Interview with Service Sommellerie winners
Juliette MAISONNEUVE and Ryan SERRES from Lycée Hôtelier Valery Giscard D’Estaing in Chamalières and their teacher Gaëlle FREMAUX
What inspired you to enter this competition?
JM : Personally, it was Ryan who told me about the Trophée Mille when we were in high school at the beginning of the year. And then we both threw ourselves into it, and it was a great contest. Chef Mille is a truly prestigious chef and it was a pleasure to be involved.
RS I’d been following the Trophée Mille for two years and one of my best friends, Adèle VITROU, took part last year and won. It gave me such strength to see her like this and blossoming in this field that this year, I wanted to suggest to my teacher that she take part in the adventure. And off I went, with the desire to do my best, to be at ease in front of juries. Winning for me was almost impossible – well, I couldn’t even imagine that! It’s incredible, especially as it’s the first time our school has taken part in this competition. I’m proud to have brought this and to have helped my teacher win. Because I’ve also taken part in other competitions and it didn’t work out. This was really a revenge to pay homage to my teacher, which was very close to my heart.
Photo credit: Anne Emmanuelle THION
Can you tell us about the dressage test?
RS: I wanted to highlight my origins, the region where I come from, the Auvergne. And there was the Origines restaurant, located at Le Broc in the Puy de Dôme region. And for me, the word, Origin, was the four elements. When we look in more detail at the very origin of the four elements, it’s Greek philosophy that says that the 4 elements are the roots of all things. So I set up and proposed elements that come from our region. Volvic stone, enamelled stone and also the composition that traces the fusion of these four elements.
Even on the menu, we created the logo on the theme of the four elements, making them appear around the “O” in “origin”, which unites each element to show this fusion. I imagined a menu from appetizer to dessert, to show each time an element that would be worked on by the chef. I also suggested a selection of champagne to refer to the element of air. At each workshop, I was particularly keen to say, “My sommelier partner has this for you”, to put her in the spotlight. I felt it was essential because it’s a real team effort.
And how did the sommelier's day go?
JM : It was very stressful at first, but I think everyone was, and then little by little, we all enjoyed the competition enormously. So it was really very interesting. It was great to have such prestigious juries, of course, on our side, and indeed, to have such fine producers to offer us their products and to work on them together. We made a great team. It was really incredible.
How do you get young people to take part in a competition like this?
GF : We already had a contest when Ryan arrived 2 years ago at WordSkills, but the preparation took 2 years and he wasn’t selected. The point was to continue towards something that could have a positive outcome this time, and not remain a failure.
This competition was Ryan’s idea, and I’m preparing for another competition in parallel, the Malongo, and my interest is in motivating students for the culinary professions, because today a lot of things are done in the kitchen, and in fact almost all competitions are originally culinary competitions, which then develop into the culinary side. Our aim is to motivate young people to enter our professions by holding competitions to show them that there is an interest in the restaurant business. My aim is to give students a boost and make them want to enter these professions. It’s sometimes difficult to make them understand that we have added value. Quality room service makes all the difference. You can have a very good menu, but if there’s no atmosphere in the dining room and nothing to pass on, it just doesn’t work. And I find that it’s only through the dynamics of competitions that we manage to convince them. We bring them in through practical work in high school, of course, but we don’t have all this dimension in our schools. Here, they can exchange ideas with students to find out what’s being done elsewhere. Our mission as teachers is to be there for our students, and when they have the will, we can only support them !
The winners were delighted to receive from us a gift voucher worth 100 Euros each, and the high school a voucher worth 500 Euros, which will be used to purchase table linen for the training restaurant. Congratulations once again.
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