PortraitIf the banter of the very media chef appeals to the political world, in the world of gastronomy it leaves some people unmoved.
First, they thought it was a joke. One evening in April 2020, the phone rang in the country house of Philippe and Dominique Etchebest, in the Dordogne, where the couple was staying during the first confinement.
“Good evening, it’s Bruno Le Maire.
– Ah, very funny! So, who is it?
– Uh, no, seriously, it’s Bruno Le Maire. “
They go through the list of prankster buddies, suggest a few first names, but the interlocutor insists: “I really thought they were going to hang up on me! “ For their part, the Etchebest spouses realize their blunder: “We weren’t ready at all! “ ” Therefore, says the chef, I let go. Everything came out. Since the minister [de l’économie] bothered to call me, might as well tell him things to his face. ” The terrible distress of the profession faced with the closure of establishments. The fear of having to lay off workers, or even going out of business. The prohibition to work, the anxiety attacks, the panic of the apprentices… The rents, the invoices, the drafts to be paid without the slightest penny in the cash register. “We said things to each other, I want to say ‘man to man’, lets go Mr. Etchebest. Maybe he’s not used to being told real things, but I am as I am. “
Michel Drucker is accustomed to say that it is rare for a woman or a television man to be the same person on screen and in real life. Obviously, Philippe Etchebest, 54, a star at the Le Quatrième Mur brewery in Bordeaux, previously two stars in Saint-Emilion (Gironde), is.
Best worker in France in 2000, over the years he has become the very media chef of “Top Chef” and “Cauchemar en cuisine”, two of M6’s most watched shows. In the second, the most popular chef in France – he directly settled, in January, in seventh place in the Top 50 of the Sunday newspaper – lands in shabby places. The principle is always the same: a good big rise of the suspenders followed by a rescue in order of the establishment.
Zoom meeting with the Elysée
For a year, Philippe Etchebest has become the unofficial spokesperson for an entire profession, from the multi-star restaurant to the crêperie on the corner of the street. Seated at his desk which overlooks the Garonne in the heart of Bordeaux, he stares you straight in the eye with his fighting bull physique: “I could not play on television the one who saves restaurateurs and do nothing when the nightmare became real and national. I would no longer have been legitimate, credible. I had a duty, a mission to intervene and make my voice heard. “
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