{"id":596,"date":"2026-10-11T16:24:50","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T07:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/humanlight.world\/?p=596"},"modified":"2026-10-11T16:56:41","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T07:56:41","slug":"mathieu-ciarlet-i-no-longer-work-i-live-happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/humanlight.world\/ja\/mathieu-ciarlet-i-no-longer-work-i-live-happiness\/","title":{"rendered":"Mathieu Ciarlet \u2014 \u201cI No Longer Work, I Live Happiness\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paris, August 2026. In a small restaurant in the Marais, the photographer Erick photographed a cook and listened to him tell the story of how he had come this far.<\/p>\n

Mathieu Ciarlet became a cook at fifty.<\/p>\n

In a narrow street of the Marais, in Paris\u2019s 4th arrondissement, near the Centre Pompidou, there is a small restaurant of about twenty seats: C\u2019est Comme \u00e0 la Maison<\/em>, \u201cjust like home.\u201d He opened it in March 2022, and he is still the one at the stove.<\/p>\n

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His Grandmother\u2019s Kitchen<\/h2>\n
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He discovered cooking at around twelve. At his grandmother\u2019s side he learned the traditional recipes of French regional cooking. He handled the rolling pin and learned to cut the vegetables his grandfather grew in the garden. He went to the farm for fresh eggs and came back with a freshly plucked chicken. Watching over the cooking, judging the seasoning, tasting, eating with the pleasure of a homemade meal: the boy\u2019s path was already chosen.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMe, Mathieu, I\u2019ll be a cook!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

At thirteen, he told his parents he wanted to start an apprenticeship as a cook. They told him to \u201cget your baccalaur\u00e9at first.\u201d And that, in any case, he was destined to become an engineer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Path Imposed<\/h2>\n

He went along with those choices. His studies in computing, in his own words, \u201cled nowhere.\u201d Yet he made it his career for more than twenty-five years. He started as a simple repair technician and ended as head of a team of engineers, working along the way as a buyer and as quality manager.<\/p>\n

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\u201c\u2026slowly but surely acquiring the abilities that have built who I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

His passion for cooking stayed in everyday cooking. He baked his own bread and simmered dishes for evenings with friends. He also found a consuming passion for Japanese cuisine, especially the world of raw fish, which he explored \u201cuntil I\u2019d had my fill\u201d: the art of cooking rice, respect for the product and its freshness, \u201cthe precision of the cut through the efficient, repeated gesture.\u201d<\/p>\n