“I get up between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. to write, I read a lot and cook lunch and dinner”

My nickname as a child was “little sumo”. I was constantly asking to be fed and wanted to taste everything. However, if my father is greedy, my mother never ate except out of necessity. Her dispassionate approach to food did not prevent her from preparing our dinners every evening for twenty years, out of kindness and duty combined. I only took part in cooking on rare occasions, making dumplings was one of them. We rolled them very small, from beef, and discussed at length the regularity of their circumference, before cooking them in tomato soup.

Family legend says that at the age of 12 I declared that I wanted to become a lawyer specializing in international business law. It would never have occurred to anyone to question this grandiose destiny. I am Belgian and, after growing up in Brussels, I moved to Paris at the age of 20 to pursue a master’s degree in business law at the University of Assas. That’s when I started cooking. I hated my studies, but I was a very good student and I confused “being good at something” with “liking something.”

After this master’s degree then another in New York, I was hired in Paris by a prestigious American firm. The salary was incredible and the workload monstrous. Faced with contracts, I often cried at night or in the toilet. I subsisted on takeout salads and delivered sushi. Two years later, I quit my job and, for the first time, I asked myself what I loved doing for a living. I decided to create a line of clothing that brings confidence to those who wear it, the key piece of which was the jumpsuit, as well as media linked to the brand.

“Exactly where I belong”

I knew how to draw and I learned the rest on the field and from books. Septem was born in March 2018, six months after my resignation. After five years, the brand was very successful, but I felt exhausted and misaligned. In September 2023, I recognized that hosting the media, and in particular the “Septem Club” podcast, was much more fun for me than marketing clothes.

I announced the discontinuation of the brand and I created a new podcast, “Ressentir”, in which I invite personalities to talk about their way of inhabiting the world and understanding their emotions. I also launched a newsletter, “La vie gourmande”, in free and paid versions. I write columns on love, sexuality, food, travel…

Today I have the feeling of being exactly where I belong and the luxury of being able to organize my time freely. I get up between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. to write, I read a lot and cook simple things for lunch and dinner, like well-prepared vegetables, eggs and small fish. I am more than likely going to Italy, where I will perhaps end up living. In the meantime, when I entertain, I often prepare meatballs based on a transalpine recipe: polpette al sugo. It’s tender and sensual, tasty and warm, full of stories and emotions.