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.

“Then I went to Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athénée [also in Paris], to work in a luxury hotel. I was there for only a short time because I was already thinking about opening my own restaurant. In the end, I built my base by having worked in three places, all three-Michelin-starred.”

How did you set up Mirazur? “After Ducasse, I started looking for a place. Everywhere was so expensive and I didn’t have a financial backer. As an expat, it was hard for me to get a bank loan. One day friends told me about a restaurant in Menton, in the Cote d’Azur. They organised a meeting with the building owner and he gave me the opportunity to rent the place at a low price and then buy back the business bit by bit. It was the opportunity of my life.

“The place has a unique view of the Mediterranean in Menton Bay. I arrived in February 2006 and opened Mirazur in April. But I didn’t have a clear concept; I was so young, 29 years old. I had never been a real chef before; I had been working for other chefs, so it was like jumping into the ocean. But I wasn’t scared; I felt happy, and knew I was lucky.

“I started with five people in the kitchen and today there is a crew of 50 serving 35 guests for lunch, 35 for dinner. Nine months after we opened, I got my first Michelin star. It was so fast – it was like a bomb went off. The following year, I was named chef of the year by Gault Millau, a very important guide in France. It was the first time they had given this honour to a non-French chef.

“In 2012, I got two Michelin stars; then, this January, three stars – it was the first time in 110 years that the guide had given three stars to a non-French chef in France.”

What memories do you have of food? “My paternal grandparents lived in the countryside in Argentina, so we visited them during holidays and big celebrations. There was always a party in my grand­mother’s house and I remember her cooking every day. My grandfather was Italian and she was Basque, so she learned how to cook pasta to keep my grandfather happy. She made a delicious ravioli with spinach, parmesan cheese and veal brain.

“My father was a gardener and he grew his own tomatoes. They were the first flavours I remember. We would pick the tomatoes from the plant, still warm from the sun, and eat them without washing them. My grandmother made the ravioli sauce from these tomatoes.”

What do you grow in your own garden? “We grow things like fava beans, tomatoes, zucchini, according to the seasons. My garden can supply 50 per cent of what we need for the restaurant and we hope it will increase to 80 per cent. In total, we have three hectares of land. It’s terraced, so there are different climes. We practise perma­culture – we don’t use pesticides, fertilisers or even a greenhouse. We also raise chickens, ducks and pigs.”

Tell us about your burger chain, Carne, in Buenos Aires. “It’s a fast-food concept where we sell 35,000 organic beef burgers a month. The buns are hand­made using organic flour and we grow heir­loom tomatoes, so you can have yellow, red, green tomatoes, but not during winter.

“We also have vegetarian burgers using portobello mushrooms or eggplant. Every two to three months we have a special burger. Recently we had one created by Virgilio Martinez, of Central [in Peru]. I want to bring this concept to Asia.”

What do you do when you’re not working? “I play with my sons, who are five and nine years old. The older one is starting to cook, but I don’t want to push them. It’s important for them to have the freedom to choose their own passion.”