By The Best Chef NEW CANDIDATES Top100 2022 Comments Off

Alexandre Mazzia

AM

A former basketball player born in Africa, Pointe-Noire, and adopted from Marseille, Alexandre Mazzia found his calling through a meal at Gérald Passedat’s, the other three-star chef from Marseille. This experience led him to change his life by reorienting himself towards the restaurant business, first as the personal chef of a billionaire, before packing his bags in Marseille in 2010.

After working for three years at the Cité radieuse – Le Corbusier restaurant, he opened a 24-seat restaurant in a narrow street in the Prado residential district, with a very sober style. Six years later, after a first and a second star, the Michelin Guide awarded him the third macaroon, praising “the energy and concentration of the teams, the perfection in the execution, the incredible regularity of the cuisine,” and thus consecrating the meteoric rise of this chef and explorer of flavours.

“I never wanted to be a chef…” confirms Alexandre Mazzia. And yet, his restaurant, understatedly named AM, has been on a meteoric rise since it opened in 2014. When awarding his third star in 2021, the Michelin Guide seemed to not have enough superlatives: “A true culinary artist in perpetual motion, transforming small dishes into an art form, he masterfully plays with spices, roasting and smoke, imbuing his cuisine with memories of a childhood spent in the Congo.” Alexandre Mazzia cooks from instinct, making his own rules, and constantly reinventing his menu to create a culinary voyage where you might know how long you’ll be away, but you have no idea where you’re going.