“Jean Michel Leblond: From Culinary Competitions to Hosting and Producing TV Shows”

2023-04-30 23:30:00

Jean Michel Leblond has had the wind in his sails since he took part in the first season of the “Chefs de bois” culinary competition and since we got to know him better thanks to “Get me out of here!” .

• Read also: “Get me out of here!”: Colette Provencher’s turn to leave the camp

The one who joins the team of chroniclers of “Sucré Salé” this summer had to pack up following the challenge of eliminating the popular Sunday reality show from TVA.

At 36, Jean Michel says he is “on his X”, he who has built his career stone by stone over the past two decades. Chef-owner of the Kabinet restaurant, in the Mile-End, in Montreal, he is currently working on his “biggest dream”, that of hosting and producing his own shows. It’s too early to announce anything, but he might get his own TV date soon.

Jean Michel has already tried his hand at animation. At 18, on Vox, in Quebec, he was at the helm of a program devoted to extreme sports. Passionate regarding cooking for a long time, we even approached him at the time to take the helm of a show in this niche. However, he declined the offer, preferring to study the restaurant industry. After studying cooking, following opening restaurants and following having known successes as well as failures, he is now ready to host on the small screen.

“To achieve what you want, it takes a lot of patience if you don’t want to be the flavor of the moment. It’s super important to have longevity in that dream. Having worked hard and made efforts upstream, I think that this project to animate, which is my life project, my dream, will last over time.

Overcome fears in the jungle

Jean Michel is “proud” to have been tested for his fear of snakes, enclosed spaces and heights in “Get me out of here!”.

“To have stayed so long is fantastic. To be hungry, to be thirsty and to need to sleep, I find that not bad, especially following having previously done “Chefs de bois””, he underlined.

He says Sunday’s episode’s “Bad Look” challenge was one of the most gripping of his journey in Costa Rica. He had to enter the tunnel of an old mine plunged into darkness, while Andréanne A. Malette, in a parallel corridor, illuminated this one, guided him so that they might recover the most stars among the 11 who were there. The duo had eight minutes to achieve this. They got 10 stars and were able to enjoy dinner with a whole octopus already braised, ready to be grilled and served with a tomato, onion and cilantro salsa. It is of course Jean Michel who cooked everything on the fire.

Important bonds are forged at “Get Me Out of Here!”. Nathalie Simard has become a “great friend” of Jean Michel. “We see each other often. My cottage is still near where she lives. He is an extremely funny person, who has a huge amount of useful life in conversations. It’s fantastic to talk to her. She’s very humble too.”

Jean Michel does not stay in place in life. But in Costa Rica, he became aware of another dimension of his person. “I discovered that I listened more than in my daily life. […] Not having the constant need to [divertir] people.”

There are only four campers left in the race. Who will become king or queen of the jungle and get their hands on $100,000 which will go to the foundation of their choice among Andréanne A. Malette, François Marquis, Nathalie Simard and Marianne St-Gelais?

Produced by Productions Déferlantes, in collaboration with Quebecor Content, the reality show “Get me out of here!” is broadcast every Sunday at 6:30 p.m. on TVA.

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