A familiar face, a name that strikes a chord. Georgiana Viou did not fail to make an impression with her strong personality during her TV appearances (Un dîner presque parfait, MasterChef). However, it is far from these sets that she shaped her career and her cuisine, rising to the position of chef and being completely self-taught.
When she arrived in France in 1999, Georgiana, born in Benin, was a long way from the stove. She graduated in Languages from the university of Paris III, unsure of her next move, and moved to Marseille in 2005 with her new husband. The idea then came to her to fully embark on her passion: cooking! To study in Paris (she was thinking of the Ferrandi school) while her husband remained alone with three children, seemed too difficult. Georgiana would follow her own training in her own kitchen. She planned to set up a salad bar and worked hard to improve herself, allowing her companion to enjoy her many varieties of homemade salads day after day.
She then took part in the pilot episode of ‘Un dîner presque parfait’, and met Jean-Yves. He convinced her to enter the Taittinger des Cordons Bleus culinary prize where she won 3rd place. This was the trigger: cooking took on a new dimension. Again on the advice of her friend Jean-Yves, she entered the MasterChef competition where she met many chefs and adapted her cuisine according to their feedback. Lionel Levy took her under his wing and welcomed her to La Villa Khariessa for an internship in Martigues, before moving on to l’Itinéraire in Paris to work first of all with Sylvain Sendra and then Hissa Takeushi.
Beyond the Chef’s hat
Without following an academic culinary training, Georgiana has therefore made her mark in her own way, unintentionally independent of a certain formatting specific to this field. This stands out also in her cuisine which boasts a little taste of freedom. She put her experience to good use and opened her first restaurant in 2015, Chez Georgiana in Marseille, where she was awarded 2 Toques au Gault and Millau and the Young Talents prize. But the venture only lasted a year and disagreements with her partner forced her to close down. It was a hard blow, but Georgiana bounced back, thanks in particular to the team at la Piscine, including Florent Manaudou, who offered her the chance to join the venture for the opening of this new restaurant in 2016.
Georgiana is now seeking to reinvent herself once again by going back to her roots. On instinct, a trip to Benin enabled her to further nourish her culinary palette, to rediscover this cuisine and to integrate it gradually into her recipes. Prioritizing authenticity and being conscious of environmental issues, she adapts ingredients as necessary and informs all those who taste her dishes of the origin of her products. Dishes reflecting a certain state of mind and with a power to seduce, and which it will soon be possible to discover in a brand new, more intimate venue which Georgiana plans to open at the end of the year, in Marseille. Watch this space!
