Étoiles de Mougins Shine For Thierry Marx

La grande famille de la gastronomie ©Jeremy Guido

Étoiles de Mougins 2016 were enliven by the star chef Thierry Marx for three days of excellence in gustatory pleasures

Étoiles de Mougins are now taking place in June. The International Festival of Gastronomy and Art of Living, which attracts each year over 30 000 visitors, invested the old village for a long weekend on 10, 11 and 12 June. The festival offered more than 2 000 m2 of kitchen, 1000 cooking classes taught in workshops and more than 100 demonstrations orchestrated by top chefs in the region, in France and the world, all gathered with Thierry Marx as godfather.

Le vaste horizon de la gastronomie

The chefs in the spotlight

Gastronomy is first the chef(fe)s. Les Étoiles de Mougins, is the chefs’ celebration who find themselves out of their kitchens in a magical place where they share their passion for a profession of love: gastronomy. The love of the client, passion for the job and love of the product, this is how chefs give their best talent and the best of their cuisine to the gastronomes. Gastronomy is then the product: dozens of exhibitors unveiled their flavors and scents at the Garden of Delights, the Alley of Scents and nursery plants that were showcasing products of excellence. Gastronomy is also the know-how: demonstrations by chefs allowed the public to discover recipes and secrets that took years to the chefs to acquire … Conferences in the Bouillon de Culture area were offering insights on the cuisine of the future.

Richard Galy & Thierry Marx

The Awakening of the Senses

More than 140 recipes were unveiled live. Exhibitors, conferences, radio broadcast, animations, prestigious competitions were added to this plateau of choice. Three days devoted to taste, smell, see, hear, touch … all these senses highlighted by the theme of the 11th edition “The Awakening of the Senses”, made the crowd gathered in the stands salivate at the chefs’ stove in learning to make recipes to reproduce at home.

Thierry Marx

Inauguration of Étoiles de Mougins

Richard Galy, Mayor of Mougins inaugurated on June 10, 2016 the 11th edition of the Festival of Gastronomy. For the start from the most publicized gastronomic event in the world, he was surrounded by a hundred chefs from the region but also from France, England, Brazil, Italy, Greece, Lebanon, Morocco or Ukraine who greeted this beautiful gourmet feast.
At his side, the godfather Thierry Marx, who boasts stunning achievements: 2* Michelin at his restaurant Le Mandarin Oriental in Paris, 4 Gault&Millau toques and Chef of the Year in2014. This talented, very busy chef, also appreciated for his human qualities and generous smile, soft voice and warm look, was in every way, the ideal sponsor for this 11th edition of the Étoiles de Mougins.

Macarons internationaux

A fan of Street Food

Thierry Marx received a tribute at the Espace Bouillon de Culture, Place des Patriotes. This fan of Street Food, who just opened a restaurant for chic snacking at Nice airport called La Plage, was able to en joy in the streets of Mougins around the Live Bar and food trucks. Earlier in the afternoon, the children of Mougins schools had prepared pastries shaped in giant showpieces. Composed of 3,000 macaroons with 50kg icing sugar, achieved with the help of 24 chefs, their showed the colors of the 24 teams selected for Euro 2016. The coach of that sweet junior meeting: the chef Bruno Laffargue, from Micmac Macarons in Cagnes-sur-Mer.

Démonstration par Thierry Marx

Many activities of all culinary kinds

During 3 days, a hundred chefs made the show over the food demonstrations and workshops in the heart of the old, picturesque village of Mougins. The conferences topics were as diverse as how to begave at table with Jacotte Brazier, the Mediterranean diet, wine in Roman times or innovation in pastry. The live cooking classes captivated audiences of all ages, their senses awakened in front of the chefs’ stoves, who wanted to learn to make recipes to reproduce at home with family or friends.

Délice coloré

Products from the terroir and elsewhere

In the Allée des Saveurs, the exhibitors offered visitors some macaroons, caviar, oriental pastries, ginger bread, jams, homemade sweets, natural ice cream, Madagascar vanilla, oil, wine, champagne…
On the side of the Live Bar, the Stephanie Salluzzo’s Food Truck with artisanal pastries and Yvonne’s Food Truck with traditional cooking, Food Truck, Les Farcis de Sophie, Les Toques Blanches with the Hamburgers & co, Lou Bus D’aqui, the cuisine 100% from Nice, Niva Glaces, true Italian ice creams, Réunifood, the Reunion specialties and So Phood with Vietnamese cuisine, deliciously accompanied the artisanal beers Colgan’s Breweryes.

École Hôtelière de Cannes

Learning while feasting

In the cental alley, the area François Pipala (Auberge du pont de Collonges, Collonges), sponsored by Thierry Demolliens, MOF maître d’hôtel, restaurant manager at Terre Blanche Hotel & Spa in Tourettes (83) placed in the spotlight the Arts of the Table and Service.
The Paul Bocuse Fondation, led by Laetitia Gouttenoire and the ambassador of tableware Emmanuel Fournis, had made a program of cuts executed by the students and their teachers (gambas, cutting a Bayonne ham …), gestures in the room. As for the last workshop called Discovery, it put in the spotlight the products: the ritual of tea, cocktails in all its forms, coffee service, and chocolate tasting. The visitors could also learn wine and dish pairing. All these trades were honored before an very demanding, attentive and conquered audience for which, knowledge often combines with pleasure.

Démonstration de chef

Signings, demonstrations and competitions

At Espace FNAC, installed at the village’s Old Laundry, and a bookstore with signings were organized. Simultaneously with the chefs’ demonstrations, at the Espace Concours four contests peppered the days of 11 and 12 June: the contest of young pastry chef, the international competition of young chef Les Espoirs de Mougins and at the Bouillon de Culture area, the contest of young sommelier and on stage at the Live Bar, the bartender contest.
On June 11, the Contest area was the theater of the enthronement in the brotherhood of the illustrious Order of the Knights of Medusa of Mayor of Mougins Richard Galy and chefs Denis Fétisson and David Faure. An exhibition of culinary photographs, ice sculptures, completed this gourmet table.

Tout est bon dans les Étoiles d eMougins

The garden of flavors

In the garden aromas by Jacky Rubino, local star of pépinères, the visitors could discover a multitude of aromatic plants with which to sprinkle his dishes and salads, that little extra that changes everything (basil, parsley, cilantro, chives, thyme…)

Nonstop musical entertainment

After the pleasures of the eyes and palate, place were given to the listening pleasures with 36 hours of nonstop music entertainment that lively animated the evenings in the middle of June. The singer Lilirose, pop with Up Bar and British pop with the Folks, Rock et Blah Blah, Latin music with Karaïbe the Soul funk with Brooklyn and Chris & Co, the Background Music, Show Flair. To finish off the three-day gastronomy, the public came still more to dance to the rhythms of rock of the 60s with the group By Night Rockband.

Toques Brûlées et Euro Toques

Les Toques Brulées in crazy final

The 11th edition of Étoiles de Mougins ended at the Espace Theatre des Chefs with the show of Toques Brulées and Euro Toques, led by the truculent David Faure. The head in the stars, the nose and mouth immersed in the many delicious verrines served by the very crazy chefs of the association, the show was very hot!

Bye Bye! Visit next year for a 12th edition of Étoiles de Mougins.

www.lesetoilesdemougins.com