Top Chef is expanding its judging panel! The famous M6 show has two prestigious newcomers who accompany the four members of the jury who have been mentoring the candidates for three years. And it’s two women who round out the cast to make up a male-female jury for the first time in the show’s history.

The two elected officials are Dominique Crenn, the first woman to be awarded three stars by the US Michelin Guide, and Stéphanie Le Quellec, the 2011 the winner of season 2 of the show and a two-star chef. They join Hélène Darroze (three stars), Glenn Viel (three stars), Paul Pairet (three stars) and Philippe Etchebest (one star).

The broadcast date for this fifteenth season is not yet known, but filming began this Monday, October 16. Usually, the broadcast starts at the end of winter.

“My partner fell in love with Paris”

Dominique Crenn, 58, runs three restaurants in San Francisco, including Atelier Crenn. After leaving France at the age of 21, she found it again this year by opening her first restaurant “Golden Poppy” in Paris. “My partner, the American actress Maria Bello, fell in love with Paris,” where the couple have shared an apartment for two years. “You’ll often see me in the kitchen,” she told AFP in June.

Stéphanie Le Quellec, 41, runs La Scène restaurant in Paris. She won the show’s second season and has since regularly stepped in to offer auditions to new contestants.

Adapted from the American show, Top Chef has been broadcast in France since 2010. and gained public favor and trust in the world of gastronomy by pitting professional chefs against amateurs in major competitions.