“If I come, it’s not to collect the crumbs”: Pierre Gagnaire reveals his ambitions in the new season of Top Chef!

Top Chef will soon be back on screens to the delight of the public. For the 15th anniversary of the show, we had to mark the occasion. On the program, many twists and turns await viewers. The most unexpected is the arrival of a seventh chef among the jury and not the least. The starred chef Pierre Gagnaire who will be at the head of the hidden brigade. Never before seen in the program!

Last year, the public was kept in suspense in the second part of the evening thanks to the Hidden Brigade led by Hélène Darroze. Impossible to forget the prowess of Danny Khezzar, eliminated in the second week, who made a spectacular comeback to reach the final. Faced with such enthusiasm, the production decided to renew the concept as Stéphane Rottenberg explained during a press conference:“This season will have a hidden brigade again, it was a huge success last year. As Hélène was back in the competition, another chef was needed”. However, the chef recognizes it, she would not have been against repeating this experience: “At the start, I would have had a good start but as I was told that there was none, I didn’t fight”.

Indeed, for the leaders, the hidden brigade had no reason to exist this year, even if the questions arose. Philippe Etchebest admits: “we asked ourselves a lot of questions, really a lot of questions. Even at one point we said to ourselves, no, nothing is going to happen. They turned it upside down for us because we were arriving at a phase of the competition where we thought there was going to be a hidden brigade, ultimately it didn’t happen so we said to ourselves that there would be There wasn’t any. It was a nice surprise!”

An opinion shared by Paul Pairet:“It was a real surprise because I will tell you that a few days before the reveal, I heard the rumor that Pierre Gagnaire had not come on set as a guest and that it might have been him who was at the head of the hidden brigade. But it was so improbable that we said “no, it’s not possible”.

However, Pierre Gagnaire has indeed agreed to be the seventh juror of this 15th edition of Top Chef. A challenge that he particularly appreciated: “We fully enter into the intimacy of the candidates and it’s true that I became attached to all these people, to all these characters. Like everyone else, I was very skeptical of this Top Chef story and it’s true that ultimately it’s very well done, it’s very professional. It’s honest, there’s no cheating, no shenanigans.”

A major adversary as Hélène Darroze expresses it: “When we saw that it was Pierre we laughed less.”

And for good reason, the starred chef is ready to fight. The message is clear : “We are all competitors. We want to be on the podium. If I come it is not to collect the crumbs”.