Anyone familiar with French cultural know what a massive part good food and gastronomy plays in France. This movie attempts to tell somewhat of a historically true story behind the first restaurant. Hard as it is to believe, until the very end of the 18th century, the amazing food and recipes that France became famous for, was restricted to the stately homes and chateaux of the aristocratic ruling classes.
Indeed this movie begins with the story of chef Pierre Manceron (Gregory Gadebois), the highly regarded chef de cuisine for the fictional Duke of Chamfort (Benjamin Lavernhe), who is exiled from the Duke's court for innovating a foi gras and potato pie-let and refusing to apologize for his supposed impudence. Isolated with his teenage son Ben (Lorenzo Lefebrve) and an elderly relative to a modest rural cottage and brooding over his sacking, he is followed by a woman called Louise (Isabelle Carre) who asks to be Manceron's apprentice. He resists because he is depressed, she is a woman and he believes her to be a reformed prostitute but she persists and in his tutoring, he begins to rediscover the joys of food and cooking.
Over time, the three of them develop the basics of the first restaurant enlarging upon the already well known stagecoach inn houses that serviced the main roads of France but were notorious for poor quality food. He experiments with recipes of the pure organic local foods and animals, they install tables, create the first menu from which paying guests could order and Louise and Ben would serve.
Whilst the core of the movie is a celebration of great food as the formally estranged Duke orders and pays for an extravaganza of Manceron's best exotic foods (much as was done in Babette's Feast), the rumblings of revolutionary France underpin events in a way that emboldens father and son to defy their former aristocratic master in a unique way. A sub plot of Louise's true origin and relationship with the Duke provides a fascinating parallel adventure.
This a movie only the French could make, the elaborate attention to 18th century costumes, sets and customs, the gentle probing of the emotions and relationships of the main characters (the actors do a fantastic job) and then the centerpiece, the food and the cooking, glorious in its excess enabling the audience to luxuriate in the quality and meticulous preparation that makes French cuisine world beating.
Indeed this movie begins with the story of chef Pierre Manceron (Gregory Gadebois), the highly regarded chef de cuisine for the fictional Duke of Chamfort (Benjamin Lavernhe), who is exiled from the Duke's court for innovating a foi gras and potato pie-let and refusing to apologize for his supposed impudence. Isolated with his teenage son Ben (Lorenzo Lefebrve) and an elderly relative to a modest rural cottage and brooding over his sacking, he is followed by a woman called Louise (Isabelle Carre) who asks to be Manceron's apprentice. He resists because he is depressed, she is a woman and he believes her to be a reformed prostitute but she persists and in his tutoring, he begins to rediscover the joys of food and cooking.
Over time, the three of them develop the basics of the first restaurant enlarging upon the already well known stagecoach inn houses that serviced the main roads of France but were notorious for poor quality food. He experiments with recipes of the pure organic local foods and animals, they install tables, create the first menu from which paying guests could order and Louise and Ben would serve.
Whilst the core of the movie is a celebration of great food as the formally estranged Duke orders and pays for an extravaganza of Manceron's best exotic foods (much as was done in Babette's Feast), the rumblings of revolutionary France underpin events in a way that emboldens father and son to defy their former aristocratic master in a unique way. A sub plot of Louise's true origin and relationship with the Duke provides a fascinating parallel adventure.
This a movie only the French could make, the elaborate attention to 18th century costumes, sets and customs, the gentle probing of the emotions and relationships of the main characters (the actors do a fantastic job) and then the centerpiece, the food and the cooking, glorious in its excess enabling the audience to luxuriate in the quality and meticulous preparation that makes French cuisine world beating.