This Wednesday evening, Albane Auvray won her greatest victory in the “Top Chef” competition.
The candidate for season 14, currently broadcast on M6, managed to save her place on the show by being the jury's favorite in the elimination round judged by the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France, thanks to her perfectly executed.
Aged 23, Albane Auvray has a strong personality that leaves no one indifferent.
Filled with energy and fighting spirit, she shows great resilience in the face of a complicated family history.
Placed in a foster family at the age of 11, she finally found peace with her and in cooking.
In the competition, she had to fight to stay and join Philippe Etchebest's brigade and saved her place several times by coming out with great dishes.
However, she is not unanimous on social networks where people criticize her way of being and her sometimes high-pitched voice.
The one who has made positivity her leitmotif talks about her victory but also about her adventure.
TV
MAGAZINE.
- How did you experience your qualification?
Albane AUVRAY.
- The beginning of the competition was quite complicated for me.
I had to fight to stay then to have a brigade before joining that of Philippe Etchebest.
So, being the favorite of four Meilleurs Ouvriers de France is a great victory.
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You got out of a difficult situation several times during the tests. What drives you in those moments?
It's true that being up against the wall does a lot for me!
I think it's a bit my survival instinct that takes over.
I don't want to leave and I play everything in the moment.
It's like a positive pressure that pushes me to let my emotions show and to cook from the heart.
How did you experience the fact that Philippe Etchebest sent you to the elimination round?
I had the feeling of fighting since the beginning of the competition to have my place so it was not a pleasant moment.
We wonder what we did and why we are chosen.
I had a little feeling of rejection.
But, I think that's why I went to find my sensitivity during this ordeal.
You have to take the hit and look for the right way to bounce back.
In the end, I almost thanked Chef Etchebest for sending me, it was so exceptional…
On the show, you say your squad is almost like a family.
What does it represent for you, given your personal history?
I have always seen the kitchen as a big family.
I feel good in the blue brigade but I can't say either that it's my second family.
The show constantly passes the moment when I talk about my host family, but I only mentioned it once.
It's part of my story and I'm proud of it.
Afterwards, you have to keep in mind that it's a competition with media coverage, that the story of the candidates is interesting because we show a kitchen and that the features are a little strong.
“The show regularly comes back to my host family.
It is true that it is redundant and there is one side that bothers me a little »
Albane Auvray, candidate for “Top Chef”, season 14
You are very emotional and certain emotions come up in relation to your family history, which is re-explained each time on the show, how do you live with it?
I am a very complete person.
I do things from the heart and it can be a little disturbing to see someone as expressive as me.
During the first test, I was on detention.
I understood that, to stay, I had to do my cooking from the heart, which is directly linked to my host family because my culinary memories come from there.
The “Top Chef” events, which is an ultra-intense competition, often bring me back to that.
I think that's why the show keeps coming back to my foster family.
It is true that it is redundant and there is one side that bothers me a little.
I tell myself that we could move on and that there is no foster family sign on my forehead either.
But that's part of the game… Afterwards, I don't regret anything.
I
lived the adventure with all my heart, my sensitivity and my joy.
It is also thanks to my personal story that I have this strength and that I chose this path.
How did cooking come to you?
Cooking has really been a means of expression since childhood.
I felt good there.
Before arriving in a host family, I lived in the Paris region.
I went from the city to the countryside of Montluçon where there was nothing but also meat bought from the butcher from the wild boar which had just been hunted and which had to be cut up… We hunted for food, I found out the whole power supply scheme, just like the old fashioned way.
It confirmed the fact that I loved cooking and that I wanted to make it my job.
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How was your career in the kitchen?
It's a difficult job, where you have to work hard and hang on.
I was lucky, during my first apprenticeship at 15, to have an exceptional boss, the real Auvergnat with heart, tough but fair.
Then, I went to Paris, I spent a year at Clarence and at Alan Geaam's where I met chef Irwin Durand.
Then I was clerked at the Bristol.
I dreamed of it because Éric Fréchon is Meilleur Ouvrier de France and I had competed in this same competition reserved for apprentices.
I keep a very good memory.
Then, Irwin Durand took a position at the Monnaie de Paris with Guy Savoy and I followed him before continuing alongside him at Chiberta as sous-chef.
He's my mentor.
Are you still working there?
No, I started my company to be a chef at home and do some consulting.
At the same time, I am creating a project with another candidate from “Top Chef” to open a street food restaurant in Paris this summer.
What has the competition changed in your life?
During the show, I often found myself up against the wall and therefore facing myself and it did me good.
I rediscovered myself.
As I had trained in naturopathy to understand the role of food on the body, I had somewhat left the world of gastronomy and “Top Chef” reconnected me to it.
After the shoot, I was lost, I questioned myself a lot, wondering how to combine all that and that started a lot of changes.
You lived the adventure 200% from the first test...
I told myself that I was only going to live "Top Chef" once in my life and, as I was quickly in the hot seat, I didn't want to have no regrets.
I could tell myself that I expressed myself too much or not enough but, I did things as it seemed good to me at the time and, in the end, I am in agreement with myself.
“You always see me on screen when I'm at 3000% or when I'm cracking a redneck joke between two carrots.
People can be reassured, there are still times when I am calmer during the day (laughs).
»
Albane Auvray, candidate for “Top Chef”, season 14
Do you recognize yourself in the show?
The shooting days are long and you always see me on screen when I'm at 3000% or when I'm cracking a redneck joke between two carrots (laughs).
People can be reassured, there are still times when I am calmer during the day!
I have a lot of energy, of course, but I also know how to be more composed.
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You are very criticized on social networks, how do you live it?
When you do a publicized competition like “Top Chef”, you expect to have negative reactions.
We are prepared for it too.
Afterwards, preparing for it and being in it are two different things.
At first, it's surprising, especially since I blame myself a lot and on everything: my voice, my family, my energy, my way of being... It's a bit disappointing to see so many judgments in the world of so-called open and offering freedom to think and act.
In the end, we always end up with criticism.
People talk to me about my voice, but what can I do about it?
I will not change it!
How do you protect yourself?
Personally, I made the decision to stop watching the show so as not to have to say to myself “what are people going to think of this or that sentence?”.
I prefer to ignore the feedback stream and focus on the positive.
And, the positive is that I participated in “Top Chef”!
Why did you want to do this show?
Every year, many people approach us on social networks.
This time I signed up on my own because I've done quite a bit in my career and wanted to see where I'm at.
I wanted to confront myself.
A little word about Groot, the onion that accompanies you everywhere…
As I said, I have a lot of energy.
When I worked at Chiberta, I would go for a run in the morning and when I arrived at work, I was full balloons, ready to throw five or six valves in the kitchen.
But at 8:30 a.m., not everyone is receptive!
One day, my boss Irwin Durand brought me a sprouted onion and said
"Here, tell him your jokes or whatever you want"
.
So, I gave him two eyes and a smile and started bringing him to life.
Everyone laughed and came to say hello to Groot.
It also amused my comrades from “Top Chef”.
I told myself that if we can laugh at an onion, it's because we mustn't forget to laugh at the simple things in life.
It may seem completely perched but it suits me well!
