37 of The World’s Best Chefs to Swap Restaurants
The Grand Gelinaz! Shuffle takes chefs from their restaurants in their home countries and “swaps” them with a different chef and restaurant.
You could call it the culinary equivalent of the reality show āWife Swap,ā minus the drama.
For one night this summer, 37 of some of the biggest names in food will parachute into a different country for a worldwide ārestaurant swapā dubbed āThe Grand Gelinaz Shuffle.ā
That means taking over the kitchen of a gastronomic confrere and preparing an eight-course menu for unsuspecting guests.
Organized by Gelinaz, which calls itself a ācollective of international chefs,ā the unprecedented event boasts an impressive slate of culinary heavy hitters: Alain Ducasse, Yannick Alleno, Alex Atala, Rene Redzepi, Danny Bowien, Massimo Bottura, Inaki Aizpitarte, Albert Adria, and Sean Brock.
For fans and followers of contemporary gastronomy, that means potentially being able to sample Michelin-starred cuisine from a favorite chef who lives and cooks half a world away.
However, organizers have also opted to refrain from revealing which chef will be hosted in which restaurant.Ā Instead, the identity of the visiting chef will only be revealed once the meal is over.
Participating chefs will criss-cross the skies traveling to countries like Japan, Brazil, France, Australia, Peru, Italy, Spain, Canada and the US.
Not only will participants take over the reins of a foreign kitchen, theyāll also swap lives, living in their colleaguesā homes, driving their cars, and sharing meals with their counterpartās families.