Last summer, Marie-Aude Vieira lost the love of her life Serge, Bocuse d’Or and two-star chef, who died at the age of 46 from a devastating cancer.
Despite the astonishment and sadness, she now holds sole control of their establishment in Cantal, as she had promised him.
A team of “Seven to Eight” followed her.
Follow the full coverage
Seven to eight
“Nothing is impossible”. Marie-Aude has adopted the motto of her husband, Serge Vieira, chef with two stars in the Michelin Guide, who died at the age of 46 from a devastating cancer last July. While for fifteen years, this inseparable couple had been beating the heart of the restaurant bearing the name of the chef nestled in a 14th century castle in the middle of Cantal, it was alone that she opened the establishment for the first time. at the end of last month.
Behind the story of the broken destiny of Serge Vieira, a chef at the height of his career lost in a few months to illness, this reopening under the sign of love and friendship tells the story of this woman, mother of her two children, who nine months after losing the love of her life are fighting to keep what she built with him alive. It also tells of the absolute commitment of Aurélien Gransagne, Serge Vieira’s best friend for 25 years, who abandoned his plans to take the captain’s place. Finally, it is the story of the challenge of an orphan brigade, which fights to keep its two stars, thus proving that life can continue even when everything seems to be falling apart. “I have this image of the abyss, you fall, you fall, you fall, and at one point you have to succeed with a few small stones to catch yourself,” testifies Marie-Aude Vieira in the report of “Sept à Huit” to be found at the top of this article.
“I wanted the whole world”
On the day of her husband’s death, she provided service at the restaurant, as a tribute to what they had built together. It was in 2009 that the couple had their establishment built in the Château du Couffour, in the small village of Chausey, in Auvergne, taking advantage of the sudden fame of Serge Vieira, who had just received the Bocuse d’Or , one of the most prestigious awards in the world of gastronomy. The son of a Portuguese worker, the chef had at the time become the youngest winner in history, at 26 years old. Very quickly after opening the establishment, the couple won a first star, then a second.
The couple owes this professional success in part to the immense love that binds them. Marie-Aude, a farmer’s daughter, met Serge Vieira at 18, when she was leaving hotel management school in Touraine. “We understood each other straight away. We got along straight away. () We arrived in this world of gastronomy which fascinated us both. We had lots of things in common”, explains the woman who experienced the news of her husband’s stomach cancer as a profound injustice. “I said: but what did we do? We did everything well, we were so happy. But it’s not possible, he never smoked in his life, he never drank no alcohol, we ate healthily, he played sports. You say to yourself: what did we do? I blamed the whole world for that. she remembers, still stunned.
“You just have to be in your place”
For this start of the season without her husband, on the eve of the reopening she brought together the entire new restaurant team, with the main character of this new chapter, Aurélien, the couple’s lifelong friend. Serge, Marie-Aude and the latter met at twenty years old during a professional internship. Before his death, the renowned chef entrusted Aurélien with his cooking, but above all with his family. Single and without children, the latter takes all his meals with them in their house, above the restaurant. “There is one thing that was very important for Serge, he asked me to be present as a second dad, but I don’t do it because he asks me, but because I love them, I don’t I will not replace it, I will try to be present throughout their lives to help them as much as possible. explains the one that Maëlle, 7 years old, and Mathis, 11 years old, have always called “uncle”.
“There is no sacrifice, you just have to be in your place, and I think mine is there today,” adds the faithful friend and second in command of the starred chef who therefore took charge of the brigade.
-
Read also
Which restaurants earn 1, 2 or 3 stars? Discover the 2024 Michelin guide list
Aurélien used to go shopping with Serge. The two friends shared this unique way of always creating according to the seasons. Today, to keep his two stars, the new chef must succeed in a balancing act. He must respect the spirit of a house which still bears the name of its former boss, while imposing its own personality. To do this, he makes compromises. In particular, he continues to apply the Vieira method: no signature dish and menus that change every three weeks and are refined until the last minute. He also put back on the menu some dishes that Serge made, such as these minute-cooked asparagus accompanied by an oyster gratin. But he also added his own creations such as an apple, meringue and pepper cream dessert that he ordered from his pastry chef.
“I’m sure that from up there, he’s proud of what we decided to continue,” confides Marie-Aude, many of whose regulars came to salute the determination, on the evening of the reopening, on March 29, in a full room. Ten days earlier, in Tours, the Michelin guide jury did the same by revealing that the restaurant, despite the change of chef, retained its two stars for this very special year.
