6 Hands

Top Chef put Jacques and Mathieu in the same rooms as some of the best young chefs in France — and a handful of those meetings turned into real friendships. That's where 6 Hands came from: a night where a guest chef leaves their own kitchen and comes to cook alongside the Lagarde brothers at Cascada.

The chefs who've come through aren't just talented — most are recognisable names in French gastronomy, several of them fellow Top Chef France alumni. Alexandre Marchon, self-taught, ran his own restaurant in Paris for years before stepping back from it — these days he pops up around the city instead, most recently on a floating terrace by the Seine. Albane Auvray trained under Guy Savoy and now runs Groot La Tourte in Paris with fellow Top Chef alum Hugo Riboulet, part gastronomy, part street food. Jean Covillault trained at Institut Paul Bocuse and has built a name for himself running a string of pop-up restaurants around Paris, several focused on fighting food waste — after Jacques and Mathieu visited him in Paris, it was his turn to come to Cascada. Pierre Reure runs Tambouille, his own mobile restaurant. Gaston Savina built a private chef business cooking for major names and brands out of London, and is now reopening his own restaurant in Notting Hill, his first fixed address in a decade. Wilfried Romain has cooked alongside them too, each guest chef bringing something different to the table.

Each one builds a menu specifically for that single night — dishes made once, for that evening only, never repeated. And unlike a normal service, the guest chef doesn't stay in the kitchen. Course by course, they come out to the tables together with Jacques and Mathieu, to talk through what's on the plate and why. It's as close as most guests will get to actually cooking alongside them.

Every Valentine's Day, Jérémie Falissard comes down from Montreal, where he's built a small restaurant and bar empire of his own — the one guest chef who returns every year. Every other collaboration has been a one-time thing, including a memorable cocktail pairing, some of it edible, created by world champion mixologist Victor Delpierre.

Each edition looks different, shaped entirely by who's in the kitchen that night. What doesn't change is the reaction — guests bring these nights up again, months later.

Cascada has been one of the first to bring 6 Hands dinners to Marbella, thanks largely to the brothers' network across the industry. It's something we want to keep doing, and keep growing.

Most recently, 6 Hands became 14 Hands: the entire Cascada kitchen team came out from behind the scenes, each chef preparing one dish representing where they're from — Ecuador, Jamaica, Mexico, Spain, Romania, and of course, France. It wasn't built around a famous guest this time. It was a thank-you to the team itself — many of whom have been with Cascada for years, and who've spent plenty of those nights working alongside the well-known chefs who came before them.

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