Diane Blanch: "In the future, I foresee a high-end culinary experience that will, of course, retain a certain rigour, but become more casual in some aspects"

Hospitality ON: What does this award mean to you?

Diane Blanch: It's a great satisfaction. After several weeks of work, it is very satisfying to have achieved this result. What I also liked was that our job of serving in the dining room, which is never highlighted, was allowed to be performed in front of an audience. The fact that we did the competition tests in front of an audience was the most interesting part. It allowed us to showcase the maître d' profession to more people. For me, this part was very important. Especially since all the TV shows nowadays tend to focus purely on the kitchen side of things in a restaurant.

This is a relatively new competition [the 2023 edition being only the 4th in 40 years of Sirha], do you think it is important to highlight the diversity of restaurant professions through this kind of prize?

Yes, of course. As I was saying, today the job of a maître d' is still little known. We know that there are waiters in a restaurant, but what exactly do they do? They put napkins on the table, they set the tableware, and unfortunately our job is often limited to that. There has been a big popularisation of the kitchen professions, notably due to all these television programmes, and we don't necessarily realise what being a maître d' involves. To do this job, you need to have gastronomic knowledge, savoir-faire, be able to speak several languages, and have knowledge of both sommellerie and barkeeping. It's really a very complete job.

The podium this year was made up solely of women. Do you think this is a sign of change in the high-end restaurant sector?

Yes, absolutely. Ten or fifteen years ago, there were far fewer women in this industry...