The starred chef of the restaurant “Le Saint-Hilaire” Sébastien Rath looks back on a particularly rich year 2024 and looks forward to 2025.
Objectif Gard: What was your best memory in 2024?
Sébastien Rath: My best memory was the call from the Michelin guide, when they invited me to the ceremony. And I have no idea what will await me. This evening, this extraordinary moment of life will mark me for a long time, even my whole life. It happened at a time when we almost no longer believed it, because the conditions were very complex with this move. When it happened I felt like I was welcoming my third child. The consecration was timely, I don’t know if I would have had the same energy if I hadn’t had this little helping hand which must be given to all enthusiasts at some point in their lives, and I wish them all to experience that one day.
And your least good memory?
There are a lot of things that stand out this year, I won’t really be able to position myself. Disappointment is sometimes hard, the loss of a loved one, moving… these three mixed together over the year, I can’t highlight one thing over another. These things make you think that we are only passing through.
Who was the personality of the year 2024 for you?
Rather, it’s the strongest moment I’ve felt with a personality that might resonate with the question. It was Catherine Davydzenka, who plays in the series “Here it all begins”, that I met at the Telethon this year, a generous work that we carried out in Marguerittes. An unexpected and meaningful encounter at a time when it feels good to give to people in extraordinary conditions. This personality was extremely approachable and I never thought I would be able to interact with her and share commonalities such as cooking. I have the feeling of having so many chemistry with this person that I am almost certain that we will have to meet again in my establishment or in another situation to continue to exchange as enthusiasts.
And the personality of the year 2025?
What will mark me for 2025 is a meeting which will take place in June 2025 in Nice in which I hope to participate, on sustainable development around the natural resources of the sea and oceans with Olivier Roellinger. This great man has been fighting for this cause for years, and I have the feeling that 2025 can be a stronger year in relation to the situations we encounter, particularly for my own fishermen. In mid-December for example, they were unable to go fishing because a European law would have come out to prohibit them from fishing a certain number of days per week, but they would be below the limit. This would endanger the sea trips of small fishermen. I hope that Olivier Roellinger will be the man for the job in 2025.
What event do you expect in 2025?
I am obviously waiting for this meeting but another one which remains a little more personal: the Michelin Guide ceremony which will call me this year I hope, to receive as a young star, other young stars and to be in the ‘other side of the stage with the chefs present for many years to welcome in my turn, these new rising stars.
Any last words?
There is one thing that struck me personally this year, linked to my childhood. I was able to discover a very beautiful series on motorsport which retraces the life of an enthusiast whom we knew well, it is Ayrton Senna. It’s something that rocked me, the fights between Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and then Michael Schumacher were something. This tragic end for this boy of extreme perfection with incomparable generosity is something that the documentary really affected me. This is what allows me to say that we are only passing through and that we must be very careful with all this. Through this documentary, I relived part of my childhood because I was still quite young, but conscious enough to understand that the moment was very serious and the developments which followed this tragic situation are very great, and we are there to improve things technically. Today I am offering three consecutive days off to all my employees as well as myself. It’s very comfortable, when I learned the job, we had a day and a half off in a row, and it was a fabulous company. All this to say that we are constantly evolving. We always talk with a lot of gloom that everything is increasing, that people no longer want to work but despite everything I find that we are improving a lot of things. It’s a parallel with Ayrton Senna, if he had had the same situation as at the time with a car today, he would not have died.
