Every year, the black box test is one of the highlights of "Top Chef". Candidates must taste a dish blind and then reproduce it. Season 14, currently broadcast on M6, could be even more than usual. The production has, indeed, wanted to complicate the test. For this, she called on chef Pascal Barbot, who has just reopened the restaurant l'Astrance in Paris, to imagine a 100% plant-based dish to trap the candidates but also Paul Pairet, Philippe Etchebest and Glenn Viel, their brigade chefs. The cook worked hard to create a vegetarian plate with a good taste of meat. He confides in this experience.
TVMAGAZINE. - How did you come to create the dish of "The Black Box"?
Pascal BARBOT. - The production contacted me to offer it. She wanted the test to be difficult and for me to place the cursor very high to try to get the candidates on a false track. I imagined a 100% vegetable dish. Last year, I replaced Hélène Darroze on this event and I was able to test it. So I was really aware of the difficulty it represents.
How did you imagine your dish?
I took it as a challenge and started experimenting. I started from a blank page so I tested a lot of things. We worked a lot and it started to take shape. The size of the vegetables was important. Too thin, it does not work to have textures that are confusing. I went on several vegetables, the carrot was too sweet but the mushroom offered a fairly dense chew. It took me a good three weeks to create the dish but I had a lot of fun doing it.
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How is the plate finally composed?
I made a juice with very roasted onion, cooked as if it were a piece of meat and bound to rye miso giving a nice length in the mouth. It is reduced and buttered. To take the participants on the meat, I cooked and confire large mushrooms in a juice a little tomato but also candied red beets. I then slipped the vegetables onto a skewer while cooking them on the barbecue. As a candidate, I think I wouldn't have found what it was.... Afterwards, I had fun with a butternut raviole and a citron chiffon. For the candidates, it was an extremely difficult challenge.
"We set traps in the pantry"
Pascal Barbot
Did you also compose the pantry?
Yes, and we have set traps for it. With my teams, we find that the arch-cooked, candied and grilled mushroom takes us on the calf's liver. So we put kidneys and calf livers and other meats. We also placed a lot of different citrus fruits.
Did you have fun?
A lot! This allowed me to open a new path concerning plants. I also offer this dish, in another way, in my restaurant. This winter, I made a steamed celery served whole with roasted onion juice tied to rye miso and celery chiffon. And here I am thinking about the next adaptation with a spring vegetable. I wait for the apricot season to roast it and extract a juice. It's a very interesting playground.
The competition therefore challenges the candidates but also the guest chefs...
I was approached three times by the production of "Top Chef". The first time, I challenged the participants with rice because it is one of my signature dishes. In the second, I coached Matthias Marc and, finally, last year, I replaced Hélène Darroze for the black box. Each time, I am super impressed by the level of the candidates. They are under pressure, have to cook in front of the cameras and answer journalists' questions. They are not even destabilized and manage to do quality work. I don't know if, at their age, I would have been competent to do it.
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What are the techniques to succeed in his passage in "The Black Box"?
This is the opposite of what we usually do because, when we taste a plate generally, we take a little of everything and mix to make a bite. There, you have to try to taste the food separately to give yourself the chance to recognize as much as possible. You also have to dare to touch, tap with your fingers or even crush food. This test requires concentration. You have to be methodical and take your time... even if it is limited! And we are two to eat on the same plate ... In fact, we are destabilized in all directions.
Were you worried about not trapping the candidates?
Yes of course. I watched them cook and work and I was embarrassed. I thought, "If someone had done this to me, how would I have reacted?" I thought at one point that it was even a little too much. In the end, I accomplished my mission well because I made them work and search. I remember Philippe Etchebest who was a little destabilized and grumpy because it is not flavors that he is used to using or that are part of his universe. But all the participants impressed me a lot. They were really strong.