“Vamooos! »With his expressions of his own, Diego Alary was able to pull out of the game during the eleventh season of Top chef, rich in personalities that the TV and the public adore like Mory Sacko, Adrien Cachot or Mallory Gabsi. He does not yet have a Wikipedia entry in his name, but he is the only one of his former competitors to exceed two million subscribers on TikTok. Rich in this success, the young chef is putting his first recipe book on sale this Wednesday,
including a dedicated edition, named In the kitchen with Diego Alary.
During the “containment season” of the M6 culinary competition, the candidate was often mocked for having a heavy hand on the chili. From the preface to his book, he accepts it: in his cupboard, you will always find smoked paprika, Espelette pepper and Cayenne pepper. It is enough to turn the first pages to realize that it is not lying: whether it is in its sucrine salad, its spiced chickpea salad or its crunchy glazed cucumber, the chilli is invited three times in the first four recipes. But may the delicate taste buds of our readers be reassured, there is no need to have a large glass of water nearby when cooking all your meals.
The guacamole of success
Publishing a book still seems a little “crazy” in the mind of someone for whom “academically, it was a little complicated”, he confides to 20 minutes, and who did not see a book in his name coming out anytime soon. However, his passage in Day-to-day last February accelerated things. Contacted by several publishing houses, Diego Alary chooses to sign with Hachette, “whip” to convey his personality on paper and chooses forty recipes, ten of which are taken from his greatest hits on TikTok.
It was during the summer of 2020, when he worked at Jean Imbert in Saint-Tropez, that the young man decided to launch into the application by offering his recipe for guacamole flambé with tequila. It only takes a few days for the video to exceed one million views. All this thanks to the “springboard Top chef », Whose broadcast had ended a few weeks earlier, with easy and accessible recipes that he concocts but also to the public who appropriates its content. “People make the recipes, tell me about it, comment. It is also their enthusiasm, it is thanks to the people who have followed me from the start, ”he testifies.
An exhibition that offers vocations
Almost 300 videos later, the cook has made a name for himself on the platform and has become TikTok’s most followed French chef. What arouse the curiosity of his colleagues. “I find that gratifying because chefs in front of whom I was a little ecstatic and that I loved asking me questions today,” says Diego. Today, the one who discovered the world of cooking sitting on his sofa in front of Top chef gives young people the opportunity to enter the world of gastronomy at the bend of a scroll: “TikTok allows young people to say that cooking can be so easy and accessible and I find that very good. They want to do it again and if that gives them vocations, it’s too good. “
In the kitchen with Diego Alary is an opportunity to show that TikTok’s recipes are not just about fat, fat and even fat. “There are a lot of vegetarian recipes, vegetables, meat, fish. I tried to diversify and that’s what I do on TikTok, ”he says, listing the aligot, the roasted camembert and the goat-honey pie he made recently (yes, that’s still a lot. cheese). “Of course, flowing cheese likes it and it’s something that works,” he says. But sometimes I make cheese and it doesn’t work. Sometimes I make vegetables and it works. “
What about cooking outside of TikTok? “I am about to open a restaurant, a card that I sign in Megève which will be called Indie Mountain”, smiles Diego Alary. Last summer, he finally met his clients at Wanderlust in Paris for four months. “More than 15,000 people came to eat in all,” he is still surprised today. In the ski resort of the Alps, the chef promises a table “a little more advanced with nods to [sa] food “. Yes, that probably means there will be chili on the plates.