Thai cuisine: Florian Mesny’s Proustian madeleine

Florian Mesny is a familiar face at Montréal CoWork. After years of working nonstop in the digital world, he changed course and became a Thai chef. Now over 50, he is returning to his first love, flavours, and tells us about his deep-seated need to reinvent himself.

“I was raised on mango in my baby bottle,” Florian Mesny says, his eyes sparkling. Behind his imposing build and azure-blue eyes, it is hard to imagine all the professional and personal experience he accumulated over the years before retraining as a Thai chef.

Long before settling in Quebec in 2019 and becoming a familiar face at Montréal CoWork, Florian had travelled all over the world.

Born in Dakar, Senegal, his start in life unconsciously predisposed him to travel, but also to an inner journey: one of taste.

From his earliest moments, his mango-filled bottle activated a sensory memory that would never leave him, eventually leading him to begin his career in hotel management and food service. “I’ve always had an interest in flavours and a strong taste for travel,” he acknowledges.

His “taste” for adventure took him to New Jersey in the United States, to Tahiti and even to Japan. That was in 2002, during the soccer World Cup in Yokohama. Far from the Land of the Rising Sun, he then headed to Barcelona, Spain, where he stayed for ten years. “I went through the looking glass: into online hotel distribution,” he explains.

Quebec: a decisive turning point

In July 2019, a decisive turning point came for him and his family. They felt the need for change. They headed for Montréal, where Florian would work for Bonjour Startup Montréal. In 2020, the pandemic arrived, and lockdown created an opportunity for reflection.

“I’d spent four years being 100% digital, 100% Zoom, 100% Google Meet. I needed to reconnect with people. I had that at Montréal CoWork, but not in my work,” he explains.

The spark and the opportunity came through meeting Thai chef Jevto Bond, who taught Thai cooking workshops at Montréal CoWork. Jevto told Florian he was retiring.

The announcement immediately set his mind racing. Approaching 50 and driven by the desire for something different, he took a quick look back at his life. “You’ve lived all over the world, you love cooking, you love Thai food,” he recalls telling himself. When Jevto showed him how, Florian quickly realized he was perfectly capable of doing it.

Thailand: reconnecting

A week later, he bought a ticket to Thailand to spend a month training with some of the world’s best chefs working in Chiang Mai, a city in the country’s north. Florian found himself on a farm cooking six dishes a day, right from the very first day.

The learning process was gruelling! “I was completely worn out by the end of the day,” he confesses.

He immersed himself in an environment as demanding as it was fascinating. “Every day, we started with an hour on the philosophy of Thai culture and the origins of the food,” he recalls. “A lot of Michelin-starred chefs from Bangkok came to refresh their creativity,” he explains. “They looked at me like I was some kind of oddball.”

But very quickly, exhaustion and unfamiliarity gave way to wonder. “I started cooking vegetables, herbs and fruit I’d never seen before. My chakras opened up, and it was a revelation.” Florian knew then that he was hooked.

Thai cuisine: a burst of flavour

He remembers his first dishes well: pork soup in a tamarind broth enhanced with dill, or a dish with fish sauce and mangosteen (a Thai mango), coconut and makrut lime leaf. “I was hit with a burst of flavour,” he says.

Thai dishes reawakened his taste memories and took him straight back to childhood. “In a way, I felt aligned again with who I was as a child,” he says. It was his Proustian madeleine.

Back in Montréal in June 2024, he decided to incorporate his cooking-class business, “Thai by Flo,” where he teaches Thai cooking to individuals and businesses. He taught his first classes at Montréal CoWork in July and began hosting after-work events.

“Montréal CoWork is an ideal place to bring cooking classes to life because it’s a crossroads for people and entrepreneurs from different backgrounds. We nourish one another,” Florian emphasizes.

Today, his deepest wish is to create organic moments by sharing the universal knowledge of Thai cooking. “Staying alive means accepting contradiction and difference, and Thai cuisine teaches that: it’s about exchange,” he concludes.

Article credit: Hélène Lequitte Photo credit: Jordan Jacquier