Year Released: 2022
Directed by: Eric Besnard
Starring: Grégory Gadebois, Isabelle Carré, Benjamin Lavernhe, Lorenzo Lefèbvre
(112 min. Not Rated)
Genre: Comedy, Historic Drama

“Life is a journey, not a destination.” – Attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson

This must see 2022 film will restore your faith in modern cinema. Everything in it is a work of art, from the delicious food, the scenery that resembles fine paintings, the piquant satire, brilliant script, and the outstanding acting.

France, 1789, just before the Revolution. With the help of a surprising young woman, a chef who has been sacked by his master must find the resolve to carry on with his life. Writer/director Éric Besnard's mouth-watering new historical comedy indelibly pairs Grégory Gadebois and Isabelle Carré as a gifted chef and his unlikely protégé.

***

We begin with a display of the decadent courtly life of the vain, mean-spirited nobles living their life of ease while the rest of their country struggles to get by day to day. Actually they are not too different from today’s wealthy who jet to their yearly retreat in Switzerland where they feast on gourmet delights and tsk tsk about climate change.

The French nobles are bored with all their excesses – their marble palaces, the manicured lawns and gardens, their steady flow of equally superficial mistresses, and the like. The lavish entrees satiate their boredom and serve as a means for social one-upmanship. A noble receives honor if his chef impresses his titled friends, and Pierre Manceron (Grégory Gadebois) certainly does that. His dishes parade into the lavish dining room in silver trays carried high and haughtily by servants who somehow mimic the arrogance of their employers. Although, in truth, these servants probably have as much basis for their supercilious self-regard as the nobles they serve; i.e. not a jot.

But our chef, who is truly a master of his art, makes one mistake – inserting his own creation into the menu scripted by the Duke of Chamfort (Benjamin Lavernhe). That is his undoing and soon he is without work, retreating his with teenaged son to the family home.

Further misfortune greets him there. His father has died, the home has been ransacked, and Manceron has lost his zest for cooking and life – one and the same for him.

Only when Louise (Isabelle Carré) descends upon his misery does he begin to change. Her stubbornness matches his despair; she is undeterred when he rejects her entreaties to become his apprentice.

She ignores Maceron’s protestations that she is, after all, a woman, and too old at that. Only after spending the night in the rain outside his house, does he relent.

Manceron: I’ve no taste for cooking
Louise: Teach me and it will come back.

But Louise must earn Manceron’s respect first by toiling at mundane tasks, and he is at first unimpressed with her work. She is obviously unused to physical labor, and the way she walks indicates she is either of noble birth or a courtesan. Manceron, of course, assumes the latter. This is just the beginning of the web of misperceptions and lies that define their relationship, but the immovable object has met a relentless force, and the two begin to work together.

We are reminded of all those early Mickey Rooney / Judy Garland films where suddenly they hatch a great idea and proceed to make it happen, “the very definition of youthful, ‘Let's put on a show’ American optimism.”

Our French film reflects that same spirit, although perhaps a little more reluctantly. They are French, after all. Slowly, the humble barn/home in the woods becomes much more, a sort of travel stop where food is also available, and many a traveler stops by for refreshment. The idea of a restaurant had not yet evolved in France. Manceron, goaded on my his son who embodies the spirit of Revolution soon to engulf France, decides that gourmet fare should not be restricted to foppish nobles, but available to all people – “noble, bourgeoisie, and peasant.”

Each taste of success, however, is undercut, but eventually Manceron and Louise learn to “meet with Triumph and Disaster / And treat those two impostors just the same.” (Rudyard Kipling).

Your heart will ache with each insult and injury the Duke inflicts upon his once beloved chef, his casual betrayals just a matter of course for the white-wigged ruling class. Will Manceron ever regain his place? Will the Duke beg for his return? Or will the restaurant, now open to all, become his rebirth.

Even if we suspect we know the answer, it is not the destination, but the journey there that transfixes us.

Not to miss.

–Kathy Borich
🥁 🥁 🥁 🥁 🥁

Trailer

Film-Loving Foodie

“Be an artist on your own time,” Restaurant owner Dustin Hoffman scolds Jon Favreau in Chef. Favreau obliges and makes the tried and true dishes the customers want, but that gets him nothing but scorn from the food critic dining there.

In our featured film Chef Manceron does not ask permission, and sneaks in his new creation, called Delicious (Délicieux in French). The entire audience gets a backstage pass to watch his creation emerge, and it is a true delight in every way. The bite-sized pastry featuring potato and truffles is picture perfect, and so is his entire meal.

The Duke of Chamfort (Benjamin Lavernhe) is elated with the entire feast and so are the elite friends he is intending to impress. That is until one nasty one starts in on the innovative little tart. Potatoes and truffles are not held in high esteem in pre Revolutionary France, it seems. “It is what we feed our pigs,” he sneers, punctuating his disapproval by crashing the tart and the fine china it was served upon to the floor.

Suddenly all the sycophants who had just been oozing high praise for the feast join in, and the duke is humiliated. When Manceron does not apologize as the duke demands, he is summarily fired.

Our poor chefs cannot win, it seems. Obey or disobey, they are scorned and fired.

But you amateur chefs need not fear such reprisals if you want to make this little tart. Fair warning, though. It is a demanding recipe, but I know some of you pastry lovers will enjoy the challenge and like the dough, rise to the occasion.

Bon appétit!

Délicieux: Potato Truffle Tart

I converted the continental recipe from grams to ounces, rounding off where I needed to. I am also showing the original recipe just in case you want to check on the conversions yourself.

FOR THE VALENTIN’S DOUGH:

1 oz. flour

1 oz. potato starch

8 oz. butter

pinch of salt

½ oz. sugar

2 oz. milk

2 egg yolks

FOR GARNISH :

2 large potatoes

2 oz.fresh truffle (the truffles can be replaced by duxelle of mushrooms)

4 oz. g duck fat