With Merouan Bounekraf, M6 has found its new pastry star

Merouan Bounekraf, at ease both in the kitchen and on TV -

• Just after the launch of the ninth season of the 

  Meilleur Pâtissier

  , M6 will be offering

  Cakes on order

  as the second part of the evening.

• The show is co-hosted by Julia Vignali and Merouan Bounekraf, former

  Top Chef

  candidate who stood

  out last year.

• He tells more to

  20 Minutes

  about his first steps as a host and his upcoming projects.

Already when he strolled on the set of

last year, Merouan Bounekraf drew all the light on him.

During the first episode, his mockery in the face of Hélène Darroze and the other members of the jury had immediately made him an identified character.

With this notoriety and his salient personality, the cook finds himself propelled into the spotlight of M6 this year.

From this Wednesday, Merouan is alongside Julia Vignali for

, broadcast in the second part of the evening.

Later in the season, he will travel through France with Cyril Lignac in

.

This role of animator, Merouan Bounekraf dreamed of it.

He who has always loved shows, shows and television found himself in the kitchen "a bit by chance", he explains to

.

When he was little, he wanted to be in the spotlight: on stage, on the small screen or on the radio.

It is ultimately behind the stoves that he finds his place, even if good food was not his first passion.

“Now I can't imagine my life without a kitchen,” he says.

"At first, I thought they wanted me to be a candidate"

In

, the chef advises the two candidates who compete in a duel.

At the end of the program, he also has the right to his “tutorial” sequence, sprinkled with a dose of humor that we know him well.

“I cook and at the same time I play stupid in front of the camera.

These are my two passions in life, ”he laughs.

According to Merouan, his participation in the show is partly due to the confinement.

For two months, he shared his creations (mostly sweet) with his tens of thousands of followers on Instagram.

This must have sparked the ear of the production, with whom he had already shot

 before.

Without hesitation, the chef "took direct because that's exactly what I wanted to do."

"

But moving from the role of candidate to that of host required a little help from fate.

After the broadcast of

, Merouan sends “without believing it” an email to Nicolas de Tavernost, boss of the M6 ​​group, and receives an answer immediately.

An appointment is then organized.

“He told me that he would call me if there was a project that could interest me,” he explains.

This meeting has indeed borne fruit since the 31-year-old chef later received a call to be part of the jury for Cyril Lignac's new show.

“At first, I thought they wanted me to be a candidate, I didn't understand,” he says, hilariously.

Finally, I am on the jury, I spend in the kitchen, I tease the candidates a little, I direct them, I advise them.

And I'm a bit of a jerk too.

"

fans

will therefore not be disoriented.

Projects as if it were raining

When the TV cameras are not on, Merouan Bounekraf devotes himself to his career as a cook.

Having not taken on a permanent position since

, he organizes private dinners and operations for brands.

It is also exported to bookstores as it will release its recipe book, entitled

(Éd. Larousse), on October 21.

And as if that were not enough, he is also working on opening a pastry shop in the Paris region.

And then, once you've tasted the euphoria of television sets, it's hard to do without.

In order not to be deprived of it for too long, the budding host thinks about creating his own program.

"I would love to do something with producers and travel across France, meet them, challenge their products", he confides.

By surfing on the locavore trend, Merouan hopes to settle down as long as possible on the sofa of the French.

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• Top chef

• Television

• Pastry

• The best pastry chef

• M6