With the apron on and the knives drawn, we roll up our sleeves and we play the big game. Clap for the 12th season which promises to be extremely brilliant with this constellation of starred chefs announced… In front of the jurors, the fantastic four of the televised culinary artist, Hélène Darroze, Philippe Etchebest, Paul Pairet and Michel Sarran, there are fourteen of them to present themselves for this inaugural episode always orchestrated by Stéphane Rotenberg, delicious ferryman of dishes.
At the source, they were 600. Sacred skimming since.
Who has continued and will not stop.
After this Wednesday evening, two left the competition at the end of the last chance test, the Japanese Yohei and the Lyonnais Adrien, crowned "Young talent" in 2020 by Gault and Millau and head of an elected establishment. best vegetarian restaurant in the world.
This shows the level this year.
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There they are twelve, they will be thirteen next week with the integration into the blue brigade of Philippe Etchebest of Charline Stengel, a student who won the last season of “Objectif Top Chef”.
Thirteen for four brigades of three?
It is that a candidate will have the delicate mission of going it alone to try in extremis to integrate a brigade which will see one of his family leave.
If not him, the starter ...
A farandole of spicy expressions
A flavor of hope, Etchebest told us about this new season of the gastronomic competition.
Certainly.
He will undoubtedly also have character, wit and good humor again.
In addition to exciting our taste buds by putting us in the eye, these fourteen have the tongue hanging out.
And we gratify our ears with a farandole of spicy expressions.
Tasty.
“There, it's the sprint buddy, you have to hang up your underwear!
», Mohamed said in the last chance test, motivated as ever.
Ditto for Arnaud, also in the draft, who put himself “in stupid, unstoppable mode”.
Well camped in his cowboy boots, his eyes hidden behind his rebellious lock, Jarvis has "slamming buttocks" and promises "laser training".
He runs, he runs the Jarvis who, like his comrades, and Pauline, and Yohei, and Adrien, has an hour to turn around the carrot in order to convince the jurors that they have their place.
Jarvis marked this first episode of "Top Chef": he was able to say in the same sequence "I am a superhero" and "I am an accident".
/ Capture M6
The carrots, they are cooked for the last two which take a home return ticket.
Mohamed, him, joined the reds of Darroze when Pauline seduced both Sarran and Pairet.
The young woman must choose.
It joins the purples of the second.
Sarran, him, will finally pick up Arnaud, his mustache, his false insurance and his fresh and raised banter.
"During the competition, I'm going to be in piranha mode, the war of taste, live, Star Wars, swords, they're thugs next door."
We feel that we are going to love him.
"I am a superhero"
Mohamed is not bad either, cheerful and mocking, the type to prove that he exists, and who struggles to hide his emotion when he is finally selected ... As for Jarvis, we already love him, he's the battered one. , the tender to the armor of rocker, able to say in the same sequence "I am a superhero" and "I am an accident".
He wants his "revenge on life" and warns that "some who did not believe in [him] risk choking on their sofa with their popcorn".
He will go it alone.
“You should change your shoes, because you're going to have to run,” Sarran warns.
"Doesn't that scare you?
Rotenberg asks.
“No chief!
He slams tit for tat.
He's in the game!
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To decide between the candidates and select their first teammates, the jurors had previously judged according to two carte blanche tests.
The first around a sweet dish.
From a popular savory dish for the second.
Two hours, please make a clean copy and show “limitless creativity”.
Ideal for showing who we are, revealing characters, inclinations and hobbies.
"Harmony is experienced, balance is built"
Matthias, owner of his restaurant in Paris, had promised to "box the glottis" of chefs by announcing his intention to reconstitute in his dessert based on curry, nuts and apples, the yellow wine of his native Jura.
"Harmony is lived, balance is built," he says.
He impresses with his speech.
"But yellow wine, when do you use it?"
Darroze asks.
"You have understood absolutely nothing, I have captured his sensitivity and his state of mind", Etchebest mocks them already in seduction mode.
And to encourage him by calling him Mathieu, immediately taken up by the three others.
"You know he is losing Etchebest speed", tackle Darroze.
Mathias will join Etchebest all the same.
Baptiste, himself, is the champion of a “funky, sexy, tasty” cuisine, but loses all his means in front of the quartet, feels like “a soft, dripping cheese”.
Ouch.
Yet his proposal is cardamom, coffee, passion fruit and Jerusalem artichokes.
But now, he wants to "caramelize them a bit like a creme branlée… Uh burnt".
Laughs.
In the end, Pairet and Darroze will dispute it.
Advantage for the first.
"Without code or limit"
Chloé, 33, defends environmentally friendly cuisine but warns, “It's not because I'm eco-responsible that I only make poorly seasoned quinoa”.
He will have to gain finesse, say the pros.
"I wanted to be a little thinner, I know that's one of my faults and I fell into it with both feet", she comments.
Its dessert seduces Darroze.
Here it is with the reds.
Thomas, finally, is the street artist of the plate, raised between New York and Perpignan.
Addicted to Hip-Hop, he warns, it is "the training, the visual, the reason why [he cooks]".
“He promises art, I want to have some, I hope his dessert will be sensational,” says Paul Pairet.
"Stripped", "unstructured", a bit like "a free style of rap", it will finally be grated ... except for Sarran who seizes it.
Second salvo.
Seven new kids and the mission to interpret a popular dish.
In this exercise, Matthieu the Belgian has, behind his candid air, lead in the head, he who at 22 years refuses any industrial salt.
The approach appeals to Etchebest.
Here it is blue.
Tattooed, "without code or limit" Sarah comes from the bistro.
Heart of a rocker, she listens to Supertramp and melts Darroze with her leek vinaigrette.
As for Bruno, he studied at Etchebest, he deconstructs the ham and butter.
“A little introverted, but super talented,” recalls the chef.
Sarran is skeptical.
But ends up selecting it.
Last candidate, Pierre, arrives from Bangkok, deconstructs the Pat Thai.
Creative and modern, we can feel the kindness behind the future dad.
It catches the eye of Paul Pairet who immediately asks him his favorite color.
"Having gone to Asia, purple would be a logical continuation".
The four brigades
Hélène Darroze's Red Brigade.
Chloé Charles (33 years old), Mohamed Cheikh (28 years old) and Sarah Mainguy (25 years old).
Blue Brigade by Philippe Etchebest.
Charline Stengel (19), Mathieu van de Velde (22) and Matthias Marc (27).
Paul Pairet's Violet Brigade.
Baptiste Trudel (33 years old), Pierre Chomet (30 years old) and Pauline Sene (28 years old).
Michel Sarran's Yellow Brigade.
Bruno Aubin, 31, chef.
Thomas Chisholm, 28, ex-sous-chef in Paris and Arnaud Baptiste, 33, sous-chef in Noisy-le-Grand.
Candidate without color.
Jarvis Scott (24).
Eliminated.
Adrien Zedda (26 years old) and Yohei Hosaka (37 years old).