• Since 2018 the culinary show “Objectif Top Chef” has been almost entirely filmed in the gardens, the vat room and the kitchens of this beautiful 16th century chartreuse, in the Médoc.

  • The production chose this area to allow Philippe Etchebest to stay close to Bordeaux, and because its facilities are suitable for filming the show.

  • This highlighting "gives the estate a very beautiful visual for many weeks", appreciates the owner Caroline Frey.

Wine lovers who are fans of the show will not have failed to notice it: for four years, the Château La Lagune in Ludon-Médoc (Gironde), near Bordeaux, has become the official filming location of the show. M6

Top Chef Objective

.

In this program derived from 

Top Chef

, Bordeaux chef Philippe Etchebest pits apprentice cooks against each other around local products, with the winner joining

Top Chef the

following season

.

The filming of the seventh season began in early June at La Lagune, and should end around mid-July for a broadcast scheduled for October.

Some 108 candidates have come forward this year at the start line.

“Currently, we are really in the final stages, when the place in

Top Chef 

will be decided,” explains Pierre-Henri Guillemot, responsible for partnerships at Studio 89 Productions, a subsidiary of M6.

The production fell under the spell of this 16th century charterhouse

But how did this estate, located in AOC Haut-Médoc, end up as the main setting for this famous culinary show? “At the very beginning, Philippe Etchebest did his casting throughout France and met the candidates at home, before filming the final stages in the Parisian suburbs, explains Pierre-Henri Guillemot. But these shoots monopolize a lot of time, and the chef wanted to refocus on his Bordeaux restaurant. We then thought about moving our place of decoration to the Bordeaux region. "

The production team is interested in different castles.

Then she contacted Stéphane Morin, butler at La Lagune, in 2018. During the scouting, she fell in love with this 16th century charterhouse.

“For various reasons, our facilities are very well suited to filming the show, in particular our vat room for certain selection and tasting events, or our magnificent cuisine, which has proven to be an asset in allowing the guest starred chefs to present their different recipes for candidates, ”explains owner and oenologist Caroline Frey.

"The world of catering and that of wine are totally linked"

But it is above all the gardens of the estate, open to the 120 hectares of vines of this third Grand Cru Classé 1855, certified organic since 2016, which have finally convinced the production. The majority of the filming of

Objectif Top Chef

 takes place outdoors, among other things to stand out from the set of 

Top Chef.

“The diversity of the outdoor locations of La Lagune allows us to organize all of our shoots there, apart from the casting part which is carried out in another location,” continues Pierre-Henri Guillemot.

Today, "La Lagune has become the identity of the show", rejoices the head of partnerships.

And this highlighting “gives the estate a very beautiful visual for many weeks, appreciates Caroline Frey.

The world of catering and that of wine are totally linked ”.

Culinary lives on social networks

And if La Lagune, unlike other prestigious Medoc châteaux, has not had a restaurant open to the public, Caroline Frey emphasizes that the "superb original cuisine of the estate allows us to receive and organize events. numerous internal meals and to introduce our wines with the presence of our Canadian chef Catherine Stewart ”, who was part of Joël Robuchon's teams in London.

“We talk about excellence in

Objectif Top Chef

, so filming in a vintage of excellence corresponds to us”, abounds Pierre-Henri Guillemot.

And the story between La Lagune and the show is far from lasting only a month and a half a year.

Several culinary lives with candidates are regularly organized on the domain's social networks.

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