Meet Alexandre Mazzia, the 50Best’s bet. Africa, Marseille and a cuisine of "spices, smoke and kilos"

«I was a red-haired kid on the beach in Pointe Noire, in the Congo, collecting handfuls of sand in which the countless grains were slipping from my fingers». That beautiful and largely untouched part of African beach is called Côte Sauvage, that is to say “Wild Coast”, in the department of Kouilou, a 108 hour walk (or better a 9-hour drive) from the capital, Kinshasa. It’s far away from everything, at least in our thoughts: a remote paradise. But let’s continue the story: «When the local fishermen moored with their pirogues, I remember they landed with all they had just caught. They would set some improvised barbeques right there and then», in this low and thin slip of land between ocean and forest. The aromas of the fish roasting would spread: sardines, tuna, seabass, prawns and many other species; it was a natural smoking, plus you could taste some spices used for seasoning, including for sure some hot chilli peppers…

Africa was both a life imprinting and an education to taste for this red-haired young man, who spent his first 14 years in the Congo. His family, however, was French, though his great grandfather, Roberto Mazzia – a small artisan who produced pipes – came from Torino and moved to the French Jura when he was still young.

Restaurant AM par Alexandre Mazzia, in Marseille. Located in a calm road near the beaches of Prado, it’s inside a small house with cement walls, wood floors and counters made with centennial oak wood. The name itself plays with the French word for soul, âme, as well as the initials of Alexandre. For him, welcoming guests in his home is giving them a view of his soul. Photo by Matthieu Cellard

We meet his great grandson, Alexandre Mazzia, the “red-haired guy”, in a completely different place: London, in a private room of the iconic Connaught Hotel. Born in 1976 in Pointe-Noire (his father had moved to the Congo on business, he was a wood trader), he won three Michelin stars last year with his restaurant AM par Alexandre Mazzia, in Marseille: a small gastronomic “case”, the chef-patron opened it – with lots of enthusiasm but only 20 euros in his bank account – in 2014. Only 7 years later he touched the Olympus of the Red Guide. There’s more: on the night of our meeting, Alexandre got on the stage of the 50Best at the Old Billingsgate (read here) where the ceremony took place, and received one of the most sought-after awards, the American Express One To Watch 2022. What a great job.

Mazzia with Alexander Lee, who gave to his Am the American Express One To Watch 2022 award from the 50Best 2022

How can such an imperious growth be possible? We’ve asked this to him, and he hints at the reason: he’s not a big talker, he rather stares at you with his shamble and absent-minded look, tall as he is, he’s thin, but 1.92 m tall. He didn’t even think he’d become a chef. He used to be a professional basketball player, a swingman in the Nationale 1 (the top French basketball league) where he stood out for his precision until an accident in 2004 forced him to retire.

And cooking? Apparently, as a teenager, his parents took him to one of Joël Robuchon’s restaurants in Paris. Was that when he fell in love? Indeed, together with his basketball career, Alexandre also studied to become a cook. Over the years, he acquired experience with some big names: Pierre Hermé, Martín Berasategui, Michel Bras, Alain Passard... And most of all with Santi Santamaria, in Spain, the great enemy of Ferran Adrià «but an extraordinary person – Mazzia now recalls. – He thought highly of me. I worked a lot, he encouraged me. His lessons were very important. It was the beginning of my approach to food».

Alexandre Mazzia. Photo by Matthieu Cellard

But there’s one element missing to understand how – and from where – the gastronomic style of this chef who is so little French, that is to say so different from the classic French style, comes from. And this element is Marseille, the town Mazzia elected as his home. He arrived here already in 2010, four years before opening his restaurant, «I could only settle in a place like this, without borders, a city-world. My cuisine is influenced by Marseille’s cosmopolitan character, by the sea, the fishermen’s catch, the spices. Marseille is both carefree, complex and timeless. For me it’s important for its lights, its sounds, its smells. I think the sea has guided my soul», and one goes back to the initial anecdote, to that beach on the Côte Sauvage. But Mazzia’s grandfather was also a fisherman, «we would visit him from time to time, on the island of Ré [a French island in the Atlantic ocean, facing La Rochelle]».

Alexandre Mazzia is now the result of all this, the son of a diversity. His creative cuisine is «disrespectful of codes», totally personal, devoid of stereotypes, difficult even to illustrate, and impossible to classify. It’s totally personal, original, authentic.  

Sometimes he enjoys guiding it into a fertile trinomen: spices, smoke and chilli pepper. He says: «When I taste something, I always want more spices, more smoke, more heat. Then I think and wonder why. The answer is simple: I remember who I am, where I was born, where I lived, what I’ve experienced. I remember the barbecues on the beach in Pointe Noire and my granddad who was a fisherman. And then I feel reassured: I think it’s good to offer what I feel is me, I don’t want to work for something that is not my life. I’m not looking for shortcuts. If anything, I make my experiences, my travels available».

Razor shells with pork jus and beetroot, Satay green sauce, veils of mullet and mussels with passion fruit, leaves of caper with a vinaigrette of burnt heads of mullet, tapioca and plankton

A dessert of Mazzia. This is what he says: «Desserts... nostalgic interpretations of my childhood in Pointe Noire. My banana crushed on a piece of bread with sweet peanuts, which I would eat under a palm tree, facing the Côte Sauvage, has acquired a new dimension. Like the mango you taste each morning, or this papaya quickly cooked on the barbecue»

On the AM par Alexandre Mazzia website you won’t find a detailed menu because it changes daily, depending on what’s available and on his whim. For sure, when dining there – it only seats 22 people – you will find many vegetal ingredients and lots of fish… And the aroma of burnt wood (vine shoots, beech and olive wood), of spices and crustaceans. Galangal, ginger and cumin will balance in a mix of spices that Alexandre uses like salt to season and enhance flavours, colour and depth; 45 types of chilli peppers will provide a palette of spiciness, some lively and fresh, others immersed in oil or in brine, dried or powdered.

The dishes are virtuosos of complex harmonies: Smoked eel with chocolate, perhaps his signature dish; Scampi covered in manioca with egg yolk confit and mirin; Satay of burnt mackerel, tapioca, sorbet of wasabi, Rouge Métis; Marinated egg yolk, parsnip with lemon, combawa, corn granita, tarragon… A flood of complex flavours.

AM par Alexandre Mazzia
9 Rue François Rocca - Marseille - France
tel. +33 4 91 248363
alexandre-mazzia.com
Open for lunch and in the evening, closed on Mondays and Tuesdays
Tasting menu from 245 to 335 euros for lunch, from 335 to 395 euros for dinner