What does the show have in store for us this year?

Far from the studios housing the usual Top Chef kitchens in the Paris region, this new season of the culinary show opens in Savoie, in Tignes, at the top of the Grande Motte glacier. Here, at more than 3,000 meters above sea level, a competition begins which will see the candidates compete in mobile kitchens, installed in the open air across French territory.

On the menu of the tests: cuisine from the mountains or the seaside, but also from palaces and castles. “This year, forget everything you think you know about Top Chef,” warns Stéphane Rotenberg, the presenter of the show at the helm since the premiere of this program in 2010. Broadcast on Wednesday evenings on M6 from the beginning of March, the competition will still retain well-known ingredients with the presence of chefs Hélène Darroze, Stéphanie Le Quellec, Philippe Etchebest, Glenn Viel and Paul Pairet.

Kitchens open to the four winds

“This new season, outdoors, is inspired by what we observe in the profession,” clarifies Philippe Etchebest. Today, we see that chefs like to open open-air restaurants, so we integrated this trend into the show.” “It also helps show that good cuisine is not only prepared in over-equipped places,” adds Stéphanie Le Quellec. Besides, I take more pleasure in cooking poultry in my fireplace in the countryside than in my professional kitchen,” continues the woman who won the competition in 2011.

A test in memory of Paul Bocuse

Savoie, Pas-de-Calais, Somme, Seine-et-Marne… For one day, this traveling competition will take place in the Rhône on the occasion of the centenary of Paul Bocuse (1926-2018). The sixteen candidates will travel to Collonges-au-Mont-d’Or, birthplace of the chef who won three Michelin stars for 53 years. These stops across France required special attention from the show’s technical teams. “Each shoot brought together more than 80 people,” explains Stéphane Rotenberg. It was necessary to install the work surfaces, the pantries, the sinks, and to have all the utensils permanently available. It wasn’t easy.”

The end of brigade leaders

This 17th season also invites the five starred chefs to resume their initial role: that of juror. Also they will no longer have a team to coach and push towards victory. The program refocuses on the candidates, far from the interests of the chefs who could sometimes guide the competition.

“Previously, when we managed a brigade, we felt that the cooks relied a lot on our advice and our presence,” explains Hélène Darroze. For her colleague Stéphanie Le Quellec, this absence of advice is good for the candidates. “They were quite disturbed at the beginning, but they quickly refocused on the essentials,” noted the chef. They were able to offer their cuisine without safeguards and with more sincerity.

A great oral

Cooks will also have to master the art of words. “Before each tasting, all candidates must tell us their intentions and offer an analysis of their work in the form of a “grand oral””, indicates Paul Pairet. This autonomy calls on candidates to draw on their resources. “During this season (already filmed, editor’s note), it was more necessary than ever to be resourceful, adapt and react quickly, noted Glenn Viel. The cooks sometimes found themselves in difficult situations. There were a few culinary accidents. The competition was fierce.”

Maintaining key events

Despite the changes made this year, the emblematic events have been retained. Among them: the black box, where candidates taste a dish blindly in order to reproduce it; the restaurant war, which requires imagining and opening an ephemeral address, and for the finale: the menu for a hundred palates. This year, on the other hand, no hidden brigade as in previous bursts, where new candidates could join the competition over the weeks. This season will offer a parallel competition, also broadcast on Wednesday, but in the second part of the evening, during which the eliminated cooks will compete in front of a new jury, the critic François-Régis Gaudry and the starred chefs Yoann Conte and Fabien Ferré, in the hope of re-entering the main battle.

A show followed last year by around 1.7 million viewers every evening. Will you be salivating over the dishes of the new candidates this year through this tour of France?