“Can the word gastronomy rhyme with economy? This question will be at the heart of the seventh episode of the fourteenth season of “Top Chef” broadcast this Wednesday on M6. For the qualifying round, the candidates will have to do their shopping by favoring the least expensive products. And for good reason: the person who shows up on his work plan with the highest basket will be immediately sentenced to the elimination round without being able to cook the planned menu.
The others will have to try to design gourmet dishes which will be evaluated by a jury made up of starred Fanny Rey, Arnaud Lallement, Christopher Coutanceau and Franck Putelat will evaluate.
“People shouldn’t think we’re thieves”
If this challenge aimed at cooking at the lowest cost has everything to stimulate the inventiveness and resourcefulness of the participants, Philippe Etchebest claims to have “a problem” with this event. “People shouldn’t think that when we sell a menu for 150 or 200 balls, we are thieves,” he stressed in December, during the presentation conference for this new season.
“I prefer to specify it because all amalgams scare me. The reality of a contest is not the reality of a restaurant,” he insisted. And to clarify: “When, in the program, we say that the dish cost 3.50 euros, we stop at the product. It’s not expensive, but it was done with the bare minimum. This is not representative of restaurant spending. When you sell a dish, it has nothing to do. There are a lot of things that are added around the product: labor, investments, fixed costs… Don’t make people believe that we are fooling them. The message got through.