Renowned chef, Meilleur Ouvrier de France, TV host, Philippe Etchebest is one of the most popular faces of the small screen in France. Married to Dominique, with whom he built his distinguished career, he is also the father of Oscar-Louis, adopted in Mexico at the age of 15 months in 2005. An unforgettable event of which he shared some memories with TV Starin March 2020. “We found ourselves stuck for seven weeks in a fifteen square meter hotel room in a country we didn’t know with a fifteen month old child. We even grilled sausages on the radiator. It was difficult but today we laugh about it.” In total, the wait lasted five years for the couple. But the game is worth it! And it is not Philippe Etchebest who will say the opposite.
Philippe Etchebest: “It’s a very difficult course”
Saturday April 6, 2024, the chef who officiates in the new season of Top Chef spoke about this adoption that he will never forget. Guest of the Rencontres du Papotin, he confided: “I had a son called Charles, I had a child before. It was a real obstacle course to adopt, it lasted almost five years. It’s a very difficult journey emotionally. kind of emotional elevator: one day you’re told ‘you’re going to have a child’ and another day you’re told ‘oh no, it’s not good’. A lot of things happen before the final result”. One day, after so much waiting, Philippe Etchebest and his wife receive a call that turns their lives upside down. The couple goes to Mexico. Here again, the memories are still intact for the chef: “I remember the first time we went to the orphanage to see our son, it was an incredible moment. At first, I had a little difficulty with the adoption. And the day I I took him in my arms, I said to myself, ‘He’s actually my son’. It was a very powerful moment.”.