Women Chefs in Marseille

Let’s stay in the 6th arrondissement with Marie Dijon, Chef at the Caterine restaurant on rue Fontange. This 100% all-female Mediterranean canteen has made a name for itself on the Cours Ju’ gastronomic scene! “I originally studied law, but at the age of 20 I started a sandwich course at the Lycée hôtelier de Bonneveine with the restaurant Une Table au Sud, then I worked with my mentor Pierre Gianetti at Grain de Sel. At the age of 28, I opened my own restaurant with my second, Eugénie Cénatiempo, who has a long history in Bonneveine. We run the restaurant and the kitchen, and we’re both Marseillaise– we wouldn’t leave this city for anything in the world! For Marie, cooking at Chez Caterine is all about having fun: “It’s local, healthy and fun! I try to have fun creating the dishes and I like to think that people feel that when they eat. There are lots of textures and tastes that come together thanks to the ideas and the no-waste approach“.

On the positive evolution of the world of cooking, thanks in particular to women, “tongues are gradually being loosened, women are daring more than before and are completely emancipating themselves by creating their own places, so there’s no longer any risk of someone above them abusing their power! That’s what we’ve done at Caterine.” For Marie, being a woman chef in Marseilles in 2023 means saying and showing that anything is possible, “there’s a natural mutual support that exists with the female chef friends in the city. It’s a question of gender, but also of generation and mindset: eating locally, well done, by beautiful people. There are so many of us here now, it’s really great”.

Head for the Vieux-Port, to Madie les Galinettes, a Marseille institution for Provençal cuisine run by Delphine Roux since 1995. “Buying this restaurant was my dream as a little girl, but unfortunately I wasn’t accepted into hotel school! After a diversion to law school, I found a training course for adults to obtain a CAP in cookery, and I met a lot of chefs who inspired me”.

For all these years, it’s been her father, a former goatherd, who brings her produce direct from the MIN des Arnavaux, “he’s there from 4 o’clock in the morning selecting seasonal produce! I always take great pleasure in reproducing traditional dishes or more original ones, and I’ve got a great team in the kitchen, some of whom have been there for over 20 years! I love talking to customers. Our cuisine is traditional Provençal, like artichokes en barigoule, daube, pieds et paquets, headless larks and, of course, bouillabaisse.”
Delphine has witnessed the evolution of cooking and the positive changes taking place in the industry, “I think it’s really moving in the right direction, there are a lot of women Chefs in Marseille! I think we’re even the city with the most women chefs? I know a bit about them, even though I’m the oldest of them all! There’s a really good atmosphere between us.”

Revealed to the general public during Top Chef in 2016, Coline Faulquier quickly established herself as an exceptional chef, driven by a cuisine that is “gourmet, feminine, sunny, generous and precise”. Her first major project, Signature, which opened in 2019 in Marseille’s 8th arrondissement, was awardeda Michelin star, symbolising her commitment to demanding gastronomy bursting with flavour. Today, Coline is taking things a step further with Auffo, her restaurant nestling in the heart of the Vallon des Auffes. Here, she has reinvented the legendary Épuisette address with a modern, seafaring cuisine, where local produce come together in bright, inventive dishes. The restaurant, clinging to the rocks overlooking the Frioul Islands, sublimates each service, offering an experience where the sea is never far away. Through her successive addresses, Coline Faulquier illustrates with finesse the way in which a woman chef can stamp her vision on a city like Marseille: bold, sensitive to local roots and open to the Mediterranean horizon.

In Marseille, Des Etoiles et des Femmes (Stars and Women) is a scheme that has been assisting 12 women who are far from the world of employment each year since 2015 to obtain a CAP (vocational training certificate) in cookery at the Bonneveine hotel school. The Festin association, which founded the project, is working on the various obstacles to qualification for these women, such as mobility, childcare, access to rights and self-confidence. They work in 12 restaurants chosen for their friendliness and inclusiveness.

Meet my Mama is a committed catering start-up and an association that helps women to develop their catering business and become entrepreneurs. After Paris, they opened a branch in Marseille and Meet my Mama now has 6 women of all origins (Moroccan, Algerian, Comorian, Indonesian). Meet my Mama offers them year-round coaching in technical and business management skills. Via the catering start-up, the mamas also work to offer culinary tours for corporate events.