It was in his restaurant, Moccione in Villeray in Montreal, that the winner of season 13 chose to watch the thrilling finale with his team and loved ones on Monday evening. The opportunity to celebrate after having kept this precious secret for several months.
Back for this all-star season on ICI Télé, the candidate of the second season won over the two candidates from the Quebec region, Guillaume Couture from season 10, and Antoine Vien, from season 11, as tough as talented.
A high-flying fight, without disaster and very close.
“I really have three winners in front of me,” their coach Colombe St-Pierre told them, before Élyse Marquis revealed the name of the winner.
Moved to tears when he saw his loved ones send him their wishes at the start of the evening, dad Luca triumphed with his daughter on his shoulders at the end of the show, an irresistible image.
Friendly and motivated, Luca displayed a flawless performance throughout this 13th season, without ever having to go to the duel and come close to elimination. (Marc-André Lapierre)
“We see that time has flown since the old editions of Chiefs!, we already have a mini-brigade, it’s perfect!” observed the host.
Inspired by the imposed theme of the four elements (earth, water, air and fire), Luca’s very appetizing four-course gastronomic menu had the judges salivating, from the cold starter to the dessert, ” to die for,” according to Isabelle Deschamps-Plante, in admiration.
“It exploded in the mouth. It was divine, crispy, soft, it was wow!” added Jean-Luc Boulay about this revisited version of tiramisu, a typically Italian dessert, this time composed of a biscuit soaked in coffee and porcini mushrooms, like “a pot of flowers that sprouts in spring,” summed up Luca.
“It’s one of the best tiramisus I’ve eaten,” said Normand Laprise. Nothing less.
Continuing the theme, his cold seafood starter represented water, his hot maple-smoked trout starter symbolized fire, while his main course, duck with chamomile sauce, recalled air.
The judges had to rack their brains to find one negative comment about Luca’s four-course gourmet menu, other than that his presentation was perhaps a little messy.
“When something is messy, I say it’s rustic!” jokes Luca, who says he was nevertheless upset by the siphons used to garnish his main dish.
“They increased the pressure so much that it exploded at the plate. They had to do a lot of editing because I really wasn’t in a good mood,” the 33-year-old chef told me.
Friendly and motivated, Luca displayed a flawless performance throughout this 13th season, without ever having to go to the duel and come close to elimination.
The winner believes his stress management made the difference. “We have experienced so much stress in recent years [avec la pandémie] that the competition of Chiefs!for me, it was a game,” he told me over the phone.
However, he had asked for a week of reflection when he was asked to return to Chiefs!
“We still have things to lose, at this point in our career. I consulted my partners, my wife and business partner Maxime. Everyone said that The Chiefs! have a positive goal and are not in the spirit of disrupting the world. Even if you leave at the beginning, the general public will like you. And then, I’m competitive but I don’t have a lot of pride, I like to have fun, I don’t need to win all the time,” says the man who played soccer until he was old. 20 years old.
Luca admits it: the presence of Guillaume Couture in the competition convinced him to return to Chiefs! him too.
“We worked together for almost six years at Le Toqué! When we opened Moccione, Guillaume came to work with us for three years. We laughed the whole time, we are united, we are brothers, Guillaume and I. I love him like my own brother.”
If he was convinced from the start that Guillaume would make it to the final, he admits to having underestimated Anthony at the start.
“I can’t let myself be beaten by a 27-year-old kid!” he friendly sent to Anthony in the middle of the competition.
“He quickly impressed me. At 27, I wasn’t good like him. Halfway through the season, I was sure he was going to win. He has such energy, discipline. During breaks, he never stops. “That he didn’t win, for me, it’s like a shootout, it takes a winner,” he says about the sous chef at the Tanière³ restaurant, crowned the best in the province by the Lauriers de Quebec gastronomy.
Wanting to impress with certainly the most daring menu, Anthony Vien finished third. The youngest of the trio, the most spirited too, almost hurt himself when he fell, too pressed for time.
“He crashed into the wall!” sent Pasquale Vari, looking worried. “We always say not to run into the kitchen,” recalled Normand Laprise, as if he were reprimanding a student.
In their final judgment, they considered that the foie gras in his main course deserved more cooking. On the other hand, they judged that Anthony’s flambé dessert, an Alaska bomb, was “sublime”.
While a first finalist is traditionally eliminated after the entries, all three candidates had to make it all the way in this final.
Beaten by his partner Luca, Guillaume did not seem at all upset, proud of his journey.
“What a beautiful blue sky on the horizon! I wanted to take revenge on myself, I think it’s mission accomplished,” said this wise young man, a good second.
It was the leek in his hot starter, overcooked and too present, which worked against him, among other things. But Guillaume nonetheless cooked like a warrior on Monday evening.
Proud of her protégés, Colombe St-Pierre highlighted the spirit of solidarity that united them all season. “It’s a level of sensitivity and maturity that goes beyond what I could have believed,” said the coach after the competition.
Luca, who we saw regularly at 5 chefs in my kitchenMarina Orsini’s late show, wouldn’t say no if we invited her to do TV again.
What will he do with his $60,000 prize? He has already bought a good coffee machine and plans to choose a destination for a family vacation.
The judges had to think hard to find a negative comment on Luca’s four-course gourmet menu. (Marc-André Lapierre)
It is thanks to his first participation in Chiefs!when he was only 20 years old, Luca landed a job at Toqué!
“Normand Laprise and Charles-Antoine Crête became mentors for me. Before, I identified as Italian-Montrealer. While working at Toqué!, I really identified as an Italian-Quebecois, I learned about Quebec products and Quebec culture. I learned in six years what others learn in 20 years.”
This special season of Chiefs! will undoubtedly have been the most positive of all, without the shadow of the beginning of unhealthy rivalry between these accomplished chefs. The production will undoubtedly want to return to the regular format next year, if the show is renewed.
For the first seven episodes, the 13th season attracted an average of 741,000 followers on Mondays at 8 p.m. on ICI Télé, according to Numeris. This is a little less than last year, when the competition retained 827,000.
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