Julien Courbet
likes to come to the aid of people who are victims of scams. In his show “It can happen to you”, broadcast Thursday March 28 on M6 and RTL, the host highlighted the story of a former winner of
“Top chef”
who was the victim of a big scam.
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David Gallienne
, who won the M6 culinary competition against Adrien Cachot in 2020, then appeared on screen with a reporter who came specially to interview him in his Michelin-starred restaurant Le Jardin des Plumes located in Giverny in Eure. Four years ago, the chef was the victim of a scam by his sommelier.
He recounted his misadventure on the show.
“We realized one morning after finding a broken bottle of Grange des Pères at the foot of the cellar (...) that something had happened. After viewing the video protection cameras, we realized that our head sommelier had spent the entire night with two accomplices emptying the cellar
,” he confided.
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Julien Courbet, on set, then asked him again what the amount of the damage was.
“Between 15,000 and 20,000 euros
,” continued the chef.
We bought great wines around the time Steeve arrived in the house, someone I trusted completely. When we call on sommelier chefs of this reputation - because he has worked with major houses,
Anne-Sophie Pic
among others who has three Michelin stars - we are not necessarily going to check his work. He provided us with inventories which were ultimately falsified and, in fact, he made us buy wine, he stole the bottles of wine that he made us buy to resell them later. »
It is obviously an entire network that has been unmasked and dismantled. The sommelier's mother was also complicit in the affair since the money collected was transferred to an online bank account abroad opened under her maiden name.
Julien Courbet then inquired about the legal outcome of the case.
“Where is the procedure? Were these people tried and convicted? Where are we?”
, asked the host.
“After three years of fighting and long investigations (...), he was sentenced to one year in prison and the mother to seven months. We thought he had taken refuge in Brazil and I learned last Friday that, since last July, he had been on French territory and that he was to open a restaurant in Paris
,” detailed David Gallienne.
“Are you kidding? »
protested Julien Courbet.
“After being a victim, I was able to meet and talk to the next victims on the phone in the end since he is cheating the investors (...) to the tune of 4 million euros
,” concluded the starred chef.
Despite this dark affair, David Gallienne has many projects. This Friday, March 29, the chef is opening a new bistro in Giverny called Oscar and located in the garden of the Impressionist Museum.