And 14! The culinary telecrochet Top chef stacks up for a fourteenth this Wednesday evening on M6. Landed on French television in 2010, the long-lived show – its competitor MasterChef was broadcast for only five years on TF1 before being taken over by France Télévisions in 2022 – has seen a number of young chefs who have become recognized names in the profession in a few years. Florent Pietravalle, Mory Sacko, Jean Imbert, Tabata Mey, Stéphanie Le Quellec, Naöelle d’Hainault, Florent Ladeyn, Guillaume Sanchez, Kelly Rangama, Matthias Marc or Victor Mercier have all thus become, in the years following their passage in the show adapted from an American show, recipients of one or two Michelin stars.
As for the chefs who over the years have made up the jury of Top chef (from Philippe Etchebest to Thierry Marx, passing by the most recent comer Glenn Viel) just like those invited to intervene there punctually, a passage in the program is also a good deal in terms of media exposure, since on average, 2.45 million people were, during the last season, in front of their television every week. This still represents nearly 14% market share, and yet it was the worst year for the show in terms of audience, note the echoes.
The last chance test disappears
What to expect this year? We already know that the usual four teams – called “brigades” – each led by a leader (Philippe Etchebest, Glenn Viel, Hélène Darroze and Paul Pairet last year), who compete during the emission through various culinary tests, will be more than three, in this edition. Hélène Darroze will no longer have an assigned brigade but will have to oversee a competition between the participants eliminated over the course of the events, in order to fish out a cook who can finally return to the race. Another novelty: the last chance test disappears, thus leaving candidates more than two tests to try to qualify from week to week.
In the first episode of this season, already available on the 6play max platform, Hélène Darroze explains this novelty, has reported Tele-Leisure : “This year, after three consecutive victories, I still wanted to give my friends a chance. I wanted them to be able to do what they hadn’t been able to do for three years: win the competition Top chef because psychologically, for them, it’s still very difficult. I decided this year not to have a brigade. I will be there just to judge but I absolutely want to give them a chance. The argument is amusing, nonetheless: it might be a bit odd to see in the official competition only teams coached by male chefs, especially when the lack of representation of women in the profession is regularly pointed out. .
A quarter of the candidates are women
As for the cast of this edition (including the Dispatch give the details in an article), we find, out of sixteen candidates, a quarter of women (one of whom is the winner ofTop Chef objective, which allows a non-professional cook to participate). We also note that if during the first seasons few candidates were already chefs (they were more often chefs de rang or chefs de partie, for example), a good third are already at the head of an establishment, like Alexandre Marchon, whose cuisine can be tasted in his restaurant in the 11th arrondissement of Paris.
Finally, for the reality TV side, because a bit of storytelling and drama is needed, the usual ingredients are brought together: one candidate is a former member of the Foreign Legion, another suffered from cancer when he was child, another is presented as having been placed, as a baby, in an orphanage, two other candidates are brothers… All the ingredients to draw tears, play on rivalries or make great speeches on revenge on life are there. Good news to finish: while the programs of the last seasons had the fault of being endless and eating all evening, the production promised that from now on, the shows would be shorter and more dynamic.