Sébastien Vauxion’s starry summit

It’s a trip well worth the detour, a gourmet journey to the heart of Savoie. With his extraordinary sensitivity, Sébastien Vauxion surfs the peaks with his spatulas, siphons and whips to offer up madcap sweet creations. His unique desserts combine sponge cake with mushrooms, celery with clementine and Jerusalem artichoke with coffee. This gentle inventiveness has not gone unnoticed by the Michelin Guide, which has just awarded the Courchevel pastry chef a second star for his restaurant Le Sarkara. When I received my first star last year, my legs were shaking,” recalls the phenomenon. It was the first time my father had told me he was proud of me.”

Big mouth

Between his grandmother’s chocolate-pistachio Yule log, his uncle’s baker-pastry chef’s millefeuille and his parents’ market garden vegetables, Sébastien Vauxion grew up surrounded by gastronomy. Gifted at school, he nevertheless gave up his studies on the threshold of his baccalauréat to devote himself to his passion. Goodbye books, hello ramekins! All that remained was to convince Mom and Dad. “They didn’t want me to have a better future, but an easier one than theirs. Being a market gardener isn’t a passion, it’s a priesthood.” After an apprenticeship in his hometown of Orléans, he made the leap to Paris, joining Pierre Hermé’s brigade.