Top Chef: cooking shows at the service of gastronomy and Chefs?

Cooking and gastronomy are among the French's favorite subjects. This is borne out by the many successful cookery shows that flourish on TV screens and the audiences they garner every year, such as the 3 million viewers who tuned in for the launch of the tenth season of Top Chef on February 13.

But Top Chef is not the only example of this success. Numerous culinary shows have flourished and met with success over the last ten years within the PAF (Paysage Audiovisuel Français). These include Master Chef, TF1's amateur culinary competition; Qui sera le prochain grand pâtissier?the professional competition specializing in sweet flavors on France 2; A pleines dents, the documentary produced by ARTE and acquired by Netflix, which follows Gérard Depardieu as he discovers delicacies from the four corners of the globe; Chef's Table, the format that showcases the work of some of the world's most talented chefs on Netflix; Le Meilleur pâtissier, the amateur pastry-making competition on M6; and Superstar Chef , the show in preparation on TF1. All of these formats have fed the evenings of the French for several years and whetted the appetites of their viewers, demonstrating the inexhaustible enthusiasm of the French for cooking and gastronomy. But they are also, and above all, a reflection of the incredible media coverage of French chefs and their expertise. Whether it's Top Chef, Master Chef, Le Meilleur Pâtissier or Qui serale prochain grand pâtissier, the juries on these competitions include some of France's most emblematic chefs. This year, Philippe Etchebest(Best Worker in France and Michelin-starred), Jean-François Piège(double Michelin-starred), Hélène Darroze(double Michelin-starred and voted "Best Female Chef" in the world by the Prix Veuve Clicquot) and Michel Sarran(double Michelin-starred) judge the contestants in France's most popular culinary competition.Never before have chefs enjoyed such media coverage and popularity, and never before has cooking been such a dream for the French, who paradoxically spend less and less time in front of the stove. So how do we explain this success? How is the media representation of chefs changing? And what impact does this media coverage have on the gastronomy sector? Find out in this article.

1 The figure of the chef on television: from transmission to the spectacularization of cooking

The early years: television and chefs as vectors for the transmission of culinary know-how

First of all, cooking shows are almost as old as television itself. Cooking first appeared on French screens in 1954. To embody it : Art et magie de la cuisineA twenty-minute program set in a kitchen, in the form of a friendly dialogue between three-starred chef Raymond Oliver and his docile, inquisitive announcer Catherine Langeais. Catherine Langeais was the housewife behind the TV screen, eager to improve her cooking skills.

The show remained on the air for thirteen years, and was the starting point for a series of television formats based on the chef-spectator duo. One of them remained on the air for 16 years, establishing itself as one of France's most cult culinary programs. It was La cuisine des Mousquetairespresented by Maïté, the chef with the most lilting accent on the French TV airwaves.

30 years later (1983-1999), Micheline Banzet, the chef's passive but attentive assistant in the kitchen, once again embodied the spectator. 10 years later, in 1996, the figure of the assistant disappeared and was replaced by a duo of great chefs: Joël Robuchon, the most starred chef in history, invited a prestigious chef - such as Anne-Sophie Pic in the photo below - to create a recipe for viewers of his program Cuisinez comme un grand chef, later renamed Bon appétit bien sûr . The aim, however, remained the same: to desacralize gourmet cooking and present simple, affordable recipes accessible to as many people as possible.

While formats are evolving and the figure of the assistant is gradually disappearing, the relationship between the chef and the viewer has not changed over the past 50 years. The Chef embodies the teacher, imparting his knowledge to passive spectators, pupils in need of a lesson.

The turn of the 2000s: spectacular cuisine staged on television

The turning point came in 2005 with the appearance of the Oui Chef show, which revealed Cyril Lignac. Reality TV had arrived on French screens 5 years earlier, inspiring numerous hybrid formats such as this one. From then on "cooking is used for its spectacular and dramatic appeal."says Olivier Rogerauthor of Cuisine en spectacle.

In this program, Cyril Lignac has four months to select and train a brigade of ten young people in difficulty, who will form the team at his new establishment, Le Quinzième. This spectacular format was to set the tone for many new programs to follow, such as Top Chef, which moved from educational television to entertainment television, in which the chef is a protagonist rather than a reassuring, stable figure. No longer simply a transmitter of information, he becomes a character with a singular character, evolving in a context that is sometimes difficult, and facing a variety of hazards.

2. The starification of chefs by television: from teacher to media personality

The young Chefs' creation under the romantic banner

These cooking shows help to create, or at least reveal, the talents of today and tomorrow. If we're talking about creation here, it's because these television formats, in their own way, shape the candidates, who respond to precise codes.It's a game that the so-called candidates play . And with good reason: a real battle is waged between the young chefs and pastry chefs, who compete inchallenges devised by the production team. The first episode of each season of Top Chef sets the tone for the following weeks: 3 contestants are eliminated at the outset, and do not stand a chance of obtaining the show's Holy Grail: the famous apron sewn with the program's name. After that, one candidate is eliminated each week, putting the aspiring chefs under considerable stress and transforming the format into a real competition governed by a simple gamification principle.

For spectators, too, the pressure is real: that of the suspense maintained by the show. Dramatic music, timely slow-motion sequences, flashes of the stopwatch indicating the end of a round... The editing greatly contributes to the show's tension. Some might ask, "Why stress over chefs who are unknown to the general public? Well, quite simply because they are the characters in this story that spans several weeks. Viewers are worked hard to become attached to the candidates and to choose their favorite: 3/4 of viewers of Top Chef and 2/3 of those of Le Meilleur Pâtissier say they "get attached to the candidates ".

Ultimately, the candidates who are best remembered are the most charismatic, certainly cast as much for their personal as their professional qualities. Just look at the case of Norbert Tarayre, season 3's mischievous chef. This endearing chef was far from being the best: he accumulated "last chances" - the final round of each episode during which the week's worst candidates compete against each other - and barely managed to reach 3rd place in the competition. Yet Norbert is one of the show's most emblematic and popular chefs. Theserialization of the shows (Top Chef, Le Meilleur pâtissier, Master Chef, Qui sera le prochain grand pâtissier...) obviously reinforces this narrative tension and viewer expectation. And this tension, which creates an attachment to the candidates, encourages viewers to follow these aspiring chefs. Few French people know the names of the new Michelin-starred chefs for 2019. However, many know that Stéphanie Le Quellec has been awarded her second star and that Guillaume Sanchez, Jérémy Izarn and Naoëlle d'Hainaut have been awarded a well-deserved first star. Articles headlined"Michelin: these former Top Chef candidates have been awarded a star", "Guide Michelin 2019: Guillaume Sanchez gets his first star" or "Guide Michelin 2019: These former Top Chef candidates have been awarded their first star" were very numerous and made the front page for several days.

Chefs, Instagrammable TV characters

WhenJoël Robuchon, the world's most Michelin-starred chef, appeared on television, viewers were watching a chef. There was no way of knowing the personality of this culinary genius, and no way of getting a glimpse into his personal life. Today's cooking shows, and in particular Top Chef, present chefs who are much more humanized. Viewers are invited to discover these gastronomic monsters face to face. The jury, made up of Hélène Darroze, Philippe Etchebest, Jean-François Piège and Michel Sarran, is an association of different, complementary personalities - and characters.

Hélène Darroze embodies the maternal figure, smiling and caring. She's the female counterpart to Michel Sarran, whose gentle, open-minded personality often makes him prefer candidates with the craziest culinary personalities. Jean-François Piège and Philippe Etchebest, on the other hand, represent the uprightness of the chef. They are the embodiment of a profession with extremely strict codes. With this in mind, the narrative sequences are in full swing, and viewers are amused every week to see a robust Philippe Etchebest and an endearing Michel Sarran squabbling.Each of these gastronomic figures is a real television character. They could be considered stereotypes, but above all they are close to the viewer.They are now only mentors to the show's candidates, and only address viewers directly to comment on the episodes. Culinary advice is given to the young chefs, and is no longer primarily intended to pass on knowledge to viewers. In other words, the Chef no longer adopts a vertical posture in which he provides the viewer with access to knowledge. The relationship is now horizontal: the chef has become an entity in his own right within the television format. Here again, Top Chef is a prime example: in recent seasons, starred chefs have been invited to enter the game and put themselves at risk.They are no longer mere judges, they are now competitors.

On the show, which has been renamed Top Chef le choc des brigades, each contestant must put together a team, or brigade, at the start of the season. The objective is simple: to take one of their candidates to the final and beat the other chefs' brigades. In the end, they are the kings of the show, and it's the name of the Chef who took his or her colt to the top that will stand out next to that of the lucky winner. Starred and recognized, these chefs take the risk of seeing their candidates leave before those of their colleagues, and of being awarded the title of worst judge.But the risk is worth it. And for good reason: these shows give a monstrous amount of visibility to these talented chefs, who are now real stars on social media. The program's broadcast periods are no longer the only media opportunities for them.

They represent extremely strong communities who follow them on Instagram and support their work outside the show. Hélène Darroze has 248,000 followers, Jean-François Piège 321,000, Michel Sarran 65,000, and Philippe Etchebest 244,000.This high media profile is a boon for these chefs, who can use it to broaden their horizons. Many chefs with media coverage have left their kitchens and starred status to embark on new projects. " Paul Bocuse was the first to say to chefs: "Get out of your kitchen and become entrepreneurs!"" says Thierry Marx, who has followed this advice to the letter. The former Top Chef judge is now at the head of a veritable food empire. He has two restaurants to his credit, one of which is double starred, a consulting agency, a dozen bakery-sandwich shops and a fast-food restaurant. In addition, the Chef has set up numerous partnerships with brands such as Lustucru, Badoit, Savéol and Feed. But he also uses his notoriety for the common good, and has set up cooking schools for people far from employment. And Thierry Marx is no UFO. The starification of culinary talent has helped to raise the status of the chef, and above all of the culinary professions in general. Chefs are no longer the playful mouthpieces of cookery books, but reflect the chef's profession, opening up the backstage world of the restaurant business to the French.

3. The chef as ambassador for the culinary professions

The figure of the Chef in the service of transforming representations of the profession: from housework to an art that is difficult to attain

These cooking shows offer a window onto the culinary professions, as embodied by the chefs themselves. We're a long way from the twentieth-century cook reciting recipes in front of the cameras, and today's Chefs are portrayed in a context closer to their day-to-day professional lives. Thanks to Top Chef and many other shows of this type, viewers enter an atmosphere more akin to that of a restaurant kitchen. It's easy to see the strong hierarchical nature of these professions - with star chefs reflecting the role of the chef de brigade, and aspiring chefs the clerks - but also the difficulties faced by practitioners in the sector. With stress in the kitchen, tension in the teams and accumulated fatigue, nothing is hidden from the viewer about the harshness of the profession.

This is helping to change the way the profession is portrayed. Cooking is no longer seen as a household chore, but as an art form. The housewives under 50 targeted by programs such asArt et magie de la cuisine is long gone (we won't go into the anachronism of this marketing concept here). Gastronomy is no longer portrayed in television competitions as an activity to be carried out at home. It is now seen as a complex skill that requires not only talent but also, and above all, intense training.

Today, a cultural distinction is made between cooking and gastronomy, and is represented by Chefs. In fact, cooking is not totally absent from program schedules, as it finds its place on shows such asUn dîner presque parfait, a cooking competition between amateurs who invite each other to dine at each other's homes for a week, broadcast on W9. What formats like Top Chef present is French gastronomy. And what this distinction teaches viewers is that, while everyday cooking requires application, attention to detail and training, gastronomy requires solid, demanding training.

Television and chefs create vocations

The focus is no longer on recipes, but on talent - the talent of today and the talent of tomorrow. The embodiment of the latter by complex, well-constructed characters is essential, because it creates a vocation. Bybecoming characters in their own right, Michelin-starred chefs and up-and-coming chefs enable viewers to identify with them. The repetition of technical terms, meanwhile, gives web surfers the illusion ofentering somewhat into the secrets of the profession, and thus of envisioning a place for themselves within it. Everyone now knows what the word 'snacker' means", says Olivier Roger, "so vocations are not long in coming! For a number of years now, cooking schools have been inundated with students, and many are talking about a "Top Chef effect".Top Chef effect". Qui sera le prochain grand pâtissier? (France 2) and Le meilleur pâtissier de France (M6), for their part, have fuelled a "very strong demand for pastry chefs", as Parisian school Ferrandi points out. L'Atelier des chefs, one of the market leaders, has also seen a huge rise, reporting that between 2005 and 2012, the number of participants multiplied by 25.

Conclusion

Great chefs and gastronomy have always had their place on television. The French are passionate about food, and never tire of consuming formats dedicated to the subject. However, programs have evolved considerably since the early days of TV. The way chefs are portrayed has also changed over the years. Up until the 2000s, there was a vertical relationship in which the chef, as holder of the knowledge, passed on practical advice to his viewers, who were expected to be predominantly female. With the arrival of Oui Chef and Cyril Lignac, the trend changed, and the media coverage of chefs changed. Shows like Top Chef help to spectacularize cooking and make chefs into stars. Chefs are the gateway to restaurant kitchens. They showcase the difficulty of the profession, transforming the way most French people think about it: from everyday cooking to gastronomy defined as an art form. These shows are seen as vocation-builders for young and not-so-young alike, who identify with the star chefs and contestants.