In mid-May, we meet at studio 210 in Aubervilliers, north of Paris. We are at the usual filming location of Top chef but it’s another cooking show that interests us that day: master chef. The emblematic format, which made the heyday of TF1 in the early 2010s, returns this time to France 2 from this Tuesday, August 23 for a sixth season.
In the kitchens, the candidates are in the oven and in the mill. “I’m the one passing today,” shouts one of them. “Yes, well it would be the first time! another responds. This sets the tone for this new version in which ten women and eight men take part on the starting line. But don’t get too attached: from the first episode, nine of them will be asked to pack their bags after presenting their signature dish.
No on-screen weaknesses
To judge them, France 2 called on Yves Camdeborde, present in the first four seasons of the program, Thierry Marx, juror of Top chef for five years (and incidentally 2 Michelin stars) as well as to Georgiana Viou, candidate for the very first edition and chef of the Rouge restaurant in Nîmes.
All these beautiful people are overseen by Agathe Lecaron, host of The nursery school who is familiar with cooking shows, she who co-hosted Top chef with Stéphane Rotenberg in 2011 on M6. “I didn’t want to talk about master chef as I had been approached Top chef at the time, she says. For me, cooking is joy, living together, transmission. I wanted it to be positive. You won’t see anything that will make you feel uncomfortable or press on a candidate’s weakness.”
A competition that does not have all the aspects
Sharing, benevolence and empathy seem to be the guidelines of this rebirth of the program. “We are less in a competition, we are no longer in the “fighting kitchen” [cuisine de combat] but we’re here to learn things and do what we can,” says producer Matthieu Bayle. The role of the jury is of course to classify the candidates but also to transmit to them the gestures, the techniques and their expertise.
Yves Camdeborde recalls that “the management in our kitchens was reviewed with great thoughtfulness and respect” for the teams some thirty years ago. The judgment of the show is therefore a reflection of the way chefs work today. “You will see it, it is in joy and good humor. That doesn’t prevent us from asking for rigor, organization, cleanliness… But in a very good-natured atmosphere”, supports the cook.
Attention, even if she does not want to have all the aspects, master chef remains “still a competition because we have a real global funnel which leads to the title of best amateur cook in France”, insists Matthieu Bayle. After several weeks of hard work, the winner will walk away with the sum of 100,000 euros.
“French ideas” around eco-responsibility
On the plateau, the trend is towards wood and green. In the background, the logo sits in front of a plant wall. Everything on the sides is available to competitors: plates, pots, utensils, and of course food. In one corner, a composter. A little further, a distributor of bulk and aromatic herbs. “All of these are French ideas,” says kitchen manager Vincent Meslin. There are events with a pantry but we pay attention to the carbon footprint and to choosing seasonal products”. Exotic fruits will therefore not be on the program of this show.
As in previous editions, master chef will subject its contestants to the mystery box, recognition tests and pressure tests. “We decided that the latter would be all vegetable, based on vegetables or fruits”, announces the producer. Other challenges will answer environmental questions: how to eat better, how to cook with less impact on our water consumption or how to waste less? To answer these questions, for example, candidates will be asked to cook without a bin as part of a test on food waste. “It works well with amateurs because they have thoughts that we can all have in the kitchen,” rejoices Matthieu Bayle.
“We are not in a culinary show”
Although the themes around benevolence and environmental responsibility are dug at the heart of this sixth season of master chef, we should not forget what is the main particularity of this format… Asking amateurs to create great dishes judged by renowned chefs! Thanks to this, “we are not in a culinary show”, reports Matthieu Bayle who sees two advantages in this format: building episodes filled with emotions (the first images show hands that are shaking a lot) and discovering a cuisine “wildly audacious and totally unexpected” with cooks “ready to experiment with unpredictable things”.
Yves Camdeborde backs up the producer’s comments: “They are totally free with regard to taste associations. They allow themselves things that we couldn’t do because we would touch the great French gastronomy… We would pass for gravediggers of our profession! Chosen from several hundred applications, the eighteen budding chefs have a lot of tricks up their sleeves. So much so that Thierry Marx will say that certain plates are “so professional that made by an amateur, it’s annoying”. It remains to be seen who will have the honor of arousing the chef’s admiration.