‘an afternoon with…’ Philippe
“
…The love for cooking came to me very naturally.
It started in my mum’s kitchen. When I was a young child,
I was always around her while she was preparing
lunch or dinner for me, my brothers, and my sister.
I spent a lot of time there, just watching, being present.
That was my first encounter with cooking.
Even at a young age, I was very curious.
I remember tasting ingredients, trying to understand flavours…
It already meant something to me, even if I couldn’t explain it yet.
As I grew up, I started cooking with my mum. Simple things at first.
Baking cakes, very basic dishes. But I enjoyed it.
At the same time, I was watching a lot of documentaries about chefs,
about kitchens, about palaces and hotels.
I was fascinated by that world.
I remember telling my parents, “One day, I want to be there.”
And naturally, around the age of 12 or 13, I told them I wanted to become a chef.
When I was 15, we had to do work experience at school,
and I chose to do mine in a kitchen.
We had a family friend who was a chef in Paris,
so I spent one week working with him. It was amazing.
Seeing the chefs in action, discovering ingredients,
watching a dish go from scratch to a finished plate… It was fascinating to me.
That experience confirmed everything.
After that, I went to culinary school at 16.
That’s when my journey in the kitchen really began.
Paris is the capital of gastronomy.
If you want to learn cuisine,
I truly believe it’s one of the best places to be.
There are so many chefs,
so many influences, so many different styles of cooking.
But it’s not easy.
The level is very high, and expectations are even higher.
People from all over the world come to Paris to learn from French chefs,
so naturally, there is pressure.
Parisians expect a lot from their chefs…
So yes, it’s challenging, but at the same time, it pushes you… It shapes you.
At some point, I felt the need to be free, to express myself more,
to create something new, to start a new chapter of my life.
Coming to London was part of that.
I liked the idea of being in a place where nobody knew me.
It gave me space to grow in a different way.
But it was also very hard.
When I arrived in the UK, I didn’t speak any English.
I had to learn everything from scratch,
just by listening and speaking to people every day.
That was six years ago...
looking back, it was one of the best decisions I’ve made.
truly met God in London.
I grew up as a Christian.
I used to go to church with my parents and my brothers,
but I didn’t have a personal relationship with Him.
Today, I can say that I do, because I feel His presence,
and I have experienced God in my life.
Looking back, I believe the struggles I went through
when I arrived in London brought me closer to Him.
They pushed me to seek Him, to desire to know Him more.
Now I understand… It was part of God’s plan.
If I had stayed in Paris, in my comfort zone,
I don’t think I would be as close to Him as I am today.
I’m so grateful I had the courage to step into the unknown,
without realising that this journey would lead me to God.
Even when we don’t realise it, everyone is searching for something.
For peace. For direction. For purpose.
And I’m grateful today to have found that in Him.
To be able to talk to Him, and to know that He is always there.
I think that, at some point, everyone is looking for peace.
For me, that peace started to grow when I began to know God.
Not in a perfect way, not all at once, but through a journey.
And in that journey, I started to understand something simple but powerful;
we are not all meant to be the same.
Each person is created differently,
with different gifts, a different path, a different purpose.
And even if we don’t always see it, everyone has a place.
As a chef, before coming to London, I was comparing myself a lot.
Constantly looking at others, what they were doing,
where they were going, and without realising it, I was losing my peace.
It became something heavy. Something destructive.
Because comparison makes you focus on what you don’t have,
instead of what has already been placed in your hands.
Also, social media didn’t help.
I was scrolling a lot, seeing other people’s lives,
other people’s success… and again, that same feeling was there.
But little by little, I started to understand that
we don’t all carry the same story,
we don’t receive the same gifts,
and we’re not called to walk the same path.
There is freedom in accepting that.
There is peace in becoming who you are,
instead of trying to become someone else.
…For the future, as a chef,
but also beyond that I want to pass on what I’ve received.
Everything I’ve learned as an apprentice,
everything I’m still learning today, I want to share it.
Not just skills, but a way of growing,
a way of building, a way of seeing things.
To help the people I work with. To support them. To see them grow.
And maybe, in some way, to give others the same kind of encouragement
that helped me find my own direction.
“
“Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.”
— James 4:8
