Vigneron was also featured in Selena Gomez’s restaurant show
Malibu’s Chef Marcel Vigneron has earned his place as winner of Food Network’s “24 in 24,” a literal 24-hour-long competition split into eight episodes.
In the show, each episode provides a different challenge. The first three-hour shift tests the contestants’ speed. By the end of shift four, the remaining chefs will have been cooking for 12 consecutive hours. The next episodes gave the chefs an intense culinary journey and tested their skills under pressure and on a time crunch.
Vigneron, the executive chef and owner of WOLF, has also earned a prestigious spot on Los Angeles Magazine’s Best New Restaurant list.
“I’d never actually done a competition like this one before,” Vigneron said. “I’ve competed, in the past on ‘Top Chef,’ ‘Iron Chef,’ ‘Cutthroat Kitchen Guys,’ ‘Grocery Games’ — pretty much all the big cooking competitions out there, but there’d never been one where you basically had to go back, to back, to back, to back, and so I was kind of nervous about that, but I think it’s always good to be nervous because it means you genuinely care about what you’re doing.”
With the synopsis of cooking for more than 24 hours, Vigneron said he is no stranger to working sleep-deprived.
“I’m a relatively new dad. I have my 3-year-old son Kingston, and so there were a lot of sleepless nights,” he said. “I worked in Vegas for four years and there was definitely some all-nighters there as well, so I had that under my belt andI felt like relatively confident.”
Vigneron has been in the kitchen cooking with his mom since he was 15 years old.
Now at 44 years old, Vigneron said it’s decades of programming.
Being born first, Vigneron remembers going to work with his mom when she was a pastry chef at a restaurant calledThe Old Mill.
“She used to take me to work with her, and I would sit on a sack of flour and watch her bake croissants that looked like swans and cream puffs, all sorts of different stuff,” Vigneron said. “I always thought it was so fascinating making stuff with her hands, and it was fun. My mom was my original catalyst that was the spark that ignited the fire that, it turned into my passion for cooking.”
Dinner is also Vigneron’s favorite meal period.
“I get super creative in the late afternoon, early evening and usually get a nice push of energy then as well,” he said.
When asked what his favorite restaurant was in Malibu, Vigneron’s said nothing beats home cooking.
“That’s a tough one, I think my house … Home is my favorite restaurant,” he said.
Despite the stress of the clock and the brink of elimination, Vigneron was also competing for his family.
“I had them kind of inspiring me to do my best, and I was nervous, but I felt good,” he said. “When it comes down to the food and when I’m when cooking in these competitions, it’s less of a competition for me, and it’s more of a mission for me to just do my personal best.”
Vigneron was also featured in “Selena Gomez + Restaurant,” a show where Gomez explores restaurants in Los Angeles.
“She was such a nice, sweet, humble person, it just made it so much fun,” Vigneron said. “It’s always so refreshing to work with somebody like that.”
Other than being busy as a dad, Vigneron has recently been working with his family’s cookware line, Original Orgreenic.
“We have a new line of knives that just came out and we’re doing a new set of pots and pans as well, so I think for me, that’s kind of one of my big focuses right now,” he said. “I’m super proud of the knives, they’re absolutely incredible. That’s something that I’m super excited and proud of.”
To learn more about Original Orgreenic, visit www.originalorgreenic.com/.