#4 | Anne-Sophie Vidal, culinary blogger and founder of the CASAVIDA brand
Welcome to POING FORT, the podcast that will give you the weapons of self-confidence. In this first season, 10 guests take off their masks to talk to us frankly about the failures and doubts they had to overcome to achieve their ambitions.
My guest today has a dizzying background! Winner of the show "Le meilleur pâtissier" on M6 while pregnant, author & content creator but also now founder of the kitchen utensil brand CASAVIDA, Anne-Sophie Vidal never stops reinventing herself.
It was her grandmothers who gave her a taste for cooking. Alongside her studies, she launched her blog. Initially conceived as a collection of recipes for her friends, it gradually grew in size.
While she is pregnant with her first child, she makes a decision that will radically change her life by applying to the M6 competition "Le Meilleur Pâtissier". Selected, Anne-Sophie does not let herself be impressed by the pressure, nor by the competition, she goes for it. The competition that she wins hands down is a first springboard in her career.
Two books and a lockdown later, Anne-Sophie is now looking to reinvent herself with a new challenge: the creation of CASAVIDA, her brand of practical and stylish kitchen utensils.
Margaux: Did you have a role model when you were little, someone you would have liked to be like, a woman or a man?
I already have my mother on the professional level who built a great career in HR at a time when it didn't exist yet. I admired the fact that she was a woman of action and that she fulfilled herself through work.
I also think of one of her friends, my brother's godmother, who is now at the head of the Carel brand, Frédérique Picard. For me, she was the creative woman. I found her to be extremely dynamic, tall, beautiful and sporty. She is one of the role models who shaped me.
Margaux: I was going to ask about imposter syndrome, but if everyone is an amateur (in the "Best Pastry Chef" competition), ultimately, everyone has a chance. Did you, at any point, say to yourself: I don't belong here?
When I arrived at the competition, I saw that there were crazy levels and I said to myself: will I be up to it? On the other hand, I had something that, perhaps, others did not have. I was mega creative and in terms of visual, I had ideas coming to me like that. That was my favorite part, to say to myself: what am I going to do to make the cake different from the others.
Margaux: How did the idea for your brand CASAVIDA come about?
I always need to have something, a driving force in life. I had this visceral desire to create my products. Although I am not a designer, I did not have imposter syndrome. I was convinced that I was the right person to think of these new objects because I did not like anything in everything I saw on the market.
On the other hand, all the financial aspects, going to pitch, adopting the attitude of an entrepreneur who has to sell herself, these are the subjects on which I don't feel legitimate but that's changing because I tell myself that I have my place.
Today, I am really proud of the result because the products really speak to people. I created my utensils with a design, useful and sustainable angle. I wanted it to be beautiful, because I have this idea that if you have beautiful objects, really practical to use, it makes cooking easier for you too.
Margaux: We met through a stylist friend who was supposed to do your portrait. What was your first opinion of ŌKAN?
I think ŌKAN fits well with the new way of consuming fashion. I also like to have strong pieces, and to have fewer of them. Every time I put on my fist ring that my husband gave me after the shoot, everyone talks to me about it. It's the same thing I try to have in the kitchen: a very beautiful object. When you take out your rolling pin on your worktop, people are in awe. I enjoy using it as much as I enjoy wearing my ŌKAN jewelry. We also find ourselves in the DNA of our two brands: design at all costs.
