THE SEARCH FOR GENERAL TSO

This odd but entertaining documentary from writer/director Ian Cheney is an inquiry into how a ubiquitous dish of fried chicken became a staple item on every single Chinese restaurant in the USA even though nobody back in Mainland China has ever heard of it.  Cheney discovers there was an actual General Tso a military hero back in the 19th Century in China's Hunan Province but he failed to manage to find even a spurious link as to why these chicken nuggets were named after him.

Thanks to a rather bizarre and obsessive collector Harley Spiller who has amassed more than 10,000 Chinese Take Away Menus (!) we learn that there are at least 15 different spellings and numerous pronunciations of the General's name although the dish itself rarely changes from being sticky soy sauce drenched chicken.  Spiller is not the only eccentric interviewed here as another talking head is David Chan a pan-faced accountant  who claims to have eaten at more than 6000 Chinese restaurants.

The most interesting part of the investigation is when Cheney talks to some of the pioneering Chinese restaurateurs who first opened their eateries back in the days when the US Exclusion Act forced immigrants out of the labor market and into starting up small businesses.   These first restaurants catered to unsophisticated palates and so Chinese cuisine was modified to American tastes and ended up creating a passion for unlikely dishes such as 'chop suey.'  It wasn't until the 1960's and 1970's when the foodie renaissance finally brought high-end authentic Chinese food to some of the major cities in the US did things start to change.

Whilst Cheney spends considerable time discussing the popularity of this food with some famous chefs, food historians and writers, equally illuminating is when he journeys into small American towns when the isolated local Chinese restaurant is run by 'the only Chinese family in the village'.  Their stories of how they assimilated into an alien culture is the best part of this quirky wee film.  Much better than any dish of the General's chicken.

★★★★★★

THE TRIP TO ITALY

Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon who are like a contemporary Brit 'Odd Couple', are back together again reprising their roles of touring enthusiastic amateur gastronomes whilst verbal sparring and trying to out 'impersonate' each other. This pair of comic actors pretend to irritate each other with their quick-witted jibes whilst charming the pants of audiences in a British TV series that morphed into a very successful independent movie 'The Trip.'  On that occasion the restaurants and hotels they visited and ate at and flirted with the female staff were in the North of England where their inspiration was the words of Wordsworth & Coleridge and the film roles of Michael Caine.  Now they are back, but this time with a one week tour of Italy from northern Piemonte to the sun-drenched Amalfi Coast taking in some stunning scenery along the way and casually feasting on a series of superb mouth-watering dishes.

Once again they are ostensibly undertaking their mission for an writing assignment that Brydon has received from 'The Observer Newspaper'. They are again directed by Michael Winterbottom who is credited with writing the script too, but he has obviously given this talented pair a very free rein to allow them to improvise as much as they want to give the whole affair a naturalistic almost documentary feel. Albeit an extremely funny one. As they drive around some breath-taking countryside in their black Mini-Cooper with its malfunctioning stereo that for some obscure reason will only allow them to continually play Alanis Morrisette's Jagged Little Pill CD, they spend the bulk of their non-eating time, showing off with their obsession of impersonating different movie stars.

In the way of narrative, Coogan follows on with where he left off in 'The Trip' and is still trying to establish a better relationship with his teenage son who eventually files out to join them on the last leg of the tour. Whereas it looks like this time it is Brydon's turn for a career break when he gets a call from London and an Offer of his first acting role in an American Movie. Much to his surprise, he is also the one to get laid on this Trip in between phoning home to his stressed out wife who is having trouble coping with their young baby in her own.

Coogan and Brydon are a disarmingly charming couple, and are following in the footsteps of Lord Bryon and Percy Shelley who were 'celebrity' British travelers from two centuries previously, and they use both their predecessor's poetry and their Grand Tour as an spurious link to their own escapades. These modern day traveler's sensibilities are an acquired taste for Brits in particular, but they have a wonderfully quirky sense of humor that will appeal to anyone who has the slightest Anglophile tendency. And in a similar vein, the journey itself will delight every committed Italophile too.

Despite the fact that is a culinary pilgrimage, beyond the occasional shot of a chef putting the finishing touches to a dish, the only real detail we get on the food is when each waiter serves it up and pronounces its ingredients.  Winterbottom wisely allows us to just soak in the picture of these carb-heavy sumptuously looking courses as each one is a masterpiece in itself.

It's obvious that they have all the perfect ingredients of a real successful adventure, so I'm sure that there will be other 'Trips' to follow in the future.

★★★★★★★★

SPINNING PLATES

For his new documentary Joseph Levy chose to profile three wildly different restaurants/eating establishments whose proprietors and chefs had one thing in common : sheer passion that could also be perceived as lunacy too.  At the top end of the scale was Alinea in Chicago that had just been voted as one of the ten best restaurants in the World.  Renowned chef Grant Achtaz is a visionary who is totally obsessed with molecular gastronomy which is about the science of preparing food and pushing the boundaries of experimenting into concocting the most complex of dishes that take hours to prepare and just one bite to finish.  When Levy starts filming Achtaz and his team are awaiting the Michelin Guide's first ever visit to Chicago as they desperately want their coveted Three Stars.

Breitbach's Country Dining is the next place on Levy's list.  Situated in the village of Balltown, Iowa (pop. 70) it's been run by the same family for over 6 generations, and is the oldest restaurant/bar in the State. It is a beloved institution by not just the local community but by its loyal band of customers from all the surrounding States, and Mick and Cindy Brietbach's worries are not about winning  Awards but wondering if they can serve another 2000 lunches this coming Mother's Day.

And to complete the trio, Levy profiles a small Mexican restaurant outside Tucson called La Cocina de Gabby, that Francisco Martinez has opened for his wife Gabby as 'she cooks like angel'.  They have only been open a few months and have practically no working capital and very few customers.

All three places are totally fascinating for entirely different reasons although they are all share a common desire to succeed very much on their own terms.  And then just as you are hooked enough to really want them to achieve their dreams, disaster happens.  Big time, and to them all.  The film suddenly seems less like a documentary and more of a Lifetime TV melodrama.

Be warned, there are spoilers in this next paragraph just in case you want to stop reading now.

Grant Achtaz is diagnosed with Stage 4 tongue cancer for which the leading specialists in New York give him little to hope for. Brietbach's catches fire one night and burns down to the ground, only for the entire local community to come together and re-build it from scratch.  10 months later another fire turns the new building into a pile of ashes.  And in Tucson the Martinez's get evicted from their house when it is foreclosed.

There are very happy endings for two out of three of them, but by then its hard to move off the edge of your seat as you are stunned in total disbelief and are wreaked with fear in case there are any more disasters waiting around the corner.

This is Levy's first documentary but his previous day job was as Ex Producer of TV's 'Ultimate Recipe Showdown' so he knows how to photograph food really well, so be sure to eat before you see this one otherwise you will have real hunger pangs. But with all the human drama, this fascinating movie is not just for foodaholics, but for anyone who likes a disaster or two served up with their meals.

★★★★★★★★

HAUTE CUISINE aka LES SAVEURS DU PARIS

In the late 1980's Daniele Mazet-Delpeuze was running a small Bed & Breakfast on her new truffle farm in Perigord in Northern France when out of the blue she got a call to tell her that someone in Paris wanted her to cook for him. On the recommendation on none other than Joel Robuchon, President Mitterand of France wanted her to be his private chef.

This movie is loosely adapted on Daniele's story, and even though some of the names have changed, the menus and recipes have remained the same,

Hortense (aka Daniele) appointment at the Elysee Palace is because the President is an old fashioned 'foodie' and he wants her to make him the 'real food of France'.  Whilst she has his total support she has to fight all the antagonism of the main kitchens a bastion of male preserve and where the rule of thumb has always been that Presidential food should be both rich and ornate.  Hortense's speciality on the other hand is 'simple' dishes  .... although I'm not sure how plates of salmon stuffed in a cabbage and served with cream qualify as that.

The food is exquisite and obscenely mouth-watering and Hortense is delightfully played by the wonderful veteran French actress Catherine Frot, but in between meals the movie is as flat as a pancake (or should that be a crepe?). Seemed like a wasted opportunity of a great story of the Palace's first female chef ever, but the skirmishes with her resentful colleagues never really panned out, and her stilted relationship with the miscast poor old actor playing the President with such frailty I was convinced he would be dead before desert.

The story was framed at each end by the next unlikely post that Hortense took on when her stint in Rue St Honore was finished : as a chef, and the only female, on a Antarctic Base.  She must have been one hell of a woman.

One for foodies .... BUT be more sensible than me and do eat first.

Available on Amazon/Itunes VOD

★★★★★

SOMM

Jason Wise's captivating new documentary is a study of sheer obsession. That, with more than a degree of insanity, are evidently two of the essential qualifications you need to become a Master Sommelier. Oh yes, an encyclopedic knowledge of wine helps too.  This nail-biting movie follows four such fool-hardy and intrepid young men as they prepare and sit the examination that less than 200 people have passed in the 40 years since it first was given in the U.S. to attain this rare and exalted status.

Ian Cauble is the most single-minded and overly serious of the four who study together into the wee hours of the morning and who have become fast friends.  The others have nicknamed this whizz kid as 'Dad'.  Like him, the other three viz Brian, Dustin and Dlynn are already Sommeliers working in high-end restaurants, but life to these guys will not be complete unless they can gain this ultimate highest accolade.

There are three parts to the exam ..... which incidentally can only be sat once a year .... theory, service and the hardest of all, tasting. For the latter they are each presented with 6 different wines and within 25 minutes must not only describe every nuance and flavor but determine both the country and region of origin, and the year of vintage before then naming it.  They amount of knowledge they must consume is matched by all the countless gallons of wine they must sample.  As the film progresses and we witness the four studying/arguing/drinking in preparation they never hide the fact that the whole brutal process is sheer torture.  Their neglected wives/girlfriends just left with with the task of emptying their spittoons next morning for at least a year, are nothing more than wine widows.

By the time the big weekend in Dallas for the two days of reckoning comes around we are so emotional invested in the outcome for each of them that we share the scary intimidation they face from the current Masters who are about to test them.    No spoilers here at all as to the outcome, but I will just say that you are left dangling until the closing frames of this gripping documentary, and you will need more than one glass of wine when by the time it ends.  And trust me, it you wont spit it out afterwards.

If your nerves survived 'Kings of Pastry' the 2009 documentary by D A Pennebaker when top French chefs baked their way through fierce competition to be named a 'Les Melleurs Ouvriers de France', then you will so love this engaging movie too.

Currently in selected movie theaters and on VOD via Itunes.

★★★★★★★★

STEP UP TO THE PLATE

This latest documentary on another culinary genius goes beyond his kitchen and shows a  family dynasty beginning to come to terms with the patriarch as he tries to step down and out of the limelight. It is in fact the dynamics of the relationship between master chef Michel Bras and his son and heir Sebastian, an extremely accomplished chef in his own right, that sets this movie apart from the norm, and makes for a fascinating story.

Michel is, to all intents and purposes, a quiet and well-mannered man and although he seems devoid of all the usual kitchen histrionics that seem de-rigour in celebrity chefs this days (on TV anyway) he is still very much an exacting one, and pain-stakingly obsessive about every last detail.  Whether it be the stunning restaurant he had built on top of hill in the middle of some breath-taking French countryside, or a new recipe that his son has spent hours creating.  Even picking out the herbs and vegetables in the Market hours before sun-rise is a precise art for this man who will not be rushed.

As a child, Michel helped his mother in the kitchen of the small Hotel the family owned in the town.  After he came back from culinary school he came in to his own, winning his first Michelin star, before leading up to the three he has today.  For a small-town young man it was a remarkable achievement and somehow along the way the man who spent 24/7 in a kitchen actually got married.... and Mde Bras then became his Hostess ....and they had a child which he admits he spent very little time with.

The fact that this workaholic ended up with a son who not only admired him so, but who freely chose to follow in his footsteps, is quite remarkable.  But then the whole relationship the film showed was of two very undemonstrative men who clearly had total respect and such genuine affection/love for each other without seemingly ever having the need to verbalise about it.

The inspired touch to the telling of the story was the complete lack of any narration. Scenes were juxtaposed to each other and one either got the entire picture, or just left wondering how things came about. This lack of explanation throughout the movie was perfect and suited how these two men function .... and their families .... as they prefer to show their emotions clearly on their faces, and in their smiles in particular.

The Bras have recreated their restaurant in another spectacular remote setting in Japan, and even though I'm sure they have no financial worries, they were still remarkably unfazed about creating their impeccable food and standards in this totally foreign culture. They embraced the challenges of working with completely alien ingredients just like It was simply another day in the kitchen.

There are now 4 generations of Bras ..... Granny gave up working many years ago .... but Sebastian's young son Alum helped out in the Restaurant Kitchens during the school holidays, and without any pressure from either Dad or Grandad it looks like he knows what future is instore for him. If he has the extremely good-naturedness of Sebastian and the unwavering patience of Michel  .... and lest I forget  .... the culinary genius of them both .... then the Bras Restaurants will be in safe hand, and the 3 Stars will remain intact.

Mouth-wateringly wonderful even for non-foodies

Available at Amazon
★★★★★★★★

KINGS OF PASTRY

If watching grown men burst into tears over a tart that can ruin their lives is your idea of fun, then this is the movie for you.

This truly captivating movie from award winning filmmakers D. A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegadus ('The War Room' 'Moon Over Broadway') follows three Pastry Chefs as they go into training to prepare for  an extremely stressful three-day somewhat scary competition that looks more grueling than the Tour De France.  It’s all about the ultimate recognition of their profession of winning one of the highly privileged collars awarded to the winners of the Meilleur Ouvrier de France (Best Craftsman in France).  They do of course have to create far more than tarts and the seemingly endless list of confectionery culinary masterpieces they are required to make includes delicate chocolates to precarious six foot sugar sculptures that could easily end up being their downfall.

Right up to the competition, which is only held every four years, it is obvious that this is not just a dream and ambition but an absolute obsession of all the Chefs taking part.  As well as their extraordinary skills and passion, they need nerves as steel…. as did I just watching as I ended up a total nervous wreck worrying if they, and their delicate sculptures, would end the day in one piece.

Nail biting to the very end, but I wouldn’t have missed it even for the very large chocolate gateau I was gagging for by the end.   My tip for a successful viewing of this movie is eat first and then ensure you have a large bottle of vodka (or whatever) to steady your nerves.

P.S. And if you had thought from my opening paragraph that I was referring to the other kind of tarts that have no morals and wear short skirts, then you would have been in good company. I mean why else did President Sarkozy turn up at the end to present the Awards, because we know that he’s not known to hang around bakeries!

★★★★★★★★