The Top Chef show returns this Wednesday, February 16 on M6! Fifteen candidates will try to impress chefs Philip Etchebest and Hélène Darroze to win up to 100,000 euros. In 2021, the show had achieved a historic start: 3.7 million viewers. The French have never watched cooking shows so much since confinement. To the point of pushing some to get started. In Bordeaux, the Alice et Délice utensil shop has been full of customers since the pandemic.
At the back of the store, Romain scrutinizes the cake servers, the cake department no longer holds any secrets for him. However, before confinement, he was content to reheat pastaboxes. “I became an expert, I make pizzas, pies”, explains the young lawyer. He immersed himself in the kitchen to keep busy during the pandemic. The kitchen has become for him “a discipline”, which punctuated his days. “Once you’ve tasted it, you want to go further.“
On the other side of the aisle, Monique, retired, is looking for a dish to cook lasagna. She also took advantage of the confinement to take out the apron. Basically, “It wasn’t his thing”. But she got down to it, because she was tired of eating anything. Monique bought cookbooks, she also asked her friends for advice. And there it is in the middle of the kitchen utensils. “I quite like that. I buy myself molds and accessories. I’m still missing something, actually”, she jokes.
Customers looking for utensils seen on TV
Other customers are interested in cooking while watching programs on TV. “They tell us they want an accessory they saw on Cyril Lignac’s show”, explains Margaux, saleswoman. The Microplane [qui sert à râper des aliments] of the famous chef was in high demand by customers. Consumers also buy saucepans, knives or torches, one of the best-selling utensils of the year.
– radiofrance
From the world to the cooking workshops of the Girondin chef Jesus Hurtado
Since confinement, Girondin chef Jesus Hurtado has been organizing online cooking classes to reach a wider audience. He is selling more and more gift certificates for a cooking class.
According to him, the craze for cooking since confinement is “unpublished”. The halt caused by the Covid prompted the French to take their time more. “We say to ourselves that putting a Bourguignon or a veal blanquette on the fire is not that complicated”. Chef Jesus also remembers having started making his own sourdough bread during confinement. He wasn’t the only one. According to Santé Publique France, 36% of French people say they started cooking during this period.