“Only good sound in the playlist for tonight’s episode”
,
“The playlist is nice today”
,
““Top Chef”, can we have the playlist please?”
Here are some of the reactions that we can read on X regarding the music distilled in the montage of the M6 culinary competition in recent weeks...
“Top Chef”
fans
were not mistaken: the musical selection of episodes from season 15, currently broadcast on the channel, is more explosive than ever. For years, Studio 89, the show's production company, was content to enhance its program with background music to highlight moments of tension or suspense.
“Historically, the show was produced a lot with epic, knightly music, a little grandiloquent like that of the film
Pirates of the Caribbean ,
”
explains Tiphaine Gauchet, post-production artistic producer of the program.
Over time, the show's editors allowed themselves more freedoms, but the real shift took place in 2023 and is becoming even more pronounced this year.
“We allowed ourselves to modernize this program much more by including hits, something that was not there before
,” explains Thomas Peckeu, also artistic producer of the show. A desire linked to the renewal of gastronomy.
“Today, the kitchen is dusting itself off. We see more and more daring candidates. Cooking as it was done fifteen years ago is no longer the same. The great chefs have made this shift themselves, they are much more rock than before
,” continues Tiphaine Gauchet.
Queen, Abba, Beyoncé take part in the culinary competition
Queen, Beyoncé, the group Abba... The biggest international stars now appear in the program at a rate of ten to thirty hits per episode. In all, 200 different music (songs and background melody) enhance the images of the culinary competition every Wednesday evening. Despite this choice to now use well-known titles in the show, the show's budget allocated to music has not increased. M6 pays, in fact, a global package to Sacem for the music of its programs. But if it does not cost more for the channel and the production, setting the episode to music with so many tunes represents, on the other hand, a real work of art.
Once filming is completed, the editors choose the musical tunes that they consider appropriate for the images during post-production, sometimes with the help of the two directors Thomas Aboudharam and Cédric Tessier. The exercise requires time but also a good musical culture. Tiphaine Gauchet and Thomas Peckeu, who work in pairs, are passionate about the field. The duo intervenes once the images are edited.
“Everything inspires us: a film, our playlist, a song heard on the radio...
explains the producer, who once had his own label.
As in series where the music is in tune with the story and the atmosphere, we try to give each episode a particular color. »
Some of them prove more conducive than others to having fun on the music side, like the one centered on Food Porn broadcast this Wednesday, April 10 and launched on
Love to love you baby
by Donna Summer and then embellished with numerous hits evoking sensuality like
Lady Marmalade
from the soundtrack of the film
Moulin Rouge
.
A musical color for each candidate
In each episode, key moments are now accompanied by well-known, exciting or darker tunes depending on the atmosphere of the sequences such as the launch of the tests, the portraits of the participants or the eliminations which, previously, were staged with piano notes . The arrival of the guest chefs is also accompanied by hits.
“Anne-Sophie Pic is a bit like the Beyoncé of cooking”
Tiphaine Gauchet, artistic producer of “Top Chef”
Thus, Anne-Sophie Pic, present in the second episode of the competition, presented herself on... Beyoncé!
“Really, she’s a bit like the Beyoncé of cooking!”
, notes Tiphaine Gauchet. To vary the pleasures, artistic producers choose reorchestrations and reinterpretations of hits.
“For the pre-credits of the first episode which marked the fifteen years of the show, we wanted a title to mark nostalgia. We chose
Take on Me
by a-ha in its original version as well as in two other interpretations, more classic and softer
,” continues the producer.
Each of the candidates also benefits from a musical “color”.
“For Pierre, who comes from the countryside and claims his rustic side, we choose folk tunes rather than Beyoncé
,” she notes.
A candidate like Marie is more pop. We don't categorize them because we vary the pleasures but it's always funnier to have a hit that fits their subject or their personality. We believe that viewers become more attached to the candidates because we have created a whole universe for them and that also involves the music. »
Humorous winks with
Beauty and the Beast
The producers don't hesitate to play the humor card either. They thus orchestrated the portrait of Clotaire, who traveled the world in a camper van, with a reinterpretation of the song
Voyage Voyage
or highlighted the duo formed by Marseillais Valentin and Pavel during the last episode with an extract from the hit
Bande organized
. The meeting of Marie, a fan of Philippe Etchebest, with her lifelong idol in the first show took place to the tune of the Disney film...
Beauty and the Beast
!
“We sometimes allow ourselves a thousandth degree but each time it is to support a point, it is not free
,” notes Tiphaine Gachet who, with her colleague Thomas Peckeu, ensures a fine balance in this matter:
“We must not lose sight of the fact that the candidates are playing big and really want to win. It has to be exciting to watch without losing the essence of the competition.”