“Philippe Etchebest was sad that I am leaving”, says Charline Stengel


Charline, youngest of season 12 of “Top Chef” – Marie ETCHEGOYEN / M6

  • M6 broadcast this Wednesday the seventh episode of season 12 of Top chef.
  • Challenged on the theme of the leek, Charline Stengel failed to beat her two competitors in the last chance event.
  • “I was as paralyzed as the others, if not more” when I arrived on the show, she said to 20 minutes.

The youngest of the season puts away her knives. Charline Stengel, candidate for Philippe Etchebest’s brigade, was eliminated from Top chef this Wednesday. The one who won Top Chef Objective last December had everything to make his way to the finals of the season but his journey ended after seven weeks of competition. “It was really not easy at the beginning”, confides the young cook to 20 minutes.

Five months after the end of filming, what do you remember from this last episode?

I only remember the positive because I had two great last events with Glenn Viel and Jacques and Régis Marcon. Cooking in the forest was the most memorable event and with these two great chefs it was great, we got lots of compliments. And after, the last chance, I lost but I gave everything I had and I had a great time.

When Philippe Etchebest says he was not your level at your age, does that particularly affect you?

These are strong words, they touch me a lot. Afterwards, I am very sad to be leaving because it was a great experience and I would have liked to continue. The only thing I was afraid of was disappointing him but he told me he wasn’t so that’s the main thing. He came to see me afterwards to tell me that I had had a very good trip. He was sad that I was leaving but he was always very nice to me.

Have participated in Top Chef Objective, was this an advantage or a disadvantage compared to the other candidates?

I think that for the management of the cameras and the journalists, it is a small advantage but it is still a much bigger, much harder competition. So I had even more pressure, so in the end it was like starting over from scratch. I was as paralyzed as the others, if not more (laughs). I just hallucinated about the size of the set, the number of people there were to handle it all. It’s a huge competition, it’s a crazy thing. I was very happy and very proud to be there but when you see the kitchens, you tell yourself it’s going to be sport.

In this episode, you take your marks against Matthias. At the start of the competition, we felt that it was more difficult. Did you feel the same way it was shown on the show?

It’s shot the way I felt it. He didn’t trust me, I had a hard time asserting myself and it was really not easy at first. It hurt my heart a little because you don’t necessarily feel you belong. It’s not easy, but then we talked and things got better. I think it’s thanks to the discussion we had, we trusted each other afterwards, we just had to discuss. We took each other apart to discuss it, and each give our feelings.

When we say that the kitchen has been a man’s world for decades, what is your take on the question, you who land in the middle to less than 20 years?

I find that things are really starting to change, that there are no differences in cooking between men and women. Admittedly, it takes a little more to show that you are there and that you have character so as not to be walked on, but frankly, I have never had any problems with men in the kitchen. I think we are all equal in this job.

Today, you work in a gourmet restaurant …

I am at Christian Têtedoie in Lyon, as a kitchen assistant. This is my first kitchen job as an employee. I only did two weeks because after I went to Top chef. And then we confined, so it went well during these two weeks but I was working the competition and I had my head in the handlebars.