This Friday saw the broadcast of a new episode of Nightmare in the Kitchen. This time, chef Etchebest traveled to Thoissey, to meet Alexis, from the restaurant Chez le Père Alex. The latter could no longer do it: “I can’t live, if I have to sell, it will be like a failure for me,” he said.
“We come from very, very far away”
However, upon his arrival, Philippe Etchebest was rather happy: “It’s a good sign, there is potential”, even if he found the decoration “very impersonal, but it’s clean”. The starred chef was quickly disappointed. For example, he found the welcome salad too acidic. As for Alexis, he would not have wanted to “change his habits for the chef”. “We start from very, very far away,” he continued.
The beginnings are difficult: “You are an example of everything that should not be done,” Philippe Etchebest told Alexis after visiting the kitchen. The big evening service is a failure, the restaurateur breaks down, the waitress, Élodie, is in tears. The boss doesn’t want to help them. But Élodie will be able to be convincing.
Alexis actually only had two months left before everything stopped. “It’s a serious situation like we’ve never experienced,” explained a specialist. For Alexis, adopted at 3 months, this project is a revenge on life: “My parents made what I have become now, but they preserved me a lot”.
“If the whole of France does not come to eat this pancake…”
After a touching video, it’s finally off again: Philippe Etchebest offers Alexis a real identity and offers him a recipe, while remaining close to the terroir. “If the whole of France does not come to eat this pancake […]. There is none elsewhere.”
Everything is redecorated, the kitchen arranged, cleaned, with new equipment. Alexis is delighted: “it creates an identity, creperie, there’s something that wasn’t there before. And the drawing is me.”
The service is expected, and even the mayor made the trip. If he messes up once, Alexis has a nice reaction, “That’s good, you correct it live”. Philippe Etchebest is proud of himself. As for Élodie, the waitress, she says “very accurate words” having found a social life thanks to work. Starting from a score of 6, the duo arrives at… 15/20, with the added bonus of free training to improve even further.
Reached by telephone just after the broadcast of the show, Alexis was kind enough to give us his feelings: “We have already carried out the training, it went very well. I feel boosted. As for the recipe, it’s on the menu: it’s the Chef’s Beaujolaise.”
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