Crave has greenlit Casse-Gueule, a scripted French-language series honouring Montreal’s culinary industry.

The 8 x 60-minute dramedy is produced by Montreal’s Duo Productions in collaboration with Bell Media. It began shooting in Montreal and the surrounding area in early June and continues until the beginning of August. It is directed by Mathieu Cyr (Le retour d’Anna Brodeur), with contributions from Catherine Therrien (Cerebrum).

Casse-Gueule, previously under the working title Coup de feu!, was created by Frédéric Ouellet, who writes the series with Daniel Chiasson. It follows a talented chef, played by Émile Schneider (Après le déluge), who faces challenges, tensions and rivalries when he launches a restaurant with friends and his daughter. Casse-Gueule was supported by the Quebecor Fund, SODEC, Bell Media’s Canada Media Fund envelope, the Independent Production Fund and tax credits.

The series also stars Mylène Mackay (L’Âge adulte) and French actor Zouheir Zerhouni (Guépardes) alongside Vladimir Alexis (Code 8), Pascale Bussière (Agence Brainsto), Samuel Gauthier (Les moments parfaits), Benoit Mauffette (Les Simone), Arielle Mailloux (Toute la vie) and Guy Nadon (The Sticky).

Chef Antonin Mousseau-Rivard, founder of Montreal’s Le Mousso, serves as a series consultant while chef Mehdi Brunet-Benkritly serves as a development consultant.

French-language content is succeeding on Crave, even outside of Canada’s francophone communities, Suzane Landry, VP, content development, programming and news at Bell Media, tells Playback Daily.

In May, Crave’s French-language Empathie attracted the most new subscribers Canada-wide. The Trio Orange dramedy, as revealed in its season two greenlight announcement, is the most popular Crave original production across genres and languages.

“[That] means we succeeded in not only reaching French speakers, but also English speakers,” says Landry. “We think that this content is able to reach people [outside] Quebec. We also have interest from international broadcasters for some [of] our series. I think a good story can reach a lot of people in every language.”

Image courtesy of Bell Media