Few entertainment programs have the chance to last on television.
“Top Chef” is one of those which has found the right recipe to continue, year after year, to whet the appetite of viewers.
As proof, M6 is launching the fifteenth season of its culinary competition this evening... not without pride.
“
It was important for us to mark the occasion.
We wanted to have an exceptional season unlike any other
,” explains Virginie Dhers, the producer, who pulled out all the stops.
For this exceptional year, the channel and Studio 89 have secured the services of two new recruits in order to create a fifteen-star jury with perfect parity.
Quite a symbol.
Dominique Crenn, first and only three-star chef in the United States, and Stéphanie Le Quellec, winner of season 2 of the show now honored with two macarons, join the jurors Hélène Darroze, Philippe Etchebest, Paul Pairet and Glenn Viel.
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Five candidates, a record
For the first time, there will be only two brigades, each made up of three leaders, pitting women against men and allowing us to imagine joyful jousting.
Pierre Gagnaire, regular on the program, is added to this chic team.
The multi-starred chef takes up “The Secret Kitchen”.
Launched last year with Hélène Darroze, this second part of the evening show will challenge the eliminated candidates in a parallel competition.
The bard of the kitchen will join “Top Chef”, at the end of the race and as a surprise, with the winner of this additional competition to try to lead him to final victory.
Sixteen cooks, aged 19 to 33, will embark on this culinary adventure, including five women, a record on the show.
Everyone will have to take on tough challenges imagined by the production teams who think about it for months.
“Each season follows the reflection of gastronomy in France.
Our teams produce reports throughout the year to keep up to date with current events and trends,” continues Virginie Dhers.
And in particular those linked to ecology, ever more present in the program.
“Top Chef” has also become, this year, the first prime time entertainment to receive the Ecoprod label, rewarding the teams' commitment to reducing the environmental impact of the show.
Several tests support this theme, such as the “trompe-palais”, a challenge during which candidates must make a meat-flavored dish without meat, or the “green box”, which requires them to enhance leftovers from the day before.
Participants will also travel and create a menu on board the Orient Express, whose kitchens are now managed by Jean Imbert, winner of the third season of the competition.
Around fifty former candidates
No “Top Chef” without legendary tests like the “black box” or the “restaurant war”, which will be, for once, judged by those close to the candidates.
For the now famous “Who can beat?”
», Philippe Etchebest will pass his apron to his companions and let Dominique Crenn and Stéphanie Le Quellec, then Glenn Viel and Paul Pairet face the participants.
An evening bringing together around fifty former candidates, who have become jurors for one evening, will also celebrate the 15th anniversary of the program.
A (almost) obligatory passage for the big names in gastronomy, “Top Chef” will welcome some of the most famous chefs on the planet, such as Anne-Sophie Pic, Clare Smyth, Yannick Alléno and Guy Savoy.
If Michel Troisgros has always refused to participate in the competition, his sons, César and Léo, who succeeded him in Roanne, will take their first steps in this anniversary program which promises to be full of flavor.