Culinary Chef Hugues Marrec Brings a Lifelong Passion for Food to McCormick France

Starting his career as a culinary chef in France at age 18, Hugues Marrec, Culinary Chef at McCormick France, earned a degree studying at a culinary school in Brittany before deciding to travel to learn more about the ways food is prepared and enjoyed in different parts of the world. His travels took him to the US, the UK, and Australia, working in various exciting roles across the hospitality sector. Having returned home to France in 2008, Hugues felt ready for a new challenge and opened his own restaurant in Provence on his wife’s wine estate.

By happy accident, the winery (which continues to be a success today) is only a short drive from the McCormick Carpentras site. When another employee fortuitously dined at the restaurant in 2017, Hugues was offered his first taste of life at McCormick. Hugues began as a part-time research chef before he quickly realized that McCormick’s passion for flavor and drive to innovate perfectly complemented his own values and ambition. Fast forward a few years and Hugues earned a spot as a full-time culinary research chef, where he became responsible for turning exciting food trends into mealtime favorites for customers across McCormick’s Consumer and Foodservice business segments. 

The extremely broad scope of Hugues’ work means no two days look the same. For instance, on any given week he might be traveling for research, working on the latest edition of our Flavor Forecast, collaborating on-site with our R&D team, introducing a new product to our sales teams before hosting, or cooking in the food studio. One of the newer and most rapidly evolving parts of Hugues’ role also involves utilizing technology to connect with different consumers, bringing more recipes and products to new customers and demographics. This might involve jumping on TikTok's latest #foodtok trend or working with the marketing team to film short clips of attention-grabbing recipes that seamlessly showcase our brands. 

Constantly relying on his creativity, his ability to problem-solve, and the opportunity to collaborate with other equally passionate colleagues across EMEA are just a few of the ingredients that make life at McCormick so worthwhile for Hugues. As new brands, flavors, and products demand more experimentation, alongside the growing customer focus on health and well-being as well as transparent sourcing, his work is never done. We’re excited to see what Hugues cooks up next! 

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