Mory Sacko : African cuisine meets Japan, with French art-de-vivre
- French 1 Star chef in Paris
- Young Talent by Michelin Guide, La Liste, G&M
- Rooted in product, seasoning, technique.
More 1 star chefs here. Other French chefs here.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Only a few months upon opening his restaurant, Chef Mory Sacko is awarded several honours:
La Liste recognized him as a “Young Talent” and the Michelin Guide awarded him the “Young Chef of the Year Award” and his first star! Both awards are a nod to how creative and bold the young Chef’s cuisine is.
MOSUKE, Chef Mory Sacko’s first restaurant
Mory Sacko chose to plant his knives in the lively 14th arrondissement of Paris, to embark on the journey of his first restaurant: MoSuke, a contraction of his first name put together with Yasuke, the first African samurai in Japan. MoSuke showcases a new gastronomy where Africa meets Japan on French soil. Daring and creative, MoSuke shakes up the Parisian left bank by introducing it to new horizons – a lot like following the flight a heron, a migratory bird that is also the restaurant’s good luck charm.
Mory Sacko, wisdom and discretion
Becoming one of the new faces of French cuisine was not predestined for French chef with Malian roots Mory Sacko. The sixth of his siblings, he grew up in Seine-et-Marne to parents who came from Mali and instilled a sense hard work, effort, respect, and humility in their children. Even if the kitchen is his mother’s playing field, sharing one single dish with his brothers and sisters makes him understand how special cooking and time around the table can be.
During his teenage years, he nurtures a passion for manga culture, which is his first glimpse of the Land of the Rising Sun. He also stumbles across documentaries about gastronomy on television. He now knows that cuisine can have a whole new, higher, more precise dimension where excellence comes together with accurate tastes. At only 14 and fascinated by the magic and precision of luxury hotels, he enters the hotel industry.
His epiphany comes in 2012 with Chef Hans Zahner at the Royal Monceau. At 19, he immerses himself in his mentor’s finesse, watches him, and understands that a whole new world awaits him. From commis chef, he raises to demi-chef de partie before leaving for a few months at the Shangri-La in 2015, and moving on to the Mandarin Oriental the same year. He stays there for 4 years, evolving from demi-chef de partie to sous-chef under the guidance of Chef Thierry Marx. He explores Japan further with the two-Michelin-starred Chef, through the discovery of delicate and perfect techniques and niche products that naturally lead him to fine-tune his project.
In November 2019, Mory Sacko takes part in Top Chef and leaves the Mandarin Oriental with plans to open his own restaurant. Providing Mory with a unique experience in Chef Paul Pairet’s brigade, Top Chef acts as a career accelerator and gives the contestant momentum – he does not win, but the experience makes him grow. The 11 weeks of contest stimulate his taste for challenge, versatility and attention for clarity in the dishes served to the jury.
At MoSuke, Mory now knows what cuisine he wants to share: diverse, delicate, creative, at the crossroads of his influences and territories. As a testament to how interesting and appealing his cuisine is, Mory Sacko receives the 2020 Gault & Millau Young Talents Endorsement.
MoSuke, a journey to new territories
With his first restaurant, Mory wanted to write a new chapter and gather different cultures in the heart of one plate. MoSuke is the contraction of his first name and of Yasuke, the first and only African samurai in Japan, a tribute to this first journey from one continent to another. The heron, Mory Sacko’s lucky animal, symbolizes this merging and the restaurant. During seasonal migration, the bird flies between continents and feeds on what it can find. The table the Chef dreamt of was not very different from the bird: African cuisine meets Japan, with French art-de-vivre.
His gastronomic experiences bring in refined visuals and the will to showcase a new vision of African cuisine: far from the fusion, he favors complete blending with Japanese culture. His work is rooted in a trifecta: product, seasoning, technique.
To bring his cuisine to life, Mory Sako insists on using mostly French products, and has chosen market gardener Anna Shoji “Yasaï”, who grows extraordinary Japanese vegetables in Touraine, and the Jardin de Courances thanks to Tomato & co, Damian Blasco in Occitanie provides citruses such as unique finger lines, rare hot peppers come from Pierre Gayet, poultry from the Culoiseau farm in Normandie, fish from Tom Saveurs, spices from Nomie, wild herbs from Pierre Robine… Joséphine B. tea is served ceremoniously, with a choice of 4 teas to end the meal: Genmaicha, Sencha, Gyokuro and Hojicha. Herbal teas grown in Western Africa, Roobois, Bissap and Kinkélibab shake up traditional hot beverages. On the menu, an affordable three-course prix-fixe for lunch, a five-course Migration prix-fixe available in a plant-based version and a seven-course Vol de Nuit prix-fixe for dinner. Each dish on the table seems more daring and unique than the others:
Sole in banana leaf, Attiéké, marigold and lovage, Turbot and plantain with Shito sauce, and the unique marriage of Lobster, fermented hot peppers and tomato miso. Chicken Yassa is enriched with grains of paradise, rice cream and yuzushu. The Gumbo and caviar sticky rice unites Japanese rice, avocado, gumbo, avocado oil and caviar into a delicious blend where each culture brings its own delicious accents.
For dessert, warm chocolate ganache with smoked fleur de sel is served with wasabi ice cream, roasted ananas with shiso is united with bissap sorbet. The promise of a new journey.
Mory pousse l’expérience encore plus loin en faisant déguster aux convives en fin de repas la baie du Miraculée dite « La Miraculine » provenant du Burkina Faso. Elle se consomme déshydratée, comme un bonbon, qu’on laisse fondre sur la langue et qui neutralise l’acidité des aliments.
Drinks and places also come together in the glasses: about fifteen sakes are available to create subtle pairings, as well as French biodynamic wines, South African natural wines curated by Sommelier Mathieu Guerin, and a few Japanese whiskies.
