- The finale of season 11 of Top Chef is broadcast this Wednesday, June 17 on M6.
- His organization was not easy, with a candidate victim of gastroenteritis the day of the test, and a knife ceremony filmed in the middle of a health crisis.
- Virginie Dhers, artistic producer of the show, reveals behind the scenes of the shooting at 20 Minutes .
Despite 18 episodes, the longest season in the history of Top Chef has not bored us for a second. This Wednesday evening, M6 broadcasts the show's final, pitting the methodical David Gallienne against the creative Adrien Cachot. Two candidates from the antipodes, like this eleventh season, that of "audacity", which has kept the most emblematic events that make the success of the program.
And daring, you also had to be behind the scenes to write the end of the season. It all started well with the holding of the final event in the prestigious setting of the George V, in Paris. But in early February, the same day as the shooting, one of the two candidates declared that he was sick. During the night, a gastroenteritis forced him to cancel his participation. "It happened the same morning, we were there, we were ready to shoot," says Virginie Dhers, the show's artistic producer.
Too bad for the hundred Red Cross volunteers, invited for the occasion, who had to wait a few more days to enjoy a gourmet meal. We also had to count on the availability of the George V and its three-star restaurant in order to shoot in the same place and under similar conditions. “We were distraught at this event that had never happened. It's the season of the first times, ”says the producer.
Winner's name revealed simultaneously
Like all TV shows, Top Chef was not spared from the coronavirus crisis. If the tests were filmed well before confinement, this is not the case of the knife ceremony, organized shortly before its release on the air to avoid any possible leak. At the end of May, the teams then went to Adrien's, in Paris, and to David's, in Normandy. Certain episodes having been divided into several parts, the production was able to benefit from three weeks of rab to organize its displacements in full safety.
“Normally, we reunited the finalists at George V with their family and the four chefs. We filmed it on one day, one finalist after another, explains Virginie Dhers. This year, we returned to the old formula, abandoned in season 8. ”The revelation of the big winner was nevertheless organized on a single day and was even made at the same time.
"We haven't lost in intensity"
Undeniably, the last minutes of the final will be less festive than previous seasons. While filming, it was impossible to reunite the family members of Adrien and David, but the production managed to find a solution. In front of them, the two candidates will find screens on which will appear, by videoconference, their family and their brigade leader. "They can talk, exchange, see the moment of the knife, the percentage on the envelope ... This allows us to be instantaneous and in dialogue," comments Virginie Dhers. Even Paul Pairet, however in Shanghai at the big moment, will be there (maybe with somewhat tired eyes).
Around Adrien and David, we will find the people with whom they are confined. What will happen to the winner's explosion of joy that punctuates the final each year? “The emotion is there, the tension too, ensures the artistic producer of Top Chef . The moment is so important after so much effort on both sides that the stake is really palpable. We have not lost in intensity. "
In the coming weeks, the production of the show will take stock of this season before launching the preparation of the twelfth edition of the competition, not yet formalized. Caution will therefore be required with regard to the sanitary efforts to be made on the filming which would begin in October.
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