was in bankruptcy,
that is to say, I went bankrupt, I lost everything.
And beyond that, to tell me, “It’s over, it’s the end of the world,”
I continued without asking questions.
And I arrived in Tours.
And beyond that, what is it that …
I went, sorry, to Paris, you see, I wanted to stay in Tours.
I went to paris,
but in my background, what did I bring with me?
Finally, what I could learn during this period of reflection,
among the court administrators,
among the judges who helped me a lot,
they may have allowed me to grow
and frankly, I may have taken fifteen years.
Fifteen years of …
I was twenty-six at the time.
I grew enormously,
I understood that you had to learn from them and not say to yourself:
“It’s the end, I do not feel well,”
because the word failure is a nice word,
but that has no place in people’s heads.
We always feel bad when we do not succeed,
and on the contrary, I think, thanks to that,
it makes us want to do other things and push us up.
So I learned and I arrived with my luggage in Paris.
And in Paris, something incredible happened:
it’s after two months,
I was in a small restaurant,
in a basement,
where there was a fair a small gas stove
that everyone has at home,
and
finally, I put my talent, I put my guts,
I put the heart,
a heart that beats,
in what I did.
The restaurant was full.
Two months later,
I was elected Grand of Tomorrow by Gault Millau,
then I had the recognition of the profession and guides.
It took two months, two months when I had press in Paris.
And one day, the phone rings.
And on the phone, a gentleman who says to me:
“Listen sir, I read your story,
it’s really interesting, I would like to meet you.
I have three restaurants in Paris.
There might be something to do with it.
– Do not bother me, I’m in full service. “
I hung.
Here. Good.
This gentleman decides to remind me,
a week after.
He does not give up.
He said to me, “Listen, sir, it’s me again,
please, try to have just twenty minutes to give me,
I promise you, it will not take much time, I explain. “
What do I do ? Bam! I’m hanging up.
Because, of course, in my head,
I was a bit of a bear, I was a little isolated,
I was mulling over what had happened to me in Tours,
not to make the same mistakes.
And there,
a week later, he reminds me.
I said it: he does not give up.
And so,
what do I do ?
I say, “Well, come on. Banco! I go. “
I take the subway,
I arrive avenue Kléber, on this rise of Lauriston Street,
I will always remember
it was in December 2011.
I climb this coast,
and I see a restaurant, the Orchid.
He was waiting for me there.
I’m back, I can guarantee you that I had imagined the restaurant
where I was able to continue my way
and do everything I do today,
as I had imagined, little one.
Perfect ! Really !
I tell him :
“But sir, you tell me that you have three restaurants in Paris.
But I do not have any more money. That’s my life, you know it.
I went bankrupt, that’s it. “
He said to me, “You are a good man, I would like to make you a seller credit. “
And me in the second, I can guarantee you: in the second,
I did not hesitate.
I did not say, “I’ll think about it, I’ll write to you in a week,
and after we see each other again. “
No, no, it was right away.
I shook his hand, we went to the notary, we signed,
I asked him a condition:
it was to be able to pay him the deadlines
only three months after opening.
He said to me, “All right. “
So I signed.
So I created my restaurant, Akrame restaurant in Paris.
We had a star after six months, and we had
two stars after a year and a half.
There you go.
And in fact,
morality is not what I do, as a cook.
Ok, there is the know-how,
but I think it’s mostly
have this notion of believing,
sometimes believe
in times when …
do not tell yourself that everything is lost.
There is a solution to everything.
Believe also in luck, because it is everywhere eventually.
You just have to know how to provoke it,
to provoke and seize it.
It’s very funny because in this restaurant,
a year and a half after having my star …
I often go out to see my clients.
We like to know the opinions of our customers; I am very attached to that.
There were two ladies dine there that night.
They said to me, “Listen, that’s great,
– it was two Hong Kong –
We would like to have an Akrame restaurant with you in Hong Kong. “
I replied in English: “Maybe you have too much drunk. “
(Laughter)
I think you may have drunk a little too much.
“No, no, no, I’m not joking. I’m not kidding,
I want to open a restaurant with you in Hong Kong. “
Good. Very good.
A business card, I do not have one, I took a yellow post-it,
I mark my email,
two days later, I receive an email like this,
hyper-serious, hyper-square,
they introduced themselves,
she said who she was,
what were her intentions, and what she wanted to do.
I decided to talk to friends who spoke English better than me.
They explain to me that it’s the CEO of a big group in aesthetics,
who would really like to collaborate with me and make a restaurant in Hong Kong.
I say, “Okay. Very good. “
Three weeks later, I find myself
in Hong Kong,
Four months later, I open the restaurant.
Six months later, we get a star.
In fact,
when I think about it today,
Imagine for a moment if I was not out of my restaurant,
if my kitchen was closed,
if I had not gone to her,
if I had not given him my email,
would she have sent an email,
could she tell me that spontaneously,
I do not know.
All I know today is that every opportunity is good to take.
Every meeting is good
to do, whatever it is.
There is no bad meeting.
We always learn with people.
I speak with everyone, both the
tramp who is next to my house,
I am someone who speaks, who likes to understand,
who likes to say that finally,
maybe tomorrow, that person,
maybe she will collaborate with me,
maybe tomorrow that person, I’ll meet her
in another company,
maybe we’ll do things together.
And it’s very funny because when I explain that today to my teams,
they understand this notion, and fortunately because
it is a duty for me to convey not that the kitchen,
but a morality to say always and each time,
to leave nothing.
Have some audacity,
because daring is good.
Do not be afraid.
Undertake, but there are some who unfortunately can not.
but it’s not just that.
Even when we have life projects,
when we have things to do,
when we want to do things,
I think it’s important not to think too hard but to go for it.
To darken, but by saying that yes, indeed, there can be
at some point in his life
a failure
– this word that I love so much,
because behind that word,
there are many things.
But there is one word I want to talk to you about too.
In my career,
there is a person who collaborated with me,
for almost nine years,
I knew her in Tours,
I took her with me to Paris.
It’s someone I loved deeply because
he had problems,
problems that unfortunately
were problems that for me ..
Nothing was insurmountable, I could help it, we could do it.
This problem, of course, was alcohol.
For almost eight years I tried to
to take care of him,
to take him to the doctors,
psys, finally everything.
What I did not understand,
it was
willingness…
At times, I say to myself:
“But finally, that was what he was missing. “
It was to have the will. It was a person who was remarkable.
But today, we cut
the cord, we are no longer together unfortunately, but
I continue to follow this person,
I continue to motivate her
and I tell him that
my house is his house.
The day he will have realized
what will,
my house is open.
After that,
there are stories, for example,
I would say the same
funny because, as I said,
we are smugglers.
And behind that, actually, I also …
I was given the word “provoking”.
I had the idea recently to make a healthy food restaurant
around eating seeds, eat healthy, eat good.
And on Instagram …
I am very connected, I think
you are all connected here too.
On Instagram, I saw pictures of someone who
was full of very fresh dishes, made from seeds, made from pomegranates,
juices, things like that, but
I was far from thinking it was
a self-taught person and that she did it at home.
I did not imagine that the photos of Instagram were so good.
And there,
and I in audacity, I write him a word:
“Listen, I saw your pictures,
I would really like
meet you,
because I have a project that I would like to share with you. “
Many tell me I’m a little crazy because …
we do not find people like that,
you have to go through hotel and restaurant networks.
Indeed, this girl answered me.
She answered me,
she came to the rendezvous.
And she said to me:
” Are you sure ? It’s for a Take-Away restaurant, are you going to trust me?
– Yes Yes. “
She was a little scared, but I have it –
how to say ? – comforted.
I told her she could, because it was in her eyes.
And,
in the end, she accepted the job.
And today she is running a boutique in Paris
who works very well.
And she’s doing what many have done in her twenty-year career.
She did it in a simple photo.
I was lucky
to be able to fall on these photos.
All I can tell you today is that she is happy.
She also thanks me for sending this message.
Am I lucky? Or is it?
It does not matter.
Life is beautiful, she is beautiful.
I say that France is a beautiful country
because it’s California of success.
And,
let’s be proud of what we do.
(Applause)
I’m really happy to be here tonight,
in my homeland, Touraine.
I will disappoint you,
because today I’m not going to talk about cooking.
but of philosophy of life,
that is, problems,
what can be called chess
that everyone can know in his life.
We have moments where
we ask ourselves questions,
we may sometimes want to –
How would I say ? –
to throw in the towel.
And that’s not my theory,
because,
thanks to this,
thanks to not wanting to give up, always go ahead,
I could finally build myself, sculpt myself.
I always say: the human is a beautiful stone that carves all his life.
And believe me, today, I try to pass it on to my teams.
But,
I had times when I could ask myself questions.
I will always remember it; my mother is in the room.
It was when I was learning.
At the time, I was 16 years old.
And three months after my apprenticeship,
I had a moment of doubt, a moment of weakness,
where I wanted to stop the job.
Why ?
Because I did not feel able to do it.
I did not feel able to say to myself one day:
“I’ll be a chef. “
Because it was far, very far away.
I still saw my boss at the time, who was called Thierry Poidras,
that I respect, and that I will respect all my life.
Still today, for me, it’s a big gentleman,
who did something that I will remember all my life.
That day, that morning, I did not go to work.
I stayed in bed, burned at 16 years old.
Like what, it exists.
And suddenly, it was never in my habits,
because my mother gave me an education where you have to deal with life.
And that day, she could not do anything, unfortunately.
And,
around 3 pm, that is, in the afternoon,
someone is ringing It was him.
He had come from Molineuf, from that little village to Chateau-Renault,
where I lived.
He returns and
my mother said to him:
“I tried to convince him, he does not want to. “
I was ashamed to go down, I was scared.
“Houla, in front of the chief, what can I say to him? “
And I went down.
He was in front of me,
eye to eye,
he said to me, “Listen, Akrame,
you do not have the right to give up. There, you are writing your destiny,
and believe me, you have all the assets to become a great leader. “
I got in the car,
and I will always remember that road,
this road that led from
Chateau-Renault in Molineuf.
For me, it’s not a small stretch of 40 kilometers, it’s the path of a lifetime.
That, I will never forget it, because it was a beautiful lesson of life,
which led me to other life lessons.
There were many other lessons of life,
despite my young age – 36 years old.
It’s true that I can look old compared to the experiences I’ve had,
Because of what ?
From the word “Risk”.
The risk, I love it.
Indeed, there are always things that may not work.
It must be tolerated that it does not work.
If we do not take risks, we do not know.
And,
there have been in my life also meetings,
who also helped me a lot.
A lot helped, because, take for example, Tours, my city that I love,
who is in my heart …
I was in bankruptcy,
that is to say, I went bankrupt, I lost everything.
And beyond that, to tell me, “It’s over, it’s the end of the world,”
I continued without asking questions.
And I arrived in Tours.
And beyond that, what is it that …
I went, sorry, to Paris, you see, I wanted to stay in Tours.
I went to paris,
but in my background, what did I bring with me?
Finally, what I could learn during this period of reflection,
among the court administrators,
among the judges who helped me a lot,
they may have allowed me to grow
and frankly, I may have taken fifteen years.
Fifteen years of …
I was twenty-six at the time.
I grew enormously,
I understood that you had to learn from them and not say to yourself:
“It’s the end, I do not feel well,”
because the word failure is a nice word,
but that has no place in people’s heads.
We always feel bad when we do not succeed,
and on the contrary, I think, thanks to that,
it makes us want to do other things and push us up.
So I learned and I arrived with my luggage in Paris.
And in Paris, something incredible happened:
it’s after two months,
I was in a small restaurant,
in a basement,
where there was a fair a small gas stove
that everyone has at home,
and
finally, I put my talent, I put my guts,
I put the heart,
a heart that beats,
in what I did.
The restaurant was full.
Two months later,
I was elected Grand of Tomorrow by Gault Millau,
then I had the recognition of the profession and guides.
It took two months, two months when I had press in Paris.
And one day, the phone rings.
And on the phone, a gentleman who says to me:
“Listen sir, I read your story,
it’s really interesting, I would like to meet you.
I have three restaurants in Paris.
There might be something to do with it.
– Do not bother me, I’m in full service. “
I hung.
Here. Good.
This gentleman decides to remind me,
a week after.
He does not give up.
He said to me, “Listen, sir, it’s me again,
please, try to have just twenty minutes to give me,
I promise you, it will not take much time, I explain. “
What do I do ? Bam! I’m hanging up.
Because, of course, in my head,
I was a bit of a bear, I was a little isolated,
I was mulling over what had happened to me in Tours,
not to make the same mistakes.
And there,
a week later, he reminds me.
I said it: he does not give up.
And so,
what do I do ?
I say, “Well, come on. Banco! I go. “
I take the subway,
I arrive avenue Kléber, on this rise of Lauriston Street,
I will always remember
it was in December 2011.
I climb this coast,
and I see a restaurant, the Orchid.
He was waiting for me there.
I’m back, I can guarantee you that I had imagined the restaurant
where I was able to continue my way
and do everything I do today,
as I had imagined, little one.
Perfect ! Really !
I tell him :
“But sir, you tell me that you have three restaurants in Paris.
But I do not have any more money. That’s my life, you know it.
I went bankrupt, that’s it. “
He said to me, “You are a good man, I would like to make you a seller credit. “
And me in the second, I can guarantee you: in the second,
I did not hesitate.
I did not say, “I’ll think about it, I’ll write to you in a week,
and after we see each other again. “
No, no, it was right away.
I shook his hand, we went to the notary, we signed,
I asked him a condition:
it was to be able to pay him the deadlines
only three months after opening.
He said to me, “All right. “
So I signed.
So I created my restaurant, Akrame restaurant in Paris.
We had a star after six months, and we had
two stars after a year and a half.
There you go.
And in fact,
morality is not what I do, as a cook.
Ok, there is the know-how,
but I think it’s mostly
have this notion of believing,
sometimes believe
in times when …
do not tell yourself that everything is lost.
There is a solution to everything.
Believe also in luck, because it is everywhere eventually.
You just have to know how to provoke it,
to provoke and seize it.
It’s very funny because in this restaurant,
a year and a half after having my star …
I often go out to see my clients.
We like to know the opinions of our customers; I am very attached to that.
There were two ladies dine there that night.
They said to me, “Listen, that’s great,
– it was two Hong Kong –
We would like to have an Akrame restaurant with you in Hong Kong. “
I replied in English: “Maybe you have too much drunk. “
(Laughter)
I think you may have drunk a little too much.
“No, no, no, I’m not joking. I’m not kidding,
I want to open a restaurant with you in Hong Kong. “
Good. Very good.
A business card, I do not have one, I took a yellow post-it,
I mark my email,
two days later, I receive an email like this,
hyper-serious, hyper-square,
they introduced themselves,
she said who she was,
what were her intentions, and what she wanted to do.
I decided to talk to friends who spoke English better than me.
They explain to me that it’s the CEO of a big group in aesthetics,
who would really like to collaborate with me and make a restaurant in Hong Kong.
I say, “Okay. Very good. “
Three weeks later, I find myself
in Hong Kong,
Four months later, I open the restaurant.
Six months later, we get a star.
In fact,
when I think about it today,
Imagine for a moment if I was not out of my restaurant,
if my kitchen was closed,
if I had not gone to her,
if I had not given him my email,
would she have sent an email,
could she tell me that spontaneously,
I do not know.
All I know today is that every opportunity is good to take.
Every meeting is good
to do, whatever it is.
There is no bad meeting.
We always learn with people.
I speak with everyone, both the
tramp who is next to my house,
I am someone who speaks, who likes to understand,
who likes to say that finally,
maybe tomorrow, that person,
maybe she will collaborate with me,
maybe tomorrow that person, I’ll meet her
in another company,
maybe we’ll do things together.
And it’s very funny because when I explain that today to my teams,
they understand this notion, and fortunately because
it is a duty for me to convey not that the kitchen,
but a morality to say always and each time,
to leave nothing.
Have some audacity,
because daring is good.
Do not be afraid.
Undertake, but there are some who unfortunately can not.
but it’s not just that.
Even when we have life projects,
when we have things to do,
when we want to do things,
I think it’s important not to think too hard but to go for it.
To darken, but by saying that yes, indeed, there can be
at some point in his life
a failure
– this word that I love so much,
because behind that word,
there are many things.
But there is one word I want to talk to you about too.
In my career,
there is a person who collaborated with me,
for almost nine years,
I knew her in Tours,
I took her with me to Paris.
It’s someone I loved deeply because
he had problems,
problems that unfortunately
were problems that for me ..
Nothing was insurmountable, I could help it, we could do it.
This problem, of course, was alcohol.
For almost eight years I tried to
to take care of him,
to take him to the doctors,
psys, finally everything.
What I did not understand,
it was
willingness…
At times, I say to myself:
“But finally, that was what he was missing. “
It was to have the will. It was a person who was remarkable.
But today, we cut
the cord, we are no longer together unfortunately, but
I continue to follow this person,
I continue to motivate her
and I tell him that
my house is his house.
The day he will have realized
what will,
my house is open.
After that,
there are stories, for example,
I would say the same
funny because, as I said,
we are smugglers.
And behind that, actually, I also …
I was given the word “provoking”.
I had the idea recently to make a healthy food restaurant
around eating seeds, eat healthy, eat good.
And on Instagram …
I am very connected, I think
you are all connected here too.
On Instagram, I saw pictures of someone who
was full of very fresh dishes, made from seeds, made from pomegranates,
juices, things like that, but
I was far from thinking it was
a self-taught person and that she did it at home.
I did not imagine that the photos of Instagram were so good.
And there,
and I in audacity, I write him a word:
“Listen, I saw your pictures,
I would really like
meet you,
because I have a project that I would like to share with you. “
Many tell me I’m a little crazy because …
we do not find people like that,
you have to go through hotel and restaurant networks.
Indeed, this girl answered me.
She answered me,
she came to the rendezvous.
And she said to me:
” Are you sure ? It’s for a Take-Away restaurant, are you going to trust me?
– Yes Yes. “
She was a little scared, but I have it –
how to say ? – comforted.
I told her she could, because it was in her eyes.
And,
in the end, she accepted the job.
And today she is running a boutique in Paris
who works very well.
And she’s doing what many have done in her twenty-year career.
She did it in a simple photo.
I was lucky
to be able to fall on these photos.
All I can tell you today is that she is happy.
She also thanks me for sending this message.
Am I lucky? Or is it?
It does not matter.
Life is beautiful, she is beautiful.
I say that France is a beautiful country
because it’s California of success.
And,
let’s be proud of what we do.
(Applause)
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