After a ‘Chi-town throwdown,' just one Chicago chef remains on ‘Top Chef'
Warning: Spoilers ahead for all of 'Top Chef' Season 22, except the remaining finale episode.
Only one Chicago competitor remains for the final episode of this season's 'Top Chef,' which airs Thursday evening. Chi-town could have another local Top Chef if they win, a coveted title that frequently propels cast members to successful restaurants, television spots and cookbooks.
Bailey Sullivan, executive chef at Monteverde, qualified for the finale of 'Top Chef: Destination Canada' from a competitive pool of 15 chefs. 'Top Chef' Season 10 winner Kristen Kish hosted this season, joined by judges Tom Colicchio and Gail Simmons.
The other chefs who made it to the final episode are Shuai Wang, chef-owner of Jackrabbit Filly and King BBQ in North Charleston, South Carolina, and Tristen Epps, chef-owner of Epps & Flows Culinary in Houston. Earlier in the season, Sullivan was joined by Chicago peers Zubair Mohajir, the executive chef and founder of Lilac Tiger, Coach House and Mirra, and César Murillo, executive chef of North Pond.
Sullivan's combination of compassionate competition and camaraderie was a consistent feature of this season, which was low on drama and high on quality cooking. Over the weekend, her Instagram account shared a photo of a group hug between her and the final four competitors, captioned 'Some of the best folks I know.'
'You grow so close with these people,' Sullivan said in an interview with the Chicago Tribune ahead of the finale.
By her admission on the show, Sullivan's journey to the top of the competition was slow to start. She was initially eliminated in the second episode for her maple tart.
'I think I just attribute my struggles early on as being totally freaked out, 100%,' Sullivan told the Tribune. 'I had never been on TV before.'
Meanwhile, Mohajir won that episode's elimination challenge with a variation on his signature tandoori fried chicken dish, which was eventually featured on the menu at Lilac Tiger. But in the fourth episode, the James Beard-nominated chef was eliminated, to the surprise of many — it was his only time at the bottom.
Contestants are kept in the dark about some elements of the production, so it was bittersweet for Mohajir and Sullivan to find out they'd be facing off in 'Last Chance Kitchen,' a web series where eliminated chefs get a chance to return.
'I've been impressed by both of you,' said Colicchio as he was judging their showdown of savory and sweet. 'Zubair, I was quite frankly surprised to see you just this early here, based on some of the earlier challenges. And Bailey, in 'Last Chance Kitchen,' you've been cooking really well.'
Eventually, he picked Sullivan's pork and panna cotta dishes over Mohajir's scallops and French toast to win, though it was close.
Reflecting back on her cook in 'Last Chance Kitchen,' Sullivan said she was able to keep a positive attitude knowing that no matter what, someone from Chicago would go on to compete.
'I will cheer on Zubair on everything he does going forward,' Sullivan said.
In Chicago, her love for the restaurant industry started with growing up at Goldyburgers in Forest Park, a restaurant her father bought. She became a 'Top Chef' fan watching the show with her mother and ended up training under another 'Top Chef' alumni, Beverly Kim of Parachute, as well as Sarah Grueneberg, Monteverde, head chef and owner.
Sullivan rejoined the main competition in the fifth episode, where she and Epps won a team elimination challenge with fire-kissed grilled octopus with olives.
Team Chicago would face one more loss in the penultimate episode. North Pond's Murillo had a strong showing all season, with Collichio calling his pickle-inspired dessert from Episode 9 one of the best dishes he'd ever had on the show.
The finale is taking place in Milan, Italy, and fittingly, last week's elimination challenge was a head-to-head based on Italian ingredients. Wang and Epps had qualified for the finale by winning the polenta and beet rounds, respectively, which left one final spot for either Sullivan or Murillo.
Sullivan called the gorgonzola round a 'Chi-town throwdown.' As they finished their dishes, the chefs hugged and said they loved each other.
Sullivan had been critiqued for her usage of the cheese earlier in the season — in Milan, she took the opportunity to redeem her earlier failure. This time, she came out on top with a bruleed gorgonzola. The judges praised her quirky, endearing personality.
'Cesar, you put together a really great dish,' Collichio said after announcing Murillo's elimination for his butternut squash casserole. 'Bailey's was a little more focused on the gorgonzola. That's the only reason.'
Sullivan couldn't share how she did in the finale, but if she won, she wouldn't be the first Chicago chef; Stephanie Izard and Joe Flamm were both crowned Top Chef of their seasons and Rick Bayless won the first season of 'Top Chef Masters.' Sullivan's Monterverde mentor, chef Sarah Grueneberg, made it to the top two of Season 9 of 'Top Chef.'
'I do kind of feel like I'm following in Sarah's footsteps, being on 'Top Chef,'' said Sullivan. 'I just celebrated nine years at Monteverde this June.'
The Top Chef usually receives money, press and various perks but new this year, the winner will have the opportunity to present at the James Beard Awards in Chicago on June 16, a week after the finale airs. Win or lose, Bailey Sullivan has made it.
'Top Chef' Season 22 concludes on June 12. The final episode, along with the rest of the season, will be available to stream the next day on Peacock.
Big screen or home stream, takeout or dine-in, Tribune writers are here to steer you toward your next great experience. Sign up for your free weekly Eat. Watch. Do. newsletter here.
This Chicago chef just won season two of Food Network's '24 in 24: Last Chef Standing'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Los Angeles Times
an hour ago
- Los Angeles Times
How does a ‘fancy' L.A. restaurant reopen as casual in just two weeks? A play-by-play
Prince changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol. Snoop Dogg went by Snoop Lion for a time, and briefly Snoopzilla. Shifting your brand as an artist can be a welcome, and sometimes predictable, step in a career that spans a lifetime. But what happens when a well-established, award-winning restaurant decides to rebrand itself as a casual neighborhood bistro? And attempts to do it in just two weeks? It's a challenge Dave Beran and his staff at Pasjoli restaurant just attempted — and completed — in time to reopen tonight. Here's a behind-the-scenes look at how they did it, step by step. Dave Beran is balancing a baby in one arm and a laptop in the other. His toddler is asking for cereal. The chef is on a Zoom call to discuss the future of Pasjoli, the Santa Monica French restaurant best known for Beran's reimagined French classics, and most notably, his whole pressed duck. Ann Hsing, chief executive and chief operating officer of Beran's restaurants, and investor Michael Simkin, a film and TV producer, are also on the call. 'I'm astonished that people set things on fire at our bar, but apparently they do,' says Beran. The team is discussing menu placement on the table. Should they put a candle on the table to illuminate the menu? Maybe they can use a wire hanger to leave the menu hanging? Should servers bring over a small menu board? The specifics of a menu presentation may seem like a trivial detail when considering the overall experience at a restaurant. But for Beran and his team, it's a first impression, and the first step in recalibrating diners' assumptions about what Pasjoli is, and what the new Pasjoli could be. Beran, the former executive chef at Next in Chicago, established himself as a fine-dining chef in Los Angeles with the 2017 opening of Dialogue, a thrilling, 18-seat tasting menu restaurant. In 2019, he followed with Pasjoli, a destination-worthy French restaurant that offered a showstopping tableside pressed duck presentation, thon et tomate and a shower of truffles over foie de poulet à la Strasbourgeoise. When he reviewed the restaurant in late 2019, critic Bill Addison called Pasjoli 'a return to grand French dining in L.A.' Then the pandemic happened, and the restaurant underwent a series of changes, shifting to takeout, then to in-person dining again. Dialogue closed. Pasjoli started offering more casual bistro fare and an expanded bar menu. Most recently there was a prix fixe menu. But somehow, despite adjustments, the restaurant couldn't quite shake its original 'grand' identity. 'Dave is Dave,' says Hsing. 'He comes from a very high-caliber restaurant resume. When we opened, to us, it was a version of casual. Meanwhile, the rest of L.A. was saying this is one of the fanciest restaurants in L.A.' In December, Beran opened Seline, a $295 per person tasting menu restaurant down the street, further solidifying himself as a fine-dining chef. Though the restaurant recently introduced a limited eight-course, $165 tasting menu. And Beran is determined to bring an air of fun to Pasjoli. 'Start the night at the bar with a few people and just saber a bottle of Champagne,' he suggests as an opening image. Yes, he's talking about the celebratory practice of opening a bottle of Champagne by striking the seam of the bottle with a sword. Or maybe batch cocktails? Frozen martinis? It would cut down on labor, the drinks will come out faster, allowing them to lower the cost of each drink by around $2 and provide a more consistent experience for guests. 'We had this idea, whether it's tableside or at the bar, having some sort of punch-esque scenario, partially for cost but also, it's aesthetically interesting,' Beran says. 'We're looking into absinthe towers.' Beran and chef Jack Joyce are in the kitchen at Pasjoli, inspecting a tomato salad. 'It looks too fancy,' Hsing declares. 'It's literally chunks of tomato and arugula and radish,' Beran counters. The bowl in question is a bowl of frill lettuce, a cross between iceberg lettuce and curly endive that lives up to its name. Over the top are hunks of tomato covered in delicate shaved radish. The bowl has a scalloped edge with a rim of gold. The staff are deep into the research and development phase of the menu, with Joyce and Beran preparing a handful of dishes for feedback from Hsing, general manager Hayley Sedlock and head of people (yes, that is her title) Keely Obbards. Joyce emerges from the kitchen carrying a whole, fried maitake mushroom. 'It's a Bloomin' maitake mushroom,' he says. 'With ranch.' Next up is a caramelized leek tart over a smear of hollandaise sauce. The tart is painted in a white wine reduction and finished with a smattering of smoked trout roe. 'I want more leeks,' offers Hsing. 'Hollandaise makes me think of brunch,' says Obbards. Joyce looks mildly miffed but determined, and heads back into the kitchen. Hsing attempts to break down the pricing. While the check average at Pasjoli may not be as high as some of the other restaurants in town, there is a perception, however misguided, that French is synonymous with fancy. A few lower-priced items on the menu could go a long way in changing that perception. 'For me, there are two large buckets of cost to control, it's food and labor,' she says. 'Say you have this item like a tomato that is on the cheaper side, but it takes three different people over the course of a week to do something with it to produce the final product, then it's a much more expensive item on the menu than the food cost is reflecting. Our stocks and sauces here take three to four days.' There's a range of prices Hsing is aiming to hit, with a group of courses in the $10 to $20 range, another in the $20 to $35 area and plates viewed as entrees in the $40 range. A few larger-format dishes or things designed to be shared by the entire table will be priced at $150 or higher. And the desserts, with the exception of the chocolate soufflé, will be under $20. 'I know people think we are really expensive. We want to make sure you feel like the amount of money you pay when you're done feels like it was worth it, whether that be from a food side or service side or the overall experience,' Hsing says. The dining room is starting to show signs of a facelift, with lush plants punctuating the room. The art on the walls is being reconsidered. The front will be repainted. Beran returns from the kitchen with two small white porcelain bowls of soup, each with a cap of melted cheese. The French onion souplettes are miniature bowls of the classic soup, made with Provolone for a top layer that browns and bubbles, Gruyère for flavor and mozzarella for the cheese pull texture. 'It's literally a French onion soup but super small,' he says. He digs a spoon into each soup. 'Already it looks like the bread absorbed all the liquid. Should I put more fat? Butter cubes? Traditionally it's veal stock. Do you care that they are vegetarian?' 'For L.A., it's probably better that it's vegetarian,' says Sedlock. The bar program is another sticking point for Beran, who wants the bar area to become a place where people can casually stop in for a drink after work. He's doing away with the restaurant's opening rule of exclusively carrying French spirits. And he's building a small bar top up against the front window of the restaurant, creating an area where people can sip a drink and people-watch on Main Street. Bar manager Tom Sullivan brings a few cocktails over to the table of managers. One is a gin drink with a tiny, yellow ice cube in the shape of a ducky sitting in the glass. The other is what Beran likes to call a 'fluffy' drink, made by swapping in meringue for simple syrup, creating a layer of fluff atop the cocktail. We're back to discussing the table menu. And the place setting. The team has decided to present guests with narrow menus that fit neatly into a square gold placeholder Beran previously used to serve chips at Dialogue. Tables will be pre-set, with a stack of plates and roll ups, the term for napkins rolled around a set of silverware. Approachable. Easy. Hsing brings up a copy of the working menu to discuss with the team. Every detail, from the name of a dish to where it is listed to the description, is debated. Do they want to rename the chicken liver? Call it a mousse so people don't expect a plate of sautéed chicken livers? What should the beef tartare come with? Chips are too much labor. Maybe a chunk of baguette. Do they need to explain the French onion souplette? Should the mussels come with fries or should people order the fries separately? Which one feels more approachable? More like an entree? The pressed duck will return to its original tableside presentation. Most recently, it was relegated to one an evening, at a table in front of the kitchen. When the restaurant reopens, the duck will be available with updated accouterments in limited quantities, with a deposit required for the reservation. Hsing grabs a stack of cards from the office printer and presents them to Beran and the other managers. The team is testing prototypes for a cocktail card that will allow guests to customize a cocktail. 'We know the food is awesome, but what can we do to make it fun and interactive?' she says. 'This could totally bomb. We'll find out.' It's three hours before the doors open for friends and family, the first night of practice service for the staff. The team has invited investors and other guests for a dress rehearsal of sorts, with the restaurant serving guests a free dinner while they work out any kinks in the dining room or kitchen. Pasjoli already feels like a different space, with four new seats along the front window. Two additional seats were added to the main bar. The big table that sat at the front of the open kitchen is gone, leaving no barrier between diners and the chefs. The chandeliers are gone. In the kitchen, Joyce and the team are stuffing half-chickens into bags to poach with pats of butter. Later, they will be seared and then roasted to order. Another chef is prepping Fresno chiles for a hot sauce. Tomatoes are being sliced. Shallots brunoised. In total, the kitchen will prepare 28 orders of roast chicken, 40 French onion souplettes, 30 orders of Cordon bleu chicken wings, 20 cheeseburgers, 30 plates of halibut crudo (made by breaking down a 10-pound fish) and two rock fish for the evening. Beran has decided to promote Joyce to chef de cuisine. 'Jack really stepped up and the goal is for me to play editor,' he says. At 3:30 p.m. sharp, the staff sit down for family meal. Big bags of hot chicken from Main Chick are emptied and transformed into a buffet table for the staff. At 4:15 p.m. Sedlock gathers the servers for a pre-shift meeting. 'How are we feeling?' She's met with an enthusiastic 'Wooooo.' Sedlock instructs the servers to let people order, then make suggestions based on the amount of food. The goal is to see how people naturally respond to the menu, and to pick up on any patterns or feedback. Wine will be poured at the table. To practice pouring five-ounce glasses, servers will weigh the bottle at a station, pour the glass, then re-weigh the bottle to see how they did. By the end of the evening, the five ounce pour should be a matter of muscle memory. 'Really utilize the information you get tonight. Pay attention to how people order,' Sedlock says. The clean plates, or remnants left of a dish, will be a clue to the kitchen for what dishes worked, and which might need tweaking. It can also offer insight into portion size and how much people should order. Then Sedlock turns to Beran and asks if he has anything final to add. 'We are rebuilding our identity, and the only way to do that is start at zero and go,' he says. 'You make a mistake, start over. Let's just do it. We'll do it right.' A few moments later, a host moves to unlock the door. The crop of servers watching her yell together — 'Doors!' — and with that, the first customers shuffle in. The facade of Pasjoli looks bright in the late afternoon sun, the moody dark blue now replaced by a cheery turquoise called Deep Lagoon. The dining room is full at 5:45 p.m., with patrons elbow to elbow at the bar. The word bustling comes to mind, a feeling not easily achieved with the constraints of the restaurant's former layout. Now, every corner of the room feels alive, brimming people chatting and sipping cocktails. The menu is shorter, and yes, more approachable than the original, with deviled eggs ($12), the French onion souplette ($14), and the Paris Baguette ($19), described simply as a ham and cheese sandwich. For the final version of the maitake mushroom ($19), Joyce ditched the ranch idea and decided on an allium aioli and a potion bottle of malt vinegar on the side. There's an option to use a cocktail card to choose your own libation adventure ($24). Miniature martinis the restaurant calls 'mar-tinys' and 'snack-quiris' are listed for $14. The French souplettes are a joy to eat, with croutons you dunk into a soup crowded with melted cheese and sweet onions. The chicken liver mousse comes in a petite glass ramekin with a tart cherry aspic lining the top. The burger is an upgraded version of the one Beran served at the bar, with black pepper-crusted grilled onions and a bone marrow aioli. The bun is now made at the restaurant, a cross between a brioche and a potato roll. At 2 a.m. the previous morning, Hsing rebuilt the website and added the words 'French is fun' to the homepage. The mantra also shows up on the new receipts. By the time the evening ends, Beran and Joyce have changed the construction of the souplette, filling them to order. The maitake mushroom is no longer dredged in flour. Instead, it's battered like tempura and cut into two pieces. More surface area of crunch. More to dip. The tweaks, shifts and slight alternations will continue through Thursday, tonight, when the restaurant officially reopens to the public. Until the moment the staff yells 'Doors' in unison and welcomes the first customers to the new, casual Pasjoli. With a new facade, new art on the walls and an entirely new menu, it's the Pasjoli you remember, with a little less fuss, and if Beran is successful, a lot more fun.
Buzz Feed
2 hours ago
- Buzz Feed
What People Ate In Medieval France — Recreated With AI
Hail fellows! Prithee, take a gander at this bounty, a fare ramble througheth meals of ages gone by... Okay, I can't keep up this medieval speak, but I do love the vibes. And as a food writer, I LOVE thinking about what and how people ate in other time periods. In culinary school, I learned all about the stale bread once used as plates called "trenchers" and the heavy-handed seasoning used to mask the stench of rotting meat — both staples of medieval European dining. But I could never quite picture what an actual medieval dinner looked like (beyond the overly dramatic portrayals in movies like Sleeping Beauty or A Knight's Tale)... until now. Using a quintessential product of the Information Age, generative AI, I can finally actually conceive of some of the wildest medieval dishes I'd only ever read about. Using Le Viandier de Taillevent, one of the oldest French cookbooks out there, I recreated historically accurate images based on recipes for a 14th-century banquet at the royal court in Paris. For this food history geek, the results were SO. FASCINATING. Feasts at 14th-century French courts didn't have courses as we think of them — or forks — but they did have plenty of meat... The upper echelons of the era LOVED eating birds — especially when they symbolized royalty and opulence as peacocks did. French royals stunted on their dinner guests with an elaborate bird dish called "armed* peacock": Le Viandier instructs the cook to: "Blow them, scald them, slit them along the belly, skin them, and remove the carcasses. Roast the carcasses on a spit and glaze them (while turning) with batter of beaten egg white and egg yolk. Remove them from the spit, let them cool, and (if you wish) clothe them in their skin. Have little wooden skewers put in the neck to hold it upright as if it were alive. At a feast, serve in the second translation specifies seasonings: "add cloves and for two plates, an ounce of powder and small spices: seeds, cloves, long pepper, nutmeg and two ounces of cinnamon ground into powder and then take a pint of rose water and a pint of vinegar and put under the roast..."*armed — refers to the bird being "redressed" in its feathers and presented at a feast to look like the bird in its living state. Wowza. How do you take your lark? Yes, the cute little songbird was a mainstay of Middle Age banquet halls. This is how the royal chef prepared them: "For the larks. Take the larks and make them suffer*, and put veal in a pot with them to get the best broth. Then, take some bread and season it, and put it in beef broth and mix it with the livers and bread to strain. When it is strained, you will put everything together in the pot. Take cinnamon, ginger, fine spices, and greens."*make them suffer — This likely refers simply to butchering the bird. But what a way to phrase it. Brutal. For the grandest of all feasts, the dishes had to be just as blinged out as the guests, as evidenced by this recipe for Gilded Chickens with Quenelles: "After the chicken is killed, break a bit of skin on the head, take a feather tube, blow in until it is very full of air, scald it, slit it along the belly, skin it, and put the carcass aside. For the stuffing and the quenelles, have some raw pork... some chicken meat, eggs, good fine powder, pine nut paste, and currants... Stuff the chicken skins with it (but do not fill them so much that they burst), restitch them, and boil them in a pan... When the quenelles are well made, put them to cook with the chickens... on slender spoon an egg batter on top of your chickens and quenelles, until they are glazed... Take some gold or silver leaf and wrap it."In my head, this is what Elon Musk has every night for dinner. Wanna cook thousands of *actually* delicious recipes in step-by-step mode — with helpful videos? Download the free Tasty app right now. Today, we have Croque Madame, back in the day they had Sauce Madame, which is — you guessed it — not at all like the sandwich we know and love: "To make Sauce Madame, roast a goose and place a pan underneath. Take the liver of a lamb or other poultry and roast it on the grill. Then, when it is cooked, toast it and soak it in a little broth, and pass it through a cheesecloth. Boil a dozen eggs. Take the yolks and finely chop them. Then, when the meat is cooked, place it on top and add the sauce. If you want to taste milk, add a drop or two to the boil."This dish won the award for "Most Appetizing" of the meat course for me... that's saying something. While a young cow's intestines might not sound like a good time to you, it was the talk of the dinner party circa 1345. Here's how they made it back in the day: "To make calf mesentery, that one calls 'charpie.' Take your meat when it is completely cooked, cut it up very small, and fry it in lard. Crush ginger and saffron. Beat some raw eggs, and thread them onto your meat in the lard. Crush spices and add some."These dishes were heavy on the spice for more than just flavor: spices were expensive imports that communicated to everyone at the party just how good the hosts had it. It's giving caviar. As if this meal wasn't pungent enough, let's add some seafood to the mix... Lemprey is a fish — one that looks more like a sandworm from Dune than an earthly edible thing. And yes, Middle Age nobles ate it stuffed and covered in gelatin: "Lamprey in galantine. Bleed it... keep the blood, and cook it in vinegar, wine, and a bit of water. When it is cooked, put it to cool on a cloth. Take grilled bread, steep in your broth, [strain] through cheesecloth, boil with the blood, and stir well so that it does not burn. When it is well boiled, pour it into a mortar or a clean basin and stir continually until it is cooled. Grind ginger, cassia flowers, cloves, grains of paradise, nutmeg, and long pepper, steep in your broth, put as before into a basin with your fish, and put the basin in a wooden or tin dish. Thus, you have a good galantine."Thus, you have a dish that makes my skin crawl. Honestly wasn't expecting to read a recipe for dolphin in this cookbook, but at this point, I am way past getting shocked with these dishes: All our 600-year-old text says is, "Dolphins, lily flowers, star of creams, fried with sugar and egg yolks."Right. Riiiight. I'm detecting a slight mistranslation... it has been 600 years, after all. Based on Le Viandier, the French were not too worried about getting their veggies in. Mustard soup is one of the few vegetarian dishes in the cookbook: "To make mustard soup... take eggs fried in lily or butter and then puree mustard, cinnamon, ginger, small spices such as cloves and garlic, and sugar, all together, boil in a pot, and remove any excess greens and taste with salt as appropriate and put the broth aside." And, a French banquet isn't really complete without dessert... Did you know the All-American apple pie has a medieval French cousin? Me neither! Surely, this simple apple tart is going to be simple, spiced, and sweet: "Apple tarts: apple pieces, figs and grapes, well-cleaned, and put among the apples and figs & all mixed together. Here is put an onion fried in butter or in wine... crushed apples and destemmed apples in wine... with saffron... a few small spices: cinnamon, white ginger, anise... all the ingredients put together very crushed by hand [into] a paste well thick with apples and other ingredients.. After it is put the lid... gilded with saffron and put in the oven & cooked."No, ya, they put onions in apple pie. Of course, they did that. Hath your 21st-century tastes found this medieval feast scrumptious or stomach-churning? Tell us in the comments and share the other historical cuisines you're curious to learn more about. Want to see what people are cooking in the 21st century? Download the free Tasty app for access to thousands of contemporary recipes — no subscription required. This post was enhanced using AI-powered creativity tools.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Animation, Writers & Actors Guilds Hold 'Historic' Anti-Generative AI Protest At Annecy: 'GenAI Seeks Not To Support Artists, But To Destroy Them'
Representatives of international animation, screenwriters and actors guilds staged a protest at the Annecy Animation Film Festival on Thursday to voice their fears over the implications of generative AI for their professions and human creativity in general. Around 150 people joined them on the stretch of grass known as Le Paquier in front of the festival's key hub of the Bonlieu National Theater, holding guild flags and banners expressing their rejection of AI. More from Deadline Warner & DC Studios Making 'Mister Miracle' Animated Series With Showrunner Tom King 'Animal Farm' Review: Andy Serkis Directs Seth Rogen And All-Star Voice Cast In Clever And Chilling Take On Orwell's Classic Novella – Annecy Animation Festival 'In Your Dreams' Trailer: Netflix Unveils Animated Comedy Adventure With Craig Robinson & Simu Liu In Voice Cast AI and generative AI is a hot button topic at Annecy this year. Many animation professionals are wary about what AI means for their creativity, skills and livelihoods, while a small but growing group is advocating for the sector to embrace the technology. Belgian-based director, storyboard, layout and background artist Lauri Sanders, who heads up the AI task force at Belgium's animation workers union ABRACA, read out a statement laying out their concerns and demands. Read the full transcript below. 'Generative AI is neither a tool, nor effective, nor cheap. It is a copying machine that is flawed, destructive and expensive to run. GenAI literally builds upon and draws not only from the copyrighted works it was trained on, but also from the local human cultural values and norms embedded within those works,' read one extract. (scroll down for full statement) It has been signed by more than 20 guilds representing creative professions including the UK's Bectu, Ireland's video game org GWUI and animation workers union AWI, America's The Animation Guild, Netherlands' Kunstenbond and a number of French bodies including writers' bodies La Guilde and Syndicat des Scénaristes and animation union SPIAC-CGT. As well as raising the alarm over the threat posed by unchecked generative AI, the statement also makes demands around consent in relation to work being used to train Generative AI, compensation and control for artists over how their work is then used. Thursday's protest and the statement were spearheaded by France's Les Intervalles, the association against abuse and discrimination in animation. French actor and animator Milo Hustache-Mathieu and SPIAC-CGT member told the assembled crowd that the protest marked an 'historic' event. 'Having a such a coalition right now takes us so high. The whole sector is in crisis and AI is looming over our heads. It's amazing that, thanks to Les Intervalles, we managed to gather that many associations, unions and organizations from all the around the world,' he said, calling on other bodies to sign up too. 'This danger of generative AI shows the bonds between workers internationally, even if we're all in different countries and can't negotiate the same things. We need to bond together. Let's keep up the fight.' Speakers from crowd included UK hand-drawn animation specialist and influencer Howard Wimshurst who said the gathering was an important step. 'What we see here with these flags represents something essential. It is not the solution but without it we have no hope and that is solidarity,' he said. 'This year, I've seen a lot of films. Luckily there are less AI entries which is good because it means I have to walk out less times but there are panels where you'll hear people get up on stage and say things like, it's just a tool, we need to use it, otherwise we'll be left behind. 'There are speakers here who want to collect their thirty pieces of silver and they will turn on friends they've known for years and decades and it's really sad. Don't listen to them. They also want to dazzle you with this idea, that it's all about the technology. 'The technology is a vehicle for exploitation. It's a vehicle to extract data that people have worked their entire lives to create, they put everything into that data. It's not just data. Data is such a reductive word, but unfortunately that is how it can be exploited. So don't listen to them.' Here's the full statement: This statement was composed and supported by a collective of international Animation Unions, federations, and organisations calling for action in regards to the usage of generative Artificial Intelligence and its destructive impact, not only on the global animation industry and the craft itself, but also on everyone who is employed by it, our culture and our is an undeniable fact that the animation industry has been suffering greatly these last few years. The economics of streaming have been proven to be not at all lucrative and the increased spending during the pandemic led to the unavoidable burst of the streaming bubble. It is the workers that were staffed up with false promises that are feeling the repercussions through mass layoffs, the increased use of outsourcing, mergers and acquisitions that lead to the closure of studios and ever decreasing echoes across multiple audiovisual entertainment industries and affects workers in animation, music, VFX and the gaming rapid expansion of Generative AI in animation is propelled by the perceived beliefs that it is the answer to these developments. To work in these industries is a constant battle to prove our economic worth to a very small number of people, and to those people genAI brings an offer too good to be true: a near magical machine that can produce words and images from a simple and vague AI is neither a tool, nor effective, nor cheap. It is a copying machine that is flawed, destructive and expensive to run. GenAI literally builds upon and draws not only from the copyrighted works it was trained on, but also from the local human cultural values and norms embedded within those works. It poses an immediate threat to creative innovation and renewal, replacing the richness and diversity that characterize human creativity with a creativity shaped by the biases of those controlling and using it. It actively pushes creatives out of their respective industries, which will not only lead to the inevitable loss of knowledge and talent that will never be recuperated fully, but also directly leads to the privatisation of allart process and is a technology that seeks not to support artists, but to destroy them. The absence of humans is a feature, not a bug, of AI art. It is not a tool. We do not 'use' genAi – we negotiate with it to try and make it do the things we want it to do. GenAI promises only the loss of employment and livelihood for the millions of people worldwide that work at keeping the world connected through their the audiovisual industry is not the only victim of this increasingly damaging tech development. This same technology is being used to foster dissent, confusion and distrust among the public and has wide-ranging implications beyond international security, including the fabrication of criminal evidence and news, new forms of sexual harassment including deepfake pornography and/or privacy computational power required to train and use generative AI models demands a staggering amount of electricity and water which directly strains municipal water supplies and disrupts local ecosystems. This unchecked growth and unjustified techno-optimism comes with incredible environmental consequences, including expanding demand for computing power, larger carbon footprints, shifts in patterns of electricity demands and an accelerated depletion of natural resources, additionally exploiting without any respect for human such, there is a need for protection frameworks around the ethical and fair use of AI. For this we refer to the research brief of the International Labour Organization (ILO) which proposes the concept of '3Cs' (compensation, control on the use of the work of the creator, informed consent), but also for policies, nationally and internationally, to manage workforce transition through skills development, as well as the use of social protection to support workers affected by A reasonable balance between on the one hand technological innovation and on the other hand a sustainable and strong cultural and creative sector, requires that training AI with copyright-protected works should only be possible with the (informed) consent of the author(s) of those Performers and creators should be fairly compensated for the use of their work including but not limited to illustrations, animations, writing, voicework, likeness, or image, in AI generated Creators—such as writers, musicians, filmmakers, visual artists, and other professionals—need to be able to govern how their works, identities, and creative inputs are used, adapted, or reproduced by AI systems. This control ensures that the creators' intellectual property (IP), labour, and reputations are respected and that they receive fair recognition and compensation. In order for this to be realized, creators need to have an understanding on what AI – and particularly GenAI – entails; it is also necessary to build agency among them to negotiate relevant employment call upon the regulators, lawmakers and governments to fight for culture and art and the value it provides, to draft and implement legislation that protects those workers and those call upon producers, showrunners, studio heads and production staff to understand and protect our creative culture and to prioritize both the workers and our call upon all creative workers worldwide to unite. We ask that you support human made works. We ask that you speak up against the implementation of AI. We ask that you become informed and unionise with your fellow workers to protect ourart and culture, our work and our and supported by:ABRACA (Belgium, animation workers union)AGrAF (France, directors, graphic authors and writers association)BECTU (Broadcasting, Entertainment, Communications and Theatre Union)AWI (Ireland, animation workers union)CNT-SIPMCS (France, press media culture and show union)CSVI (Spain, video game union)FIA (The International Federation of Actors)FIM (The International Federation of Musicians)FNSAC-CGT (France, CGT Federation of Entertainment Unions)La Guilde française des scénaristes (France, writers union)GWUI (Ireland, videogame workers union)Les Intervalles (France, association against abuse and discrimination in animation)Kunstenbond (Netherlands, illustration, comic and animation workers)La Ligue des auteurs professionnels (France, authors union)Syndicat des Scénaristes (France, writers union)SFA-CGT (France, actors dubbing, comedians union)Snam-CGT (France, musicians union)SNTPCT (France, animation and VFX workers union)SPIAC-CGT (France, animation workers union)STJV (France, video game workers union)The Animation Guild (USA, animation workers and writers union)TouchePasàMaVF (France, actors dubbing association against GenAI)Uni MEI (International Art and Entertainment Alliance) Best of Deadline 'Stick' Release Guide: When Do New Episodes Come Out? 'Stick' Soundtrack: All The Songs You'll Hear In The Apple TV+ Golf Series 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery
