Hosted by chef Vincent Dion-Lavallée and Hélène Bourgeois Leclerc, the “Le Restaurant” culinary competition, whose filming has just begun, promises a foray into the world of catering from a new angle.
“We are really here to show the other side of catering and show the stress in the kitchen. And not just the stress of having an allotted time to do a challenge or create a recipe, but also because there are customers in the room waiting,” said the host, who will also play the role of chef. hotel, in this new culinary competition bridging the dining room and the kitchen.
The viewer will thus have access, with this formula, to the entrepreneurial side of cooking. An aspect that will also be reflected in the themes addressed, mentioned the actress during an interview with the QMI Agency on Tuesday.
Recreate the “day-to-day”
This new competition aims to recreate “the daily life” of restaurateurs to help competitors who dream of opening their own restaurant to perfect their offer and their concept. Profitability, profitability, waste, but also the adaptation of menus to satisfy people in a hurry, families or those who want to rest for a long time, will all be elements taken into consideration during the evaluations. “It’s a bit of the reality that restaurateurs will experience during their career. It’s really a “day-to-day” that happens in a restaurant and we base ourselves on that to do the challenges,” said Vincent Dion-Lavallée without being able to reveal too much, adding that it will be interesting to see the energy differences between what happens in the dining room compared to what happens in the kitchen.
In each episode, around forty customers will have to choose – at their discretion – and evaluate a dish from among the three proposals that will be made available to them. One candidate could therefore end up with 25 orders for their dish, while another could only have three.
At the end of the service, the clients and the judge-mentor, revealed to the general public in the program “Un chef à la hut”, will each have to protect a candidate. The third will be eliminated. But beware! Taste will not be the only criterion evaluated. The proposal as a whole will be examined with a magnifying glass, to know if it is complete or not, its price, its cohesion and the respect of the theme will also influence the notes, said the chef on Tuesday. Consistency and inventory management will also have their weight in the final result.
The winner will win a $50,000 scholarship to help open their restaurant.
A big secret still hangs over the competition, which won’t be shown on TV until the fall. The QMI Agency, however, learned that the 12 candidates would come from quite disparate universes and backgrounds, although the culinary level of the participants was quite high. We also know that one of the candidates, who has complete training in pastry and baking, wants to open her lunch/brunch restaurant, while others dream of opening gourmet restaurants or refreshment bars.
“We could have done a complete “show” on gourmet cuisine. There was so much talent [in the candidates], but we wanted something more colorful, more “Restoration in general in Quebec”. And that’s what’s the fun. It’s not because you want to open a bar or a Mexican counter that it’s necessarily less good than a gourmet restaurant, “said the chef of the Cabane d’à Côté, located in Mirabel.
“Le Restaurant”, which is currently filming at Hoogan and Beaufort, will be presented next fall at Zeste.
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