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Le Cigalon, thirty years of cooking with sea views
A well -hung star, a marine recipe book, a son in the kitchen: the Bessire celebrates three decades of family catering. Saga.
Jean-Marc and Corinne Bessire toast at three decades of the little cicada.
Laurent Guiraud/Tamedia
- The Le Cigalon restaurant celebrates its thirty years of gourmet excellence in Thônex.
- The establishment has retained its Michelin star since 1997 thanks to refined fish.
- Corinne Bessire manages a mainly Swiss cellar with professional expertise.
- Robin, the son of the Bessire, joined the family team in the kitchen.
On July 18, 1995 shortly before noon, Corinne Bessire broke out in sobs. She prepared everything, repeated everything, planned everything. But the tension and the stage fright overwhelm it. The time is strategic. She and her companion cook Jean-Marc are preparing to provide the very first service of their very first restaurant: The cigaron. The reservation book is full. Corinne dries her tears. And does the job. It was thirty years ago. Corinne always does the job. Well. Jean-Marc Itou.
Sacred bet all the same as this restaurant. Think: a cuisine dedicated to aquatic flesh, without cream or butter, in a resolutely eccentric inn, backed by stone customs, in Thônex. “We were unconscious,” smiles Jean-Marc. We darken, that’s all. ” “And we have never stopped since,” adds Corinne.
Sniff
But let’s get back. Corinne, daughter of a bus driver and a worker, dreams of her perfumery. There is a school in Grasse. But it costs candy. It will be the Chamonix hotel school. “I came across a super oenology teacher, who put me on the rails.” Between perfumery and sommellerie, after all, everything is just sniff. “One fine day, my dad made me an ad for a waitress work at the Mövenpick in Geneva. A fast food, me, never! I still went to see. I stayed there for six years. ”
The Léman Féra is one of the chief’s favorite fish.
DR
Jean-Marc, he saw himself a truck driver, to see the country. His father’s needle to the kitchen. “He said to me,” You will travel just as much, but with the meals included. And then, you have to teach the German. ” The paternal knows the meals. He is a butcher-tray-trainer. “He is 96 years old today and he is still cooking!” He also made a pompist, a beautiful old -fashioned pump attendant. This is how he conquered my Ecuadorian mother. ”
At 17, Jean-Marc is therefore looking for learning in German-speaking Switzerland. And find a place at the Mövenpick… from rue du Cendrier. In Geneva, therefore. “Too bad for German. It was a beautiful house, huge, with lots of different restaurants, beautiful products. At the time, I was doing a lot of bullshit. My director and the rigor of the profession put me back in the right way. ”
Thunderbolt
We are then at the twilight of the 80s. And you will have noted, dear readers, that the two young people in our history find themselves in the same company. And paf! “Well yes, it was love at first sight.” Thank you Mövenpick. Jean-Marc climbs Presto Les Délès, from student to chef. Direct the Beef Club for a while, Table Gastro of the brand, before meeting at the reins of fishmonger, restaurant restaurant, still within Mövenpick. This is where his taste and talent for the cuisine of fish, shells and crustaceans are loose.
There too, that he begins to dream of standing on his own two feet. “I found a restaurant on rue de Lausanne. Two days before the signature, the guy no longer wanted to sell. ” In January 1995, the couple received a proposal from the owner of the cicadon. The place has a pretty reputation. “I had just given birth,” says Corinne. We landed with my daughter Laurie in a basket. The boss has held us an envelope and said to us, “If that doesn’t suit you, give it back to me and don’t talk to anyone about my offer.” It was a bit expensive. But we kept the envelope. “
Corinne and Jean-Marc hidden in their cellar a few years ago.
TDG
“The case turned well from the start,” recalls Jean-Marc. In August 95, we married. A year and a half later, we received our first Michelin macaroon. It was Philippe Chevrier who phoned us to warn us. We were not too aware of all these guides stories. We went to buy “in the morning” and tried to understand the grid with the stars. The following year, Gault & Millau were entered. It’s funny, in Geneva at the time, I was the youngest starred chef. Here I am the oldest star chef in the canton! ”
Beautiful bottles
The Michelin star has therefore been shining for twenty-seven years on the Thunsian table. It must be said that the chef’s cuisine retains all his accuracy, his youth and his sincerity. Fish, crustaceans, olive oil, but also intelligently composed, gourmet and tonic plates. As for Corinne, she watches over the cellar, Swiss 80%. And stays on the alert to find beautiful bottles likely to water the dishes of the husband. “At the beginning, there were no women with professional tastings. It was not uncommon for me to find myself alone. It was a world of men. “
Pavé de Place Jaune and its oyster mushrooms in Yakitori. Inspiring, right?
DR
And then the cigaron is a family story. “When she was little, Laurie didn’t want to sleep,” recalls Corinne. In the evening, she stayed in the kitchen to play with the pots. ” His youngest, Robin, shows from an early age a curiosity for pastry. He would like to become a cook. Like dad.
“We didn’t put anything in mind, for nothing, on the contrary!” The son is doing his arms in prestigious houses (the town hall of Crissier, Le Noirmont, La Micheline). And then come back“A little by chance”, in Cigalon, where he now signs the entries alongside his father. “His arrival put us an unimaginable boost,” says the mother.
The Bessire remain united like the pliers of a lobster. “We have probably seen our children more than most salaried couples. All meals were taken together. We avoided talking about work during the holidays. And we immediately granted each other six weeks of vacation per year. It was not negotiable. “
Robin joined his father and mother at the helm of the family restaurant.
Laurent Guiraud/Tamedia
And as if the life of a restaurateur and the family was not enough, Jean-Marc created thirteen years ago a friendly of toqua colleagues: the Goutatoo. Either a brotherhood of Geneva cooks with a changing casting and charitable actions. No doubt, for thirty years, it is also passion and generosity that simmer in the pots of Cigalon.
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