Cuisine d'un Cancre
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Glenn Viel is the chef of the Michelin three-star L’Oustau de Baumanière in Les Baux-de-Provence. In Cuisine d’un Cancre, he embraces the word cancre—“dunce”—a label he was given as a child struggling with dyslexia, and reclaims it as part of a story about imagination, persistence, and creative expression.
The book presents 100 recipes, many of them elaborate, often visually striking compositions that reflect Viel’s deeply individual style. A dish of barnacles arranged in the shape of a starfish, or one combining pork belly and tuna belly in a yin-and-yang display, hint at the level of conceptual ambition involved.
Each recipe is accompanied by commentary from the chef, who treats the act of cooking as a form of personal and philosophical exploration.
While the techniques and presentations are drawn from the world of fine dining, the spirit of the book is broader: a meditation on how constraints can lead to invention, and how the kitchen can become a place of transformation for those willing to work at the edge of what they know.
Hardcover. Color photographs throughout. In French.
Published on November 13, 2025
