A new season of Knives Chefs has started: who are the jurors?

Starting from Monday, a new season of the Chefi la cuțite show will begin on Antena 1, whose host will be Irina Fodor.

After the former members of the jury, Sorin Bontea, Florin Dumitrescu and Cătălin Scarlătescu, resigned, citing that they were exhausted due to filming, here came the official announcement about the new jurors of the culinary show.

The first novelty of the 13th season of the culinary show is that there will be four jurors instead of three. They are Chef Richard Abou Zaki, Chef Alexandru Sautner, Chef Ştefan Popescu and Chef Orlando Zaharia.

Chef Richard Abou Zaki

Chef Richard Abou Zaki discovered his passion for the kitchen at an early age, declaring that he has been cooking since he was 8 years old.

He was born in Piatra Neamţ, when he was 5 years old he went with his family to Italy, but he started his career in Great Britain, in the Le Gavroche restaurant. Here he made his debut as a chef de partie, that is, a chef who takes care of the fish area, vegetables, sauces, soups, etc.

However, he returned to Italy, to Modena, after a year and a half. Here he worked as a sous-chef, alongside Chef Massimo Bottura, at Osteria Francescana. A sous-chef (sub-chef in Romanian) is the person who takes the next place after the head chef, which can eventually lead to the quality of chef. The sous chef must plan and direct how the food is presented on the plate, keep his kitchen staff in order, train new chefs, create the work schedule and ensure that all the food that goes to customers is of the best quality to maintain high standards.

After more than three years of experience as a sous-chef, he opened his own restaurant, Retroscena, a restaurant that received a Michelin star only 8 months after its inauguration.

He now has four restaurants in Italy, the most recent of which was inaugurated a few days ago.

Chef Stefan Popescu

Unlike the first juror, Chef Ştefan Popescu discovered his passion and talent for the kitchen at a rather advanced age.

He was the Executive Chef at two hotels in Bucharest. The job was primarily a managerial one, because the Executive Chef is not usually directly responsible for the food preparation process. He organizes the menu and the staff, calculates the costs and mediates the relations between the other cooks and the patron or customers, in a word, he organizes the kitchen in all its aspects.

Because he felt particularly drawn to pastry, he completed the 3 Michelin stars courses of the Paul Bocuse Institute in France – “Exclusive Pastry Program”, under the guidance of Jérôme Langillier, World Champion Pastry Chef 2009.

Also, still in the desire to improve and gain as comprehensive an experience as possible in the kitchen, he worked pro bono, for several weeks, in the Belcanto restaurant in Portugal, a restaurant owned by Chef Jose Avilez.

Currently, Chef Ştefan Popescu offers consultancy for everything that means opening restaurants and/or event halls, he is a trainer at the HORECA School and also a trainer at the Kids Chef Academy mini chef school.

Chef Alexandru Sautner

Chef Alexandru Sautner started his Horeca business in Germany in 1991. After 7 years, in 1998, he opened his first restaurant there. Two more followed, in 2003 and then in 2005, after which he decided to return to Romania.

Therefore, in 2013 he returned to the country and inaugurated the first restaurant at home, Caelia, a restaurant located on the beach in Mamaia. The first artisan gelato shop opened in Bucharest was all his concept. It happened at the beginning of 2015 and the gelateria was called Cremeria Emilia. It was rebranded over time and became Gioelia, currently having 14 locations.

In 2020 he launched a new project, the Oliveto restaurant, a restaurant with Mediterranean cuisine.

Chef Orlando Zaharia

Chef Orlando Zaharia is also a well-known name in the Horeca field. He worked, first of all, as a cook for the Presidency of Romania.

He was also a member of the Romanian national team of chefs and confectioners at Erfurt 2012 and the Culinary World Cup 2014, and from 2020 he is the GM in Romania for the global company Yarzin-Sella, a company that offers “High-End Food” services. If you're wondering what a GM is, find out that a Garde Manger or Pantry Chef has the role of a butler in the kitchen hierarchy. He is the person responsible for preparing cold dishes, such as salads, certain types of appetizers or breakfast.

Another important job was that of Executive Chef for the Q's Inn and Pagaia restaurant chain, and now he manages the CAU restaurants in Bucharest and Constanta

In 2010, Chef Orlando Zaharia was designated the Golden Chef of Bucharest, and in October 2019 he won the first edition of Chef de Romania.

Returning to the show, it must be stated that only three of the four Chefs will get the privilege of forming their teams. Each Chef will receive a number of points for his preparation in the amulet competitions, the final score being the criterion according to which it will be decided who are the Chefs who go to the next stage. The fourth member of the jury, the juror who will not form a team, will decide which camp the winner of his golden knife will enter.

The new episodes of Chefi la cuzite will be broadcast three times a week, from Monday to Friday, from 8:30 p.m.