Kings of Pastry
The newest documentary by Chris Hegedus and P.A. Pennebaker follows three pastry chefs competing to be named an Meilleur Ouvrier de France, or, as the filmmakers coin it, “Kings of Pastry.”
This is no small fry, we learn in the first scene, but rather one of the highest culinary honors in France. President Nicolas Sarkozy hosts an event for the winners. The competition is held every four years, and many chefs compete three or four times before they are given the letters they pine for – M.O.F, they call it. Competitors have three days to make over 40 confections, that range from the common indulgence – puff pastries, chocolate lollipops, wedding cakes – to the absurd. There are bouquets, reared entirely from sugar and lumbering chocolate towers built so high they risk bumping into the light fixtures. Taste, obviously, is a concern, but presentation is a cruel science here; if just one piece of chocolate snaps, you might as well head home.
The judges of this competition are a curmudgeonly bunch. They squint as they chew, trying to drum up something negative to say. However, as the competition ends, they expose their sentimental side. When one finalist, who looks almost anemic compared to his more portly competitors, breaks his sugar statue, all of the judges break down in tears. When the presiding judge announces the results, his nose starts running and his voice cracks.
The film has the whimsical air of a musical. Tragedies, in this world, come in the form of men crying over spilled sugar. Yet, as the competition neared, I found my shoulders tensing. Would the anemic looking man be able to piece his statue back together? Hegedus and Pennebaker are aware of how silly and old-fashioned much of this is. Old-timey music plays in the background; the opening consists of a series of inter-titles, evoking silent films. But they don’t overdo it, which allows the viewer to worry along with the characters. Even if their worries are mainly about chocolate.
Jessica Weisberg
Jessica Weisberg is a writer currently living in Chicago. Her writing has appeared in The Nation, n+1, AlterNet, The American Prospect, and newyorker.com, among other publications. She worked as a fact-checker at The New Yorker ...
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