Masterchef & Cie: chefs, new TV icons
Five years ago, it was Maïté and Joël Robuchon who concocted us dishes in the small screen. Today, they have been dethroned by Jean-François Piège, Cyril Lignac or Frédérique Anton. Faces more than names.
Chefs favored
According to a survey published in 2012 in the magazine Télé 2 semaines, Cyril Lignac is the favorite chef of the French audiovisual landscape. It must be said that we see everywhere. Between Top Chef, Yum and The Chef in, Cyril Lignac showed the way to follow. He knew how to use the impact of TV wisely by creating his production company and publishing many recipe books.
Behind him, we find the head of Pré Catelan Frédéric Antonfollowed by his sidekick Master Chef Yves Camdeborde. For women, Julie Andrieu won the prize for the best animator with her show Les carnets de Julie broadcast on France 3.
Chefs or pastry chefs have become real pop stars. In fact, Paul Bocuse was even crowned the world's sexiest chef by readers of Glam'mag magazine in the August 2013 issue.
Plethora of emissions
According to the same poll, on the emissions side, Masterchef seems to seduce the most, in front of a dinner almost perfect and Top Chef M6. If these programs please, it's because they give ideas of dishes to cook, tips from chefs and we discover regional products.
And the theme of cooking does not seem to run out of steam. Today, we can see Nightmare in the kitchen with Chef Philippe Etchebest. More recently, a pastry contest has been discovered on France 2 with Christophe Michalak. Producers have found ways to renew themselves in a genre that thrives and all TV channels are doing it.
Too full?
For some leaders, this starification also has some setbacks. "Chiefs put on hats, went to the mountains, cooked herbs, cooked in test tubes. We saw them on horseback, by motorbike, by plane, everywhere in the world. TV shows, it's a show, "says the starred chef Alain Ducasse. According to him, these cooking shows are just entertainment: "This is absolutely not the reintroduction of cooking in the house. Televisual is great, but it will not be enough to re-educate the French who today do not know how to eat. For 90% of them, they buy their products in supermarkets. Television shows will not be enough to bring the French closer to the family meal. It's gadget cooking for people who will make gadgets, "he concludes.
Right or wrong. In any case, it seems that the kitchen seduces young people again. The hotel schools are refueling and it is not to displease in the middle of the restoration which was sorely lacking in manpower.
