The connected kitchen: a specialty of Chef Damien
Bananas flambée in rum and fish carpaccio with passionfruit. Six students who are seniors at the Lycée hôtelier professional hotel school of Saint-Martin attended a Cooking Show at La Playa (Orient Bay) on Saturday, February 18. Chef Damien, whose real name is Damien Duquesne, took advantage of his participation in the St. Barth Smart Island on smart gastronomy to spend a few days in Saint-Martin, invited by Dauphin Telecom.
He held another cooking show on Friday the 17th in the Samanna with the starred chef Serge Couloumes. He also met the Saint Martin Initiative’s Entrepreneur Club to share experiences with successful digital marketing. "We had fabulous discussions, I had a great time! I'm going back to Paris tomorrow [Sunday] with stars in my eyes," says the Cooking Instructor of the Lycée hôtelier of Soissons and famous YouTuber. "I took advantage of my shows to film videos that I will post on my YouTube channel and the 750g website upon my return," he says.
Indeed, Chief Damien is best known for having founded the 750g site (http://www.750g.com) in 2006, which now has more than 8 million unique visitors per month. "The name 750g comes from the fact that I founded it with my brother, who previously had a site dedicated to wine called 75cl," he says. Although still a consultant for the site, he sold it last year and has since opened three restaurants in Paris called "750g La Table." A 100% home-made cuisine with local products for reasonable prices: "Made in France without blinders on, incredibly human," he sums up.
For him, the kitchen is "a place where upward mobility still works." His advice to young people studying cooking? "Live your passion, work really really really hard, and be curious." This Saturday morning, at the start of the school holidays, the Saint-Martin students didn’t miss a crumb of the demonstration. Their restaurant marketing and service instructor took them on his own time. They are very familiar with the 750g site: "we consult it often to complete our data sheets," note Franck, Cléopatra, and Henry. The latter has the ambition to become a star chef. Once they graduate, they plan to leave Saint-Martin to "work elsewhere, see the world, and meet great chefs."
Inspiring youth by organizing this type of event is precisely the goal of Philippe Morel, the marketing and commercial director of Dauphin Telecom. "We talk a lot about digital in Saint-Martin. We have to show entrepreneurs how to use it. Communication is not only about selling but about creating an image." Philippe Morel also confided that he and Chef Damien discussed the upcoming creation of a festival of Caribbean cuisine in Saint-Martin.
