Nabil Zemmouri, LeftLover

This mechanism has become his signature. His 2.5 million subscribers (Instagram, TikTok & YouTube combined) wrote to him: "I have an end of Boursin, three overripe apricots, a piece of zucchini and a bottom of flour," or confessed to him their "lazy recipes" – pasta with ketchup, Gruyère, frozen nuggets. He uses exactly the same products, uses the first name of everyone, and shows in a video what he would do with them: a top-of-the-range version, meticulous presentation, a little chef's tip. And he closes it all with his "Allez , ciao" which has become his trademark. In the lot, he slips in finds that explain his success – for example, broccoli plants that we don't throw away but that we transform "into better burger pickles". A full house for the interested party with the Freedent smile and athletic build, he who first dreamed of being a footballer. France Télévisions spotted him: he now hosts Le Chef Des Défis à Petits Prix on Slash, the digital channel for 18-30 year olds. His book, Extraordinaires: Transform 50 everyday recipes to finally get out of the ordinary, was released in 2023 by Marabout, barely two years after his first videos.

Behind the show, there is a very specific story. He repeats it to the media: he owes a lot to his family from Béjaïa, in Kabylia (Algeria). In this family of seven children, the mother didn't throw anything away. Leftover meat? Recycled into meatballs for sandwiches of the week. The eldest, Nabil, played the commis: he peeled the potatoes and his mother made him believe that he was the one who had made the meal. Later, he pressed the garlic, mixed the béchamel, then tried his first desserts: he told the online media Jeune Afrique that he had thought that by stuffing half an apple in puff pastry, the passage in the oven would transform it into a compote... From this failure was later born his signature dessert: an apple turnover with half of the apple brushed with a basil caramel. On the palate side, he remains very family-oriented: he cites beef bourguignon as his favourite dish, speaks of his mother as "the Queen of gougères with comté", of veal blanquette spiked with cloves, or of a pastry flan seasoned with pistachio, rose, almonds and lime.

His CV is in his image: not linear but stubborn. Baccalaureate Litterature, BTS commercial-sales first, "because you need a diploma". But his head is still in the kitchen. He enrolled at the hotel school in Montargis (Loiret), which dismissed him because he entertained the gallery – without dampening his desire to become a chef. Thanks to an uncle, he approached the circle of three-star chef Gilles Goujon, in the village of Fontjoncouse (Aude), and gained experience until he took over the stoves of a guest house restaurant, La Minotte, in the Yvelines. It was not yet notoriety, but it was there that he sharpened what would make his mark: cooking good, beautiful and not ruinous.

This is his main hobbyhorse: to prove that you can make the meal of the whole week – starter, main course and dessert – for 50€. In his videos, he pushes the concept even further with these meals for four students for less than 8€ in total. This pedagogy appeals to the public but also to brands: Pyrex, Samsung, Leclerc, or even the AI-equipped browser Perplexity have already collaborated with it. Based in Argenteuil, in the Val-d'Oise, he took on another dimension with a video that went viral where he transforms simple overripe avocados into tortillas: 13.2 million views on TikTok alone.

Today, Parisian chefs, even though they are starred, want to appear with him: we see him alongside Frédéric Simonin, or Jean-François Rouquette at the Park Hyatt Vendôme. Even the U.S. Embassy in Paris called on him for one of its favorite playgrounds: reusing leftovers from a lunch and turning it into an official dinner served to the Ambassador. There is a seductive mix about him: the anti-waste culture inherited from his mother, the technical mastery learned in a three-star restaurant, and a proximity to his audience, mainly digital. A star, but a simple and accessible star, just like his cuisine.