Movie Review: Kings of Pastry

It has been a while since I did a movie review, but after seeing a mid-afternoon Sunday screening of Kings of Pastry, I felt like it was time to brush the dust off the movie critic "hat" and write up some of my thoughts on the experience. I wish I could say that I had been planning on seeing this film for some time, but I only discovered that it was showing two days ago when the Cleveland Museum of Art's Facebook page was updated with a link to the movie. With both a Friday evening and Sunday afternoon showing, I decided that the Sunday time would better fit into my schedule. Having gotten feedback from a friend about how packed the room was during the Friday screening, I decided to make an appearance about a half hour early to ensure I had a ticket.


Fortunately, while the theater was pretty full today, there were still about a quarter of the seats empty. The only information I knew going into today's screening was that the film was about the MOF, the Meilleur Ouvrier de France (which translates to best craftsmen in France), a title bestowed upon precious few pastry chefs who have demonstrated through a grueling three day trial that they are experts in various forms of pastry: cakes, candy making, chocolate work, sugar work, sculpture, colors, and flavors.

The movie follows three MOF finalists, Jacguy Pfeiffer, Phillippe Rigollot, and Regis Lazard, as they prepare for what is to be a highlight of their professional careers. Preparations begin months, if not years before the actual examination as the certification is only offered every four years. Many of the chefs have made two or more attempts to gain the title and it is taken so seriously in France that it is illegal to claim to be a MOF and wear the red, white, and blue striped collar if, in fact, you are not an MOF.

The first half of the movie is spent setting up the story lines of the primary characters, showing family and professional life, intense scrutiny from coaches and friends, and trial runs of everything from cake making to sugar sculptures and chocolate show pieces. My favorite moment during this portion of the film was when Jacguy, one of the co-founders of the French Pastry School in Chicago, walks the audience how he constructed a "wedding" cake out of nearly ten layers of mousse, genoise, dacquoise, ganache and finally finishes it with a simple airbrushing. He makes an extra to take home to his family only to have his young daughter look at the outside of the cake and naively claim how "simple" it looked.

I was a little worried that I wouldn't get invested in these characters and the trials and tribulations of achieving the MOF award, but I have to say that for all of the time spent setting up the story lines, the three days of examination really drew me in completely. While the jury (the other MOF chefs who were present to judge the contestants' entries) was obviously hypercritical of every flavor and technical flaw, they also showed themselves to be compassionate and supportive of the candidates. At one point during the examination, the absolute worst possible event occurs to one of the chefs, a shattered piece of sugar sculpture. As the chef breaks down and ponders the unthinkable of simply quitting, the other MOF chefs fortify around him and give him the encouragement he needs to salvage what he can. That was probably one of the most touching moments in the film.

At the end of the examination when the buffet tables have to be filled with each of the participant's pieces, you really get a sense of the urgency for how short a time period was given for such monumental tasks. It doesn't matter if the piece is striking and perfect; if it's not on that table, it will not be judged. As the film progresses, it is clear that these three days have completely drained the men emotionally, intellectually, and physically. One tired and frustrated chef claims that regardless of the outcome, he will never do this again. He has had to put so much of his life on hold while preparing and participating for this that he repeatedly emphasizes how entirely empty he feels inside.

Of the sixteen MOF finalists, only a select few receive the award. As I watched the tearful pronouncement of the winners, I truly felt the joy for the chefs who attained this rarefied level of certification, as well as sadness for the majority who didn't achieve their goal. For me, this movie did a fantastic job of taking me on a roller coaster ride. The first half of the movie felt like that slow, gradual climb to the top of the first hill. Once the MOF examination started and all the way to the very end, it was a constant twisting and turning, changing directions in an instant, until at the very end, you pull into the station and finally come to a complete stop.

In an age when Hollywood constantly bombards audiences with the latest technical craze and special effects and puts character investment at the very bottom of the list, it is refreshing to find a film that relies totally on the human drama and the characters that make up the dossier. Kings of Pastry was a fun and consuming film and the level of skill required to create the breathtaking show pieces out of chocolate and pulled and blown sugar was simply amazing. Completely family friendly (although reading comprehension is required as there are sub-titles), this is a film that will be on my "must see again" list of movies. I suggest you add it to your list as well.

Extra Helpings: Food Beware, The French Organic Revolution

When it comes to the films being shown at the Cleveland Museum of Art, it seems that luck has been on my side twice now. The last time I was in the museum for a film, it was to see Michael Ruhlman introduce Food, Inc. This time around, I again discovered only several hours prior to the screening that Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution was showing at 6:45 PM tonight. In both cases, I was fortunate enough (also known as, having no life) that I was free to drive up and see what the hubbub was all about. From the film's description on the Cleveland Museum of Art's website,

"This 'cheerfully one-sided film' (New York Times) shows what happens when the mayor of a French village decrees that all lunches in the school cafeteria will be organic and locally grown. 'The tone is gentle, the music French, and the food shot so delectably that you can all but smell the freshly baked bread' –Bob Mondello, NPR. Cleveland theatrical premiere. (France, 2008, color, subtitles, DVD, 112 min.)"

it seemed that at the very least I would be entertained and hopefully a little more enlightened. Thinking that this movie might be something some of my other Facebook and Twitter friends might find interesting, I sent out a notification to see if anyone else wanted to join me. I was fortunate to be able to meet up with fellow blogger and Facebook friend Andre to share the experience.

The basic plot line of Food Beware takes us to a small village in Barjac, France where the mayor and the rest of the city council decree that both the school lunch programs and the Meals on Wheels program for the elderly switch over to 100% organic produce, meats, dairy, eggs, and cheese. The majority of the story revolves around a single school year, showing the seemingly easy adoption of this new dietary regimen by the students, parents, elderly and farmers in the community. Sprinkled throughout the entire movie are vignettes of scientists and activists speaking to the causes of cancer, diabetes, and infertility due to the overabundance of chemicals used in the production of food.

To be quite honest, I didn't particularly care for this film. Not because I didn't get what the film was trying to say. I understand and embrace the notion of organic and sustainable farming. However, Food Beware turned out to be a nearly two hour propaganda-filled documentary that used a rather ominous technique of beating you incessantly over the head with its message that I would've gladly skipped had I known better. Between the children practicing and finally performing a song about the evils of conventional agriculture to the symbolic birthing of a new baby to a pesticide free world as the sun gloriously rises from the horizon, this film has no intention of letting you miss the message they are trying to promote. This repeated message slamming became so obvious and obnoxious, that I think it does a real disservice to the organic and sustainable food movements as I can't imagine anyone on the other side of the fence who would be swayed by it.

In addition to the gratuitous use of scare tactics in the form of statistics, every time one of those ominous numbers would show up on the screen, it was as if the person in charge of the film's score had decided to channel Wagner and his use of the leitmotif to make sure that the happy scenes had happy music and the bad scenes had scary, the killer is about to claim his first victim, brooding overtones to it. Once I recognized how the message was even being driven by the score, I tuned out even more.

At the end of the film, you see the results of the first year of 100% organic at a school concert. The mayor proudly states that he has gotten inquiries from five or six other cities, interested in doing something similar and using Barjac as an example. While I think that most people who watched this movie were definitely happy for the children and eldery folks in Barjac, sadly this film would not be a good medium for converting the uninitiated. Perhaps this movie plays differently to a European audience, but I have a funny feeling that anyone who is truly seeking answers to this complicated problem would rather have an intelligent movie that speaks to them in a way that allows them to come to a gradual and educated decision rather than feeling berated if you leave not agreeing with the primary tenet of the movie.

While I enjoyed several of the food scenes, it wasn't enough to save this movie for me. Some pro-organic supporters might be of the opinion that visibility at any cost is necessary. I found Food Beware not only not helpful, but hurtful to the adoption of the notion of an organic lifestyle by the common audience-goer. If you want to see an intelligent documentary about our current food agri-business, check out King Corn, Food, Inc., or Food Fight instead. Those films will give you much more food for thought without wishing that the classic Kevin Bacon moment from Animal House not keep repeating in your head, "Thank you, sir! May I have another?"

Twinkies Are a Healthy Snack?

Last night I had the pleasure of watching Chris Taylor's latest documentary, Food Fight. Shown at the Cleveland Museum of Art in the lecture hall, the film chronicles the rise of big agribusiness in the 20th century and the resulting rebellion that started with the organic food movement in California. As an added bonus, Michael Ruhlman, author of thirteen books (most of which are related to food), spent about six to seven minutes introducing the film and how important the message of the film is in helping to turn around what has become a major health crisis in the United States.

Sporting an impressive list of cameos from chefs, activists, and volunteers, the film playfully weaves it's way through the history of how we got to where we are, starting with how farmers operated at the beginning at the beginning of the 20th century and how they evolved at the end of it. The film talks about a pivotal political figure, Earl Butz, who in the 1970's as the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture under Nixon, changed the way that farmers had done business for decades and instead implemented a plan for mass production of crops on an unprecedented scale.

Peppered through the movie are actual media advertisements for various products made from the products and by-products of the big agribusiness companies. One commercial is narrated by a concerned mother who states that while children need three square meals a day, sometimes between meals, they need a healthful snack. This, apparently, is where Twinkies fit in. Another commercial, extolling the virtues of a new, better form of "cheese" claims that they've replaced part of the dairy with corn oil. Sounds delicious, no?

While many of the topics that Food Fight touches on have been covered by other documentaries (such as King Corn, which I also highly recommend), the one new idea that I hadn't come across before was the rise of the California local / sustainable / organic movement headed by noted chef Alice Waters and her restaurant Chez Panisse. I had always assumed that being part of the Berkeley / 1960's hippie movement she would've already embraced the concepts of local and organic as part of her ideology even before she got into food. Not so. When she finally decided to start feeding people, her driving force was that she was determined to give people the best tasting food she could find. Through trial and error, she discovered that the local farmers who were using sustainable and organic farming methods were consistently producing better looking and better tasting produce.

The film also goes on to chronicle the rise of the farmer's market and the impact that it is now finally having on the way that chefs, restaurants, and most importantly, regular folks connect with local farmers committed to growing terrific produce that is actually tasty, good for the body and most importantly, not harmful to the Earth.

As Mr. Ruhlman noted during his introduction to the packed auditorium last night, the people in attendance weren't the people that need to see this film. It's the rest of America that needs to see Food Fight in the hope that once we understand that the food choices we make have unintended consequences, we can start to make better choices. As a nation, we need to step forward and start demanding access to food that is both healthy for us and farmed in such a way that it is healthy for the Earth.

At only 90 minutes in length, I highly recommend that you, your children, your friends and your neighbors take the time to watch this educational, humorous and sobering look at the state of our current food system. If everyone made the decision to eat just one meal a day with the principles espoused in this film, we would revolutionize the entire food business.