Cooking Up a Storm as the World's First Celebrity Chef in the Napoleonic Era: Benjamin Voisin Talks 'Carême'

For audiences, Carême is a series to savour: a mix of culinary spiciness, historical intrigue and espionage antics, all whipped together with plenty of sauces in the kitchen and ample sauciness in its characters' private lives. For star Benjamin Voisin (The Quiet Son), the new Paris-set French Apple TV+ series, which debuted on Wednesday, April 30, 2025, is a project that sees him step into a real-life chef's shoes, required dedicated training at a famous school of cuisine, but also gave him the freedom to channel rock stars and invent the show's version of Antonin Carême with few limits. The result for viewers is delicious to watch — and, for its star as well, it's delectable to dive into.

Carême's namesake has a claim to fame that the series unsurprisingly plays up. In Napoleonic times, long before Julia Child, Nigella Lawson, Anthony Bourdain, Marco Pierre White and many, many others earned the moniker, he was world's first celebrity chef. The book Cooking for Kings: The Life of Antonin Carême, the First Celebrity Chef is the show's basis — and that tome's author Ian Kelly, who is also an actor (see: The King's Man, The Children Act, Downton Abbey), co-created the streaming drama. Helping behind the camera to bring it to the screen: filmmaker Martin Bourboulon (The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan and The Three Musketeers: Milady), one of the series' three directors alongside Laïla Marrakchi (The Eddy) and Matias Boucard (the cinematographer on Bourboulon's Eiffel, and also here).

The 19th century has just arrived and Carême isn't even in his twenties when the show begins, with its protagonist learning his craft and initially discovering his aptitude for baking — and much beyond — in the kitchen of his adoptive father. He's already showing his ambition for far more, too. Then comes a horrific personal turn of events that sees Antonin's status quo crumble. Also arriving: a wholly unexpected invitation to cook for Napoleon (Frank Molinaro, Class Act). But being the personal chef to such a figure sparks another gig, after clergyman-turned-politician Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (Jérémie Renier, The Astronaut) gets Carême spying on the Bonapartes. Liaisons with Joséphine (Maud Wyler, En haute mer), wowing diners with vol-au-vents, undercover quests and basically the period's version of MasterChef are all soon headed his way, amid a romance with Henriette (Lyna Khoudri, The Empire), the lady-in-waiting to Talleyrand's mistress Catherine (Sigrid Bouaziz, Irma Vep) — plus a complicated relationship with fellow kitchen whiz Agathe (Alice Da Luz, And the Party Goes On), and also unwanted interest from police chief Fouché (Micha Lescot, Je le jure).

A decade into his career, Voisin adds Carême to a resume that's hopped between the stage and screen — and, with the latter, between both its big and small guises — but now gains what'll always be one of his standout performances. That's no simple feat, given that he was nominated for Most Promising Actor at the 2021 César Awards for his exceptional effort in Summer of 85, won the same category at that year's Lumiere Awards, then collected the César in 2022 for Lost Illusions. Jumping into the past keeps proving a recurring theme for Voisin, and often to the century when Carême was cooking up a storm; not only is that true of Lost Illusions, but also with The Happy Prince beforehand and The Mad Women's Ball afterwards.

Marc Piasecki/Getty Images for Apple TV

Those rockers that helped Voisin find his take on Carême? "Mick Jagger and Lenny Kravitz," he tells Concrete Playground. What did Voisin learn from the experience of making the series? That answer spans both what the charismatic actor discovered about his chosen field and what he put into his character. "I learned that it's very pleasant," he explains of leading a TV series. "I'd done theatre, stage theatre, and you're there for an hour and a half in front of the audience. But I also did a few movies — there you are there for two hours, a movie is two hours. But here, there is so much time to distill the emotion. On a movie, sometimes I'm asked to go quick into an emotion and out of it again, to be able to face the audience again. Onstage, you only have an hour and a half to tell a story. You don't know that much. In film, you have more time. In series, you have even more time. That, I found great," he advises.

"And on Carême's character, I thought it was exciting to be able to offer this — on the one hand, there's this arrogance, but also later on as the series evolves, there's a whole episode about vulnerability and depression and doubt, and then the initial arrogance changes because of that episode."

We also chatted with Carême's lead about why portraying the show's eponymous figure appealed to him, the process of learning more about Antonin, whether playing someone thrust to fame at a young age was something that he could connect with, the culinary preparation involved, his run of period-set roles and more.

On What Appealed to Voisin About Portraying Antonin Carême

"What I liked was the way in which this character, who has trouble with his emotions and he could be something of an introvert, he shows up with self-confidence that's almost arrogance — and you see over the eight episodes how that turns into what chefs should have, that is self-confidence, but also being able to listen to his team.

That came out clearly. But I thought his combined love for politics and food, you could see how slowly but surely this young man was going to grow up into an adult. That's what I liked about Carême's character."

On Learning More About Carême, and His Role Both as a Chef and in Politics

"Well, you know Napoleon, of course — and Talleyrand, two famous characters. I mean, Talleyrand was Napoleon's Foreign Minister and he was Careme's boss, as it were. But that made it even more exciting, because it means I don't need to have a head-on responsibility. You know the character Napoleon. You know how he walks, his gait. As with Careme, you know nothing, so I had a free hand.

I read some quotes. I didn't need to read much too about him — a few quotes here and there, to build the character. When he says that things should be as beautiful as they taste, for me, that's plenty to get into the character.

But then regarding the body language, the hairstyle, it was great to be able to just make it up and create. We went for the costumes into Mick Jagger or Lenny Kravitz — and nothing to do [with Carême], it makes no sense, but that was my pure imagination.

But I thought it was great in this series to have that free hand — I mean, on the one hand, you respect the period, but then you have the freedom to reinvent it."

On Whether Voisin Could Connect with Playing Someone Thrust to Fame and Recognition at a Young Age

"That's the whole thing, isn't it? This is Napoleon's chef, isn't it — and so, of the greatest public figure? So I do my little series, my little story. It's a huge difference.

The one thing I wasn't so keen about — the fame, it was more ambition. There you have this young man who accepts — or young woman — who accepts him or herself as they are, but then there could be criticism and everything, but the main thing is to go to the end of your journey. That's what I could identify with.

At the end of the day, you don't want to regret anything, and that reflects my own career in film. People say 'why go theatre?' when I was a kid, and I just believed in it and I went head on, and that enabled me to work without the safety net. And that's the connection, maybe, with the character."

On the Preparation Required to Make the Culinary Side of the Role Appear Real On-Screen

"You need to work on that, of course. We worked with the actual chef, Christoph, who also teaches in a famous school of cuisine. The school is called Ferrandi, the Ferrandi School of Cuisine.

I was able to work with him for two months running, and joined his team and his mates. And he asked me to work not just on basic requirements for the part itself, but many other things in cooking and cuisines, so that my gestures should be really independent. When I go for poultry or whip cream or whatnot, I should know exactly how to go about it.

And then my first connection with the part is also costumes. I wanted to have Carême's costumes one month ahead of shooting, so I could identify with that and use it as an apron or something more elegant. I had to be familiar with that.

I could see shoes as being very tight, to create some pressure — and you need to go quick, so when you have your feet hurting, it creates even more pressure. That's the sort of thing."

On Balancing Carême's Confidence, Impulsiveness, Passion and Seductiveness with His Vulnerability and Yearning, All as He Matures Across the Season

"For every character, when you grow up into adulthood and you become a full-fledged person — I mean, Carême, he mourns his parents, so that's pretty evident, but when you leave home, you have to face that. So there is this journey.

I don't know if I have a balancing act. Everybody has to find a balancing act. Any human being has got to go through that."

Marc Piasecki/Getty Images for Apple TV

On Voisin's Run of Period-Set Roles, Not Only with Carême But Also Lost Illusions, The Mad Women's Ball and The Happy Prince

"Something happens to me. You think that actors pick their parts, but it's directors that make choices, and then within the directors' choices I make my choice.

I probably have a face for a period movie. I don't know. Maybe I don't fit in in modern times. But it's true, the best parts I was ever offered were in period movies — which I love, because the reason we do this is to wear a suit, a costume, the period costume and stuff, and that makes it more pleasant for an actor.

And I love for the audience watching to be suddenly immersed in a period and go back 200, 300, even a thousand years back — I find it exciting as a viewer, but as an actor it's even more exciting."

Carême streams via Apple TV+.