Stéphane Rotenberg and the members of the jury for the twelfth season of “Top Chef” -
© PIERRE OLIVIER / M6
M6 will launch the twelfth season of
Top Chef
on February 10.
More demanding events than ever, prestigious international chefs, filming complicated by the coronavirus,
20 Minutes
reveals the main features of this edition placed under the sign of "unlimited creativity".
Preheat your station on channel 6, the new season of
Top Chef
is ready to be loaded.
On Wednesday February 10, the twelfth edition of the cooking competition will be launched while keeping the ingredients that make its success: the four chefs Philippe Etchebest, Hélène Darroze, Michel Sarran and Paul Pairet will compete against each other through their respective brigade and the competitors will compete. ingenuity to reach the final.
As we present this new season to the press, there is one thing that each of the jurors agrees on: the extraordinary level of the candidates.
“Of the seven
Top Chef in
which I participated, it was the best we have done, the most in emotion, in fraternity, in excellence,” says Hélène Darroze.
Each year, we tell ourselves that we could not do better, and this year is the pinnacle.
"Michel Sarran nods:" It was the season when I had the most fun.
It was an extremely busy year, without it being unpleasant and too steep.
It pushed back the limits, we see how far the kitchen can go.
"
Before the competition starts, competitors are briefed on upcoming global themes, such as trompe-l'oeil, but they are not aware of when it will fall, nor of the contents of the pantry.
“It allows them to do their range a bit, to prepare themselves and to have a few recipes in mind, but no more,” explains Stéphane Rotenberg.
Faced with the difficulty of the challenges developed by the chefs, Michel Sarran assures us that this edition “is without comparison with the other seasons.
"
A "click and collect" restaurant war
At the time of the broadcast, it will be more than four months that the restaurants will be closed throughout the territory.
A situation to which the show could not close its eyes since it "must be in capillarity with French society" according to Florence Duhayot, director of the production company Studio 89. The health crisis is therefore interfering within the trials and in particular in the mythical restaurant war which is organized in part "in click and collect so that the candidates can confront the reality of today.
Concretely, the chefs and the food critic François-Régis Gaudry will be on site but the other guests will proceed to the tasting in apartments.
The goal ?
That candidates create adaptable and transportable recipes.
The final, too, was turned upside down because of restrictive measures linked to the coronavirus.
While it usually takes around six to seven weeks between the semi-final and the final round, this year contestants only had a few days to prepare.
"We shot very early to avoid any problems, that the candidates would be sick once they got home," explains Stéphane Rotenberg.
Forget the 100 Red Cross volunteers who will still be there but fewer this year and separated in four different rooms at the George V.
Without exceeding the six guests at the table.
Asparagus and liquorice or Roquefort and chocolate?
The other indebted ones are there, like the test of the black box or the "Who can beat Philippe Etchebest?"
".
Overall, we will see "50% classic events and 50% new with challenging themes," promises Stéphane Rotenberg.
Competitors will, for example, have to concoct a dish that denounces ecological disasters in the face of Barbara Pompili, Minister of Ecological Transition and Mauro Colagreco, the world's leading “plastic-free” restaurateur.
This edition will finally leave a place of choice for international chefs who are not left out when it comes to imagining each more crazy than the next.
The Briton Heston Blumenthal will ask them, for example, to combine asparagus and liquorice or even Roquefort and chocolate.
The Spanish cook Ángel León, for his part, will invite the candidates to find original and instant cooking.
And we are not lied to: it is without any worry that they will demonstrate limitless creativity.
The little cuteness in addition
Because our love of cooking knows no satiety, M6 prolongs the pleasure by offering a new season of
Grands Duels
, its second part of the evening program orchestrated by food critic François-Régis Gaudry.
This time, the winners of last year's matches will oppose the candidates of season 11. We will therefore see Mallory Gabsi, Justine Piluso or even David Gallienne against Pierre Augé (seasons 1 and 5), Kelly Rangama (season 8) or Baptiste Renouard (season 10).
And as for
Top Chef
, this second edition of the
Grands Duels
promises a move upmarket, according to François-Régis Gaudry.
“It was a qualitative increase that I found particularly interesting.
I made discoveries, some of which will mark my palate for life, ”he recalls.
The food critic says it himself: he does not have "the capacity for inspiration of a chef, [nor] the technical background, [nor] the training" but he will still put himself in the kitchen to make people discover simple and easy recipes for the public.
It will change us from
Top Chef
dishes
, which are still impossible to reproduce at home.
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