A season of "Top Chef" is 15 tons of food

Mountains of fruits and vegetables, jars, bottles and flasks, herbs and spices, sauces, meat and fish… It is a real cave of Ali Baba at the market that the candidates of "Top Chef" , whose 12th season is in full swing on M 6, are raiding at full speed with their large stainless steel bins.

The pantry is the cornucopia that provides competing chefs with something to wow the gallery.

The sinews of war for this type of program, a nerve center over which the control room cooks all the time of filming, which lasts between a month and a half and two months each season.

The kitchen management, there are ten to fifteen people mobilized for each event, including a part for food.

About 150 to 200 kilos of food per event

“Their job is really to try to ensure that candidates are as stimulated as possible by the products we offer them, to sharpen their creativity, that it gives them as many ideas as possible to associations, games of texture, flavors and so on, ”emphasizes Romuald Graveleau, the program's producer.

Never dried up, the source is constantly renewed according to the tests.

“The races are done almost every day.

Basically, depending on the proofs, there is an upgrade of the pantry, the grocery store, the dry is replenished regularly and the fresh products are changed regularly, every two to three days there are refreshments of the stocks », Explains the producer.

In this pantry which sees pass nearly 15 tons of food during a season - "it takes about 150 to 200 kilos of food per event", he estimates - we will find some 700 different products. over the episodes, including 300 simply for the commissary, dry products, peppers, herbs, sauces ... And the counters quickly panic if we look in detail.

Thus, for this 12th edition, 1,800 eggs were purchased, 30 liters of milk and 5 kg of butter consumed per week.

Identify the universe of candidates to anticipate

There are basic elements, but of course also the specific ingredients for the events.

A host of apple varieties when chefs Jérôme Banctel and Sébastien Vauxion want to put this product in the spotlight during the third program.

"We establish the challenges in the company of Vincent

(Editor's note: Vincent Meslin, the culinary consultant of the program)

and the guest chefs, we ask them about their desiderata, if there are products they would like not to see, or at contrary to specifically put forward ”.

Thus the test planned around rice with Pascal Barbot, "who suggested a particular type of rice to offer to the candidates," he continues.

Sometimes the chefs give us the references of their suppliers.

For the last chance trials, the production provides around ten different varieties of the key ingredient to highlight.

Tonight, tomatoes for example.

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It is also a question of anticipating and supporting the habits of candidates.

Thus, when, in the first program, Pierre Chomet seizes banana leaves for his presentation: the production had foreseen the blow in view of his experience.

“He is a chef who has worked a lot in Asia.

For his first test, we knew he would revolve around this continent, explains the producer.

On the first tests, we try to identify the culinary universe of each other to provide them with what they need or that they are used to using to allow them to appear creative.

"

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But no specific orders, sometimes suggestions.

More on the material elsewhere.

The cooling cells which quickly appeared, the microwave, which, despite everything, is often used, or even the Japanese Binchotan charcoal.

“We put it on one day, and now they ask for it all the time.

"

Donations to the Red Cross

Finally, among the fifteen tonnes of food, many are not used.

And regularly given to the local branch of the Red Cross, in Seine-Saint-Denis, whose volunteers are sometimes associated with the final, as in 2020. These donations represent, depending on the season, between four and ten tonnes of food.