Mory Sacko, who made his name on the TV show Top Chef, has become the new darling of French gastronomy, with his dishes combining French and African cuisine, enhanced by flavors from Japan. The 2-meter-tall Sacko, who's always laughing and cheerful and comes from a family of nine children, strives to stay grounded despite the many requests for his services.

I wouldn't have got here if...

... If I hadn't had TV and been interested in what was on it. My two passions came from this box: Japan through animated manga and the world of luxury hotels and hospitality, which I discovered through reports that fascinated me. Television, which today gets a bad rap, was for me a window onto worlds I didn't know. Up until then, my life had been limited to my family, my neighborhood, my town and football.

Was television a big part of your family life?

My mother used to turn it on when she couldn't take it anymore, when we'd play football in the hallway, get into a wrestling match and break a light bulb for the third time. She'd make us sit in front of the TV in the living room to calm down so she could do what she had to do.

You're the sixth of nine children, so that's a lot of people to manage.

When my father came from Mali to work in France in 1990, he landed in Tournan-en-Brie, Seine-et-Marne [outside Paris]. An uncle lived nearby. It's a quiet place, the last town before the countryside, a commune on a human scale with lots of diversity and HLMs [subsidized low-income housing], which seemed ideal for a family. On Saturdays, we could enjoy Paris, only 30 minutes away by train.

My parents already had five children when my mother joined him in 1991. I was born the following year, in 1992, followed by my little brother. The older children joined us later, thanks to family reunification. It all happened in stages. We had to find a bigger apartment to accommodate my two older brothers, then my three older sisters, another three years later. Then my parents had their last two daughters. There's a 20-year gap between the oldest and the youngest. We all came together late in life, so we're all benefiting enormously from each other now.

What did your parents do?

My father spent his entire career in the building trade, getting up at 6:30 am and coming home at 7:30 pm. My mother took care of us and, at the end of the day, she went to clean offices in the industrial area. It's a typical story of immigration. My parents had a dream of a better life for their children and themselves. They succeeded brilliantly. They never gave up on us and brought us up with very strong values that I'll keep for the rest of my life. They taught us pride in our work, humility and respect for our elders.

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