French cuisine’s best-kept secret? You’d better head to Corsica. Deep inside the “Beauty Island” : that’s where you’ll find Virginie Laval, a princess of her own. And one of a kind, remote from the crowds. Cooking is her second nature : she trusts her feelings and inspirations. Tracking the beauty wherever it lays, in the open gardens offering the greatest fruit and vegetables, and in the clear waters giving her the freshest fish. Follow your flair, never believe any teacher. When Virginie discovered that the guide Michelin people had eventually found her spot, she asked them to leave her alone. She wanted to be immediately forgotten and taken off the prestigious Red Book. She wanted her freedom back! The freedom of being totally herself.

If you didn’t know, now you know : it’s up on the hillside of beautiful Santa giulia’s Bay that Virginie does her daily rituals, turning her mobile imagination into flam- boyant acts of creation. Australian wagyu beef, Italian inspired shrimp noodles, Japanese radish and Thai wokked veggies, her carousel of flavours never stops planting new ideas and new ways of being. She has the world at her feet; her arms stretching out between far away Asian lands and the Mediterranean. Let’s call it an art of infinite simplicity – the sheer refinement of being true to herself. That’s the realest, deepest secret of Virginie Laval. And it’s one from the heart.