“Top Chef” is back on M6, with a 2025 formula which revolutionizes the game and also attracts criticism. Even the jury leaders sometimes struggle to defend this funny turning point.
The announcement was to make an event and she did it, at the end of January. But she also caused controversy. Top chef Returns in 2025, this Wednesday, March 26, with a novelty that takes a real turning point in the culinary competition: a partnership with the Michelin guide who will send his examiners to judge the candidates then, if the level is good enough, to award a star to the winner of the telecrochet. If this marriage of the venerable Michelin with Top chef made a beef effect in the press, he also attracted criticism of many observers, and in particular the world of gastronomy.
Integrate the Michelin guide, renowned for its seriousness, to an entertainment program like Top chef According to criticism, it would be an attack on his image and his integrity, but also an arm of honor to the chiefs who devoted part of their lives to win a star, whereas it is now enough to succeed in a recipe or two on television to obtain it. Even Michel Sarran, former member of the jury of Top chefsplit a harsh comment on this idea, dictated according to him by marketing.
Faced with an uproar, the other heads of gondolas of Top chef go up to the niche. At a press conference and in the media, Hélène Darroze, Paul Pairet and Philippe Etchebest defended the association of the program and the Michelin guide. Not always with skill.
A keyword for Top chef and the Michelin guide: “legitimacy”
First “surprised” their own admission, the five jurors of this season 16 of Top chef have all defended a partnership which “makes sense” (Philippe Etchebest) and which would be “so obvious” (Hélène Darroze) that he would not even ask questions. The whole thing was coated in elements of language, available from the presentation press conference last January.
“Now that we have turned, we can say that it was a partnership that made sense insofar as it was the association of two very beautiful brands which represented gastronomy in a very complementary way,” says Philippe Etchebest, when Paul Pairet believes that “the Michelin guide is more discreet, but has real legitimacy in culinary judgment, while Top chef is a career accelerator that has gained legitimacy “.
For Hélène Darroze, bring the Michelin to Top chef Gives “incredible legitimacy” on the program and would be “a great opportunity” for candidates, who will be able to “be judged by professionals”. We thought it was already the case given the leaders present in the casting, but let’s go.
Etchebest sets foot in the dish, then sinks
The jurors of Top chef have tried to anticipate the “prejudices”, the “debate”, even the “controversy” that the marriage of Top chef And the Michelin guide was going to raise, they may have explained that all of this was “rather well brought and well built” in this season, they still had trouble convincing. “Some will say that it is frustrating that a young candidate, after two months, will potentially be able to win a star while some, for years, do not succeed or have succeeded after several years,” said Philippe Etchebest, setting foot in the dish directly.
Then he sank a little, indicating that, contrary to examining the restaurants that is incognito, the Michelin guide this time participated in Top chef without hiding. “The difference is that the candidates knew that the Michelin guide was going to taste the dishes, which we do not know in our kitchens, and that they are in competition conditions. It added an additional difficulty,” said the star chef. On the contrary, we would have thought that it was an advantage.
Hélène Darroze did not do better. Stopping a judgment of the dishes to the millimeter by the examiners of the red guide, the Landes chief delivered a few details on the method: “Where we took 3 minutes to judge a plate, they put it 15. It is a power and a precision!” Delivering a star on a handful of 15 -minute exams is indeed a feat that will surprise more than one …
“Chefs with a star who do not have the level of the two finalists” of Top chef
Faced with readers of Parisian this Sundaythe jurors of Top chef gave a layer with a few more words that could have the opposite effect of that desired. They first wanted to reassure by explaining that the Michelin would only attribute “ephemeral star, if it is attributed”, knowing that the final is not yet turned.
“We knew it was going to be causing. Of course, people were waiting for years before getting a star, some have never had it,” also said Philippe Etchebest. And to defend the work of Michelin inspectors, he indicated that “the inspectors will taste the candidates’ dishes eight times, we can bring it closer to the 2, 3 or 4 visits in the year to grant a distinction … overall, and there it makes sense,” he said.
Etchebest also recalls that “many former Top chef have won their star “. But it was Stéphanie Le Quellec, sworn for the second time this year, and Hélène Darroze who released the most violent punchlines against criticism. The first by indicating having” several times tasted dishes of a level[elle] Do not find in some an-star “, the second in judging” that there are chiefs with a star who do not have the level of the two finalists of this season “. The Michelin and his starred will appreciate.