Meet Mauro Colagreco, the first non-French chef to earn three Michelin stars in France

How did you get into cooking? “I am the youngest child, with three older sisters. My father was an accountant, so I studied economics for two years, but it was not my passion. I quit school and asked my friend, who owned a restaurant in Buenos Aires, for a job, so I could think about my future. It was a fine-dining restaurant, popular with musicians and celebrities.

“On my first day in the kitchen, there was adrenaline, people working towards the same goal, and I decided this was my passion and wanted to learn more. So I went to culi­nary school and worked for a year in Buenos Aires, then went to France to learn more, then came back [to Argentina].”

Why did you want to learn French cuisine? “For me, French is the base for learning Western cuisine. I went to [Lycée Hôtelier de] La Rochelle culinary school [in southwest France]. It had a three-year programme.

“In the first year, I interned at Bernard Loiseau’s three Michelin-starred La Côte d’Or [in Saulieu]. It was a four-month internship, but a week before it was supposed to end, Bernard asked me to stay. I was surprised he asked me because it was so hard to get a job there. I was the only expat. But it was a great experience … until he died. I was in the restaurant when he killed himself [on February 24, 2003, after finishing dinner service].”

What was it like working for Alain Passard? “When I went to L’Arpège [in Paris], in 2003, it was a fantastic period because he was just changing his cooking philosophy – using less meat, more vege­tables and fish. It was a kind of revolution in Paris. I spent two years there. He has a very small team: just six cooks for 50 guests for lunch, and 50 for dinner.