Meilleur Ouvrier de France 2026: 13 cooks win the title in Lille
Forty-two finalists had five hours for red mullet, mallard and a Roquefort-stuffed pear. Alain Ducasse's jury passed thirteen, two of them women. More than 400 had entered.
Thirteen cooks won the Meilleur Ouvrier de France 2026 title in the cuisine class on Thursday 8 October, after a final at the Lycée Hôtelier International de Lille that put 42 candidates in front of 39 judges. More than 400 had entered, according to the trade title Au cœur du CHR.
The 28th session of the competition, a state diploma whose holders wear a blue, white and red collar, was the first in which the organising committee held the finals for cooks, sommeliers, maîtres d'hôtel and bartenders in one place, from 5 to 8 October. The four classes produced 18 titles, thirteen of them for cooks.
What the Meilleur Ouvrier de France 2026 final asked for
Five hours, three dishes, two commis: the collar is decided on a duck cooked rare.
The subjects were drawn on 18 September. Each candidate had five hours and two commis to produce three dishes: six red mullet fillets with white grapes and a compote of tomato, orange and anise; three mallard crowns roasted rare with a blackcurrant sauce, the six legs cooked with beer and endive; and six pears stuffed with a mousse of fresh ewe's milk cheese and Roquefort, with a port sauce or syrup and a sorbet made from the pear skins.
Alain Ducasse has chaired the class since 2006; his vice-presidents are Antoine Laborde, Jacques Maximin and Michel Roth. The jury passed 13 of 42, just under a third. At the previous session, in 2022, it passed eight of 30.
The thirteen laureates and their kitchens
In alphabetical order: Noël Bérard (La Bastide, Capelongue, Bonnieux); David Charrier (Les Belles Perdrix, Château Troplong Mondot, Saint-Émilion); Alexis Decoret (Maison Decoret, Vichy); Matthieu Derible (Le Art, Château de la Gaude, Aix-en-Provence); Marie Gricourt (Gric, Orléans); Rudy Langlais (La Scène Thélème, Paris); Paul Marcon (Maisons Marcon, Saint-Bonnet-le-Froid); Margaux Moisière (L'O des Vignes, Fuissé); Ludovic Nardozza (Asterales, Corrençon-en-Vercors); Loïc Renand (Auberge du Père Bise, Talloires); Yoshitaka Takayanagi (Granite, Paris); Kévin Vaubourg (Le Chalet du Sire, La Féclaz) and Samuel Victori (Les Agitateurs, Nice). Au cœur du CHR lists Renand under Beyond Places rather than the Talloires house.
Two are women, Gricourt and Moisière, which brings the number of women ever titled in the cuisine class to four, according to Les Nouvelles Gastronomiques. Decoret gets the collar thirty years after his father Jacques, a 1996 laureate. Marcon adds it to the Bocuse d'Or he won in 2025; AMUSE covered the Paul Bocuse centenary dinner that seated 350 in a Roman temple in Vienne. Takayanagi was a finalist in 2022 and came back. Vaubourg received the Prix Tremplin at the Trophées Le Chef in September.
Eleven of the thirteen cook outside Paris, from a chalet in the Bauges massif to a wine château in Saint-Émilion. Against the 400-plus entrants, the Meilleur Ouvrier de France 2026 pass rate is about 3%.
