Georgiana Viou: is the new Masterchef juror in a relationship?

It’s a big comeback. After seven years off the air, master chef returns to our screens, this time on France 2. Agathe Lecaron takes control of the cooking show. This year, 18 candidates will compete and only nine of them will be able to pass the stage of the first episode. At the end of the show, it is indeed 100,000 euros that are at stake. Enough to make the mouths of its amateur cooks water. But beware, facing them, a formidable jury. Made up of three great talents in the kitchen, this very strict little group is made up of Thierry Marx, former member of the Top Chef jury, Yves Camdeborde, already present in four seasons of Masterchef and the finalist of the very first season of the show : Georgiana Viou.

Georgiana Viou was not predestined to become a chef

If for some, this name does not mean much to you, this chef is actually a real personality in her community. Born in 1977 in Benin, the one who holds a degree in Foreign Literature and Civilizations at the Sorbonne was not predestined to become a chef. Passionate and self-taught, she still won third place in the Taittinger des Cordons Bleus culinary prize. It was in 2010 that a friend enrolled her in master chef. Following her participation, she cut her teeth in prestigious establishments such as La Villa Khariessa, in Martigues, in the Bouches-du-Rhône or La Maison Kaiseki in Paris. It is in the South, in Marseille, that the young woman will open her very first restaurant.

Is the Masterchef juror in a relationship?

Listening and very close to the candidates, Georgiana Viou will do her best to pass on her passion for cooking. But on the heart side, what do we know about this new member of the Masterchef jury. During an interview for the magazine zenchef, the chef had revealed some details about her private life. While making a point of thanking Philippe Guguen, the founder of Cityvox, the former candidate of master chef spoke about his family life: “It was my way of training myself to cook in the Mediterranean way and to have my dishes tasted by people other than my children, my husband and the few friends I had at the time. It lasted three years. When I left, I was pregnant with my daughter and Philippe offered me a plane ticket to Benin, because I was thinking of developing my project there”.

The confidences of Georgiana Viou on her first steps in the show Masterchef

Married and mother, Georgiana Viou leads a fast life. But she does not forget where she comes from and remembered with emotion the call of the production of master chef which told her that she had been selected to participate in the program: “The phone call for MasterChef, I received it, while I was between two round trips to prepare for my departure to Benin. A friend of the Cityvox guide had registered me without telling me”. Grateful, the chef discovered another facet of the profession thanks to the program : “This show made me known to the general public and taught me that you could cook four plates in an hour, while being under pressure. (…) The first season was unique, we had a very close relationship human with them, they gave us real feedback on what we produced”.

Georgiana Viou: “With three children, going to a cooking school like Bocuse or Ferrandi was not really an option”

For her, the advice and remarks of the jurors at the time helped her a lot to move forward : “What I was doing was not extraordinary, but when Yves Camdeborde says to you: ‘You may not be very young, but you have something in your hands, you just have to find your way’, and Well you don’t let go”. Georgiana Viou also remembers how she had to manage her family and her participation in master chef : “With three children, doing a cooking school like Bocuse or Ferrandi was not really an option. so I went to knock on the door of some great chefs in Marseille. When the show called me to be part of the jury this year, I immediately accepted, because I found the story beautiful. I told them ‘Myself, I would have called myself'”.

Georgiana Viou, a woman of character

Fighting and determined, Georgiana Viou is a woman of character. “I don’t want to sound pretentious when I say this, but I’ve had a lot of hard times, turnarounds and I haven’t let up. When I had to stop my studies, when I got divorced, when my ‘associate’ kicked me out of my own restaurant Chez Georgiana in Marseille, a year after it opened, when I had no shares in it… I already wondered how I was going to pay my rent !”she confides with emotion, before continuing: “People see me as a woman who is always smiling, but that’s not always the case. I was taught to put on a good face. I often say jokingly that if I didn’t fall, it’s because I have big buttocks. Today they are worn out. If I fell, I couldn’t get up again”. Heartbreaking confidences for the one who will therefore try to find her place as a juror in master chef.

Her touching secrets about her life as a mom

But Georgiana Viou will never forget where she went to become the woman but above all the mother she is today. : “I got pregnant, it was not really planned. I stopped my studies to take care of my son Steven. When he started school, I decided to embark on my other great passion: cooking. I moved to Marseille. I just wanted to open a small shop there, very simple, where I would have made sandwiches and improved salads for lunch, behind a counter”she reveals, before talking about her childhood: “I found it easier than going back to school because, for me, cooking was something innate. Until then, I thought I would rather open a restaurant when I retired. I was brought up with the idea that having a restaurant was not a job, rather a ‘hobby’ as my mother used to say. My mom had her restaurant quite late, after several other jobs such as that of a clothes saleswoman”.