“Top Chef”, season 14, episode 9: “My mother, she flies with chef Paul Pairet! »

2023-04-27 01:06:22

“I’m going to cry like a madeleine,” breathes Jean. His mother has just appeared on the set of “Top Chef” at the start of the test. She’s the one who made him want to cook and see her there… Those of Carla, Hugo, Jérémie and Mathieu arrive in line for a great emotional sequence. Still follow Sarika’s uncle, Albane’s best friend. Previously, the seven candidates had discovered Michel Roth’s Fabergé-style macaroni egg under a glass bell. The dish with which the chef won his Bocuse d’Or in 1991.

“I like events like that, where you can taste,” slips Jean le gourmand. Their mission: to sublimate the pasta by the visual and the taste. The aesthetics will be judged by relatives, the taste by the Best Open in France (MOF) and double starred. They are still seven in play. Carla will evolve alone, decided Philippe Etchebest. “So that she can control her emotions and her self-confidence. She leaves on green cartons. Colors too, green and pink, among the Violets. Launched into the braiding of a ravioli, Sarika took the lead and made Jean work. “I tend not to load my mule too much, he breathes. I have never run so much during an event”, he is out of breath.

“We are all about the balloons! says Jeremy. “Oh la la, that expression of boomer “, laughs John. Ravioli also for the men of Glenn Viel, but placed in a crab carcass. “I don’t believe in it,” warns the triple star. Because you can’t see the dough. They will finally place a veil of seaweed paste in a chiffonade on top. Three colors also for Hugo and Albane, black, green and yellow.

“She loves the macabre”

It is up to loved ones to designate their favorite plate. Jean’s mother chooses that of her son. “Yes, mom! “, explodes the latter. Hugo’s, Carla’s cartons. “Yes, I love your mother!” “Launches the candidate. Trying to recognize the work of one’s loved one, the exercise has a little “Z’amours” side. Mathieu’s mother does not hesitate and targets the crab. “She saw a carcass, she said it’s Mathieu,” laughs Carla. “She likes the macabre”, launches the latter. Albane and Hugo have three points, Carla two, the Violets and the Oranges each have one.

To Michel Roth to taste. He appreciates Carla’s berlingots, salutes the work of Sarika and Jean, a dish that “deserves to be in a gourmet restaurant”. The brown crab lacks salt and acidity, and the Albane and Hugo paste lacks seasoning. First in appearance, they are penultimate in taste. Only Mathieu and Jérémie do worse. All go to the elimination round. Sarika and Jean’s ravioli wins. And the Violets to fly around the studio, as a family. “My mother, she flies with chef Paul Pairet, my whole family will be disgusted,” laughs Jean.

After having sublimated it, the candidates in the hot seat must this time eliminate the dough from the pie, salty or sweet, as requested by the pastry chef Julien Dugourd. The mask of bitterness on his face, Hugo is back. “I hate to lose, I never give up,” he hisses, all to his vegetable pie on a background of hazelnuts. Albane opts for an all-artichoke pie with coffee, Mathieu for a butternut vol-au-vent to be breaded and fried.

Tiramisu… with anchovies

At the tasting, Dugourg finds a lack of finesse and crispness, a lack of texture also for Albane. He salutes Hugo’s work, but it’s for the forest tart on Jérémie’s potato base that he melts. “He is succeeding in bringing me back to my grandmother’s time, I think it’s exceptional, he smiles with emotion. You bring him in front of me, I jump into his arms”

What he does when announcing that he qualifies Jérémie, then Hugo. Glenn Viel decides between Mathieu and Albane blind. We expect it, she too who seems to be preparing for the sentence with her head bowed, Albane leaves. “I got a little lost and Top Boss did me a lot of good, she sniffles, her eyes misty with tears. And I found myself, I felt myself with you (…). It’s too short when you’re happy like that. »

One of the grains of madness of the season is eclipsed. We find him briefly in “Hidden Brigade”. In an attempt to dethrone Danny, Albane tries an anchovy tiramisu. Cheeky. “If I don’t, he’ll take over. No way ! “, she lets go, “angry as ever”. Danny brings out a crème brûlée, apple pearls and cotton candy to flambé. And put an eighth name on his hunting board.