essential A restaurant in difficulty, a chief in distress and the muscular intervention of Philippe Etchebest. This Friday, April 18, M6 broadcasts an episode of “nightmare in the kitchen” shot in Albi. Back on the journey of Alexandre Bravi, passionate but suspended restaurateur.
The story had everything to be beautiful. An emblematic Albigensian table for almost 40 years, taken up by the second of the chief retired. In October 2022, chef Georges Bermond definitively ranked his apron and sold his restaurant, “Le Jardin des Quatre seasons”, to Alexandre Bravi.
This forty cook, originally from Lozère, made her weapons in this house: first as an apprentice, then as a second. In parallel with its caterer activity, this recovery seemed a natural suite … before the dream turned to the nightmare.
“The restaurant was walking well, I even obtained a distinction in Gault & Millau, explains Alexandre Bravi. But early 2024, everything collapsed: customers fell, the charges exploded …” The latter now reach almost 14,000 euros monthly. “To be profitable, you would have to make around forty covers a day … But we are far from the account,” says the chief.
“I relaunched the show because I was really in distress”
At the start, Alexandre could count on a server and a second in the kitchen. He had to separate from the latter, before making a more radical decision at the end of 2024: calling on Philippe Etchebest, via his cult show “Nightmare in the kitchen”.
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“He’s a friend who took the first step, admits Alexandre. I relaunched the show because I was really in distress … Then there were contacts.” When one day in February, the cameras disembark massively in his establishment, he is told about a simple portrait. “But I quickly understood that it was the show … and that Philippe Etchebest was going to arrive.”
The shooting of this nightmare in Albigensian cuisine extended over four days, two of which in the presence of Chef Etchebest. Locked up for secret, Alexandre Bravi cannot reveal the content of the show, broadcast this Friday, April 18 at 9:10 p.m. on M6. But according to the synopsis delivered by the chain, the atmosphere promises to be full -bodied: “The experience will be more than disappointing for the chef who, for a meal, will discover a hesitant server, a decoration of another time, dishes that leave something to be desired, and above all … a boss who seems to not tell the whole truth!”
“Philippe Etchebest is very nice out of camera”
Despite a certain apprehension before the broadcast, Alexandre has good memories of the experience. “Philippe Etchebest is very nice out of camera. He even reminded me several times after filming to get news, it comes to heart.”
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He readily admits: “I wanted to show that we are struggling … I’ve been doing this job for 25 years. I try to work only with local products, but attendance is always random.” Located on the other side of the Tarn, in an unreported street, the restaurant suffers from its distance from the city center. “People focus too much on the center. With the show, I also wanted to advertise myself, and it must be said that my kitchen equipment was obsolete …”
From the shooting, the restaurant has been completely revamped with a more contemporary decoration. On the map side, only a dish designed with Philippe Etchebest was integrated there, pending broadcasting.
Alexandre proudly displays the knives and the apron offered by the chief in memory. And despite the uncertainties, he keeps hope: “I hope that the broadcast of the show will do us good … But if it does not leave in a few months, I will close, while keeping. My caterer activity.”
