Epic and spectacular, gastronomic, but not always very appetizing, this semi-final “Best Chef” between Arnaud Delvenn, Louise Burra and Sebastian Renard played out in blood and tears. Everyone can imagine a test that will make it difficult for others, who, if they manage to beat him, will score a point … In this game, Louise and Arnaud are out of the game when Sebastien stumbles over his mat. And finished 3rd.
Arno opens the ball with a theme in his image, emotional and humorous: tuna fishing. Understanding fruits in syrup and canned tuna, a typical dish for all young Belgians, which leaves Louise speechless, as well as the foremen: “Oh, because this dish exists? exclaims Paul Peret, a little smaller than Sebastian, who grew up close to the flat country.
A local at the stop comes with peach ravioli stuffed with raw tuna on tuna tataki squares, Sebastian with fresh peach cannelloni and syrup he struggles to sell – “It’s not pretty if you use it like this, we take the box”, warns Pare. “It’s disgusting old slammed tuna,” Louise can’t help opening the cans. Louise, who plays the humor card and paints a fish, a peach and a fishing rod with her elements on her plate. Does he want to play? We go to play,” she laughs. Audacity that doesn’t pay off, at the tasting: Philippe Etchebeste and the Belgian double-star Sang Hun Deheimbre put Arnaud in first place. The scores remain at zero.
“It’s a horror movie”
Player, Louise, definitely. Just one step away from the finale, she prepared a big surprise for her friends: a dessert made from pig blood and chicken liver. Explains the “little satanic smile” that Arnaud brought to Louise’s face… “Inwardly they are panicking,” thinks the one who has her dessert in his pocket, a pudding with black pudding and dried fruit, a pear boiled in hibiscus, and ice cream with chicken liver … “It’s a horror movie,” slips Paul Peret. It’s a bit like that… We make pastry creams with blood, we make pancakes with blood, caramel, ice cream or chocolate ganache with blood… It flows and thickens, red, red. Oh my god, but we’re preparing a Dracula tea party!
Arnaud starts with a blood pancake with chocolate foie cream. Nicely. “Almost a snag, it looks like a dessert,” Etchebest laughs at the wording of the test, not without a grimace. It’s also good. Sebastien ventures into raw foie gras in ceviche. Ole! “Net from home, gross from gross,” notes Italian Simone Zanoni, who is familiar with MOF. Neither Arnaud nor Sebastien will surpass Louise’s cake. The account remains zero and empty.
Therefore, it is played on the last trial, the trial of Sebastian. Succeeding under pressure, the waiter suggests revisiting hare à la royale, a classic French gastronomy dish that usually takes two days to prepare. They only have two hours. A race against the clock, in which he rushes headlong, like the war machine we saw him become, with force and with a roar, bringing down the butcher’s skin on the carcass … This is because the hare is intact. Cut, empty, debit… Obviously smells great!
Louise’s Secret Weapon
To avoid gagging and keep our hearts in good spirits, Arno plugs his nostrils with rolled up paper towels. “Where are we?”, Glenn Veeel tries to get up. “In a mess,” the candidate trumpets. and Arnaud, for that matter, but she has a secret weapon, the notebook of her great-great-grandmother, a cook in the Château de Loire at the turn of the 19th century. it in the mind and modernize it with smoked eel, oyster leaves, citrus fruits.
“What creativity! There is a lot of delicacy in this dish,” notes three-star Christian Le Square, who supports Etchebest in choosing between three plates. Left ball in the head, Sebastian struggled to cook, Etchebest regrets the hardness of the panuflé wrapped around the medallion. His sauce is “beautiful” to Le Squer, who still notes that the meat is too pink. Arno’s plate also seduces, despite the not too academic airy apple and with disturbing bitterness…
This is the end, an hour of balance in front of the bells that hide the result, a moment of tender words, congratulations or consolation against the backdrop of the cello. Take out your handkerchiefs… “My career is a reflection of my life,” admits Arnaud. A very atypical, but emotionally crazy thing.” Louise admits to her “Imposter Syndrome” at the beginning and says that she is “peaceful”. “Whatever is under the bell, I have already won,” she smiles. Both deserved a place in the final.
Sebastian stops. “I hope I don’t disappoint anyone,” he breathes, maintaining a smile and optimism no matter what. And Paul Peret to assure him of his pride, to congratulate him and to take him on his last plane tour of the plateau to celebrate his journey and his semi-final.