LES QUINTESSENCES COMPETITION JUDGING PANEL FOR 2024
A president for the jury les Quintessences
For the past 20 years, Emmanuelle Jary has been a culinary journalist for the magazine "Saveurs". In 2016, she created the programme "C'est meilleur quand c'est bon" which reports on restaurateurs and producers throughout France in search of the best addresses. Broadcast on social media, C'est meilleur quand c'est bon today boasts 1 million subscribers across all broadcast media. Emmanuelle Jary is passionate by regional producers and small grocery shops, therefore she joined the Gourmet Selection Exhibition, for the fourth consecutive year, as an ambassador and president of the Les Quintessences 2024 competition.
Crédit photo : Marion Saupin
Let's get to know each other!
- What gets you out of bed in the morning? The prospect of meeting people who are working to defend goodness in France.
- What is your motto? It's better when it's good.
- What is your greatest culinary discovery? I can't single one out. All regional cuisines in their diversity when they are cultural markers and bear witness to a tradition..
- What is on your wish list for this year? I would like to go and discover producers such as oil mills to promote oils other than olive oil, which is excessively publicised to the detriment of walnut oil, sunflower oil, etc. I would also like to film winegrowers..
- What is your most unusual gastronomic encounter? The grenier medocain. Rolled and boiled pork belly. It doesn't look particularly appetising, but it's delicious - and even fascinating if you consider the history of this product. I could talk about it for hours..
- What are you most proud of? Some of the messages from people who follow us and tell me that they have changed their way of eating thanks to the videos. For example, a mother told me that she stopped taking her children to fast food restaurants because of the videos.
- In 3 words, how would you define Gourmet Selection? Search, goodness, commitment.
A judging panel jury gathered around its president for this 2024 edition
Aurélien Bertrand
Born into a family of shopkeepers and winegrowers, Aurélien, 41, has been a rural grocer since 2016, after training as a lawyer.
He is also a member of the board of the Fédération des Epiciers de France and a member of the Collège Culinaire de France.
He was the Quintessences jury's Coup de Cœur in 2023 with his grocery shop B&C Epicerie Laroque de Fa, in Occitanie.
Marcelle Ratafia
Author with a passion for culinary history, and an expert in edible etymologies.
A food critic and journalist, she contributes to Fooding and Time Out for their selection of restaurants and food shops. She contributes to the magazine C'est Meilleur Quand c'est Bon, notably on the selection of new products. Winner of the Curnonsky prize for wine journalism in 2023, she has co-authored 150 drôles d'expression de la cuisine with Yves Camdeborde, Parlons Vin Parlons bien au Robert and contributed to On va déguster Paris.
While we await the publication of her Histoire de la cuisine de rue by Marabout in September 2025, we'll be calling her Bectance, because she doesn't let the cat out of the bag!
Photo credit: Guillaume Blot
Alexis Roux de Bézieux
Previous members of the jury
Stephane Méjanès
