A Matter of Taste

Directed by Sally Rowe (amatteroftastethefilm.com)
Featuring Paul Liebrandt, chef-owner of Corton
(cortonnyc.com)

My review: 3/5 stars

This film follows Paul Liebrandt over a decade and stints at three restaurants. It's not so much about cooking, or even food, but rather the career trajectory of a chef.

Liebrandt's story shows how difficult it can be to find and maintain success in the restaurant industry, even when most people agree that you're a damn fine chef. He encounters such obstacles as a horrible economy for restaurant financing, a horrible economy for fine-dining customers, the capricious decisions of management, and a new Times critic who intrinsically likes another style of food. Through all of that, he sticks to his guns and keeps cooking the food that he loves.

The film does have a happy ending with his current restaurant, Corton, backed by Drew Nieporent. Finally, finally, it all comes together. He even manages to squeeze three stars out of Frank Bruni.

I happened to see the premiere screening at Tribeca, and Paul Liebrandt and the director did a Q&A afterwards. The poor director was pretty neglected; all the questions were for Liebrandt. He talked predictably about having passion and perseverence. (That's him at the podium. The director is in the yellow blouse, to left.)

[Postscript: The film premiered on HBO July 13, 2011.]

Jiro Dreams of Sushi

Directed and produced by David Gelb
Featuring Jiro Ono of Sukiyabashi Jiro, a three-Michelin-star sushi restaurant in Tokyo

My review: 4/5 stars

If you like food porn, this is the movie for you. Macro shots of the sushi just fill the screen with their vibrant colors and varied textures. The way with slices of fish repose, glistening under a thin glaze of sauce.... it's sexy stuff. From the visual style alone, you can tell that the filmmaker loves good food.

Jiro clearly loves food too. His dedication to his craft is simply mind-boggling. His work ethic, and attention to detail, his drive to innovate and perfect - he puts even NYC workaholics to shame. The movie is a great character study, and provides interesting insight into Japanese culture. Not just Jiro himself, but his staff and his suppliers all pride themselves on being shokunin, the very best at what they do. And almost none of their knowledge comes from formal education - instead, it's built on decades of practical experience.

The rice dealer: [I'm paraphrasing] "The Grand Hyatt asked to buy the same rice. I said, only Jiro's apprentices can cook that rice. You can't cook that rice with just big talk. If Jiro says you can buy it, I will sell it to you." (At which point Jiro agrees that the particular rice he buys is very hard to cook, requiring a lot of pressure.)

[Note: The film picked up a North American distributor, Magnolia Pictures. In fact, it was the first sale at Tribeca this year. So hopefully it'll be publicly released soon!]

Tampopo

Written and directed by Juzo Itami

Starring Tsutomu Yamazaki, Nobuko Miyamoto, Koji Yakusho and Ken Watanabe

My review: 4/5 stars

Unlike Julie & Julia, this movie is populated with characters who really care about food. I mean, they REALLY care about it. To the point of literal life and death sometimes.

The main story follows Goro, a lone cowboy-type, as he leads our heroine Tampopo in the quest to make the perfect bowl of ramen. (The noodle theme is a play on the idea of a spaghetti western.) It's quite a journey, involving calisthenics with stock pots, espionage, bribery, a makeover and renovation, and countless rounds of practice and taste-testing. They call in various experts to consult; my favorite was the leader of a band of foodie hobos.

The story often meanders away from the main plot to a series of unrelated episodes, many involving a gangster in a white suit and his mistress, all centered around food. Every moment is novel and unexpected. The underling in the French restaurant was great, the etiquette class was hilarious, and oh my god - that little old lady in the grocery store. Fantastic.

The film felt very foreign and weird to me but I certainly wasn't bored.

Julie & Julia

Directed by Nora Ephron

Starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams

My review: 2½ / 5 stars

I wasn't crazy about the book, but thought the leading ladies were worth going to see. I went into this movie with extremely low expectations; consequently, it was better than I expected. Meryl Streep's Julia Child is pretty convincing. On the flip side, the Julie character is sort of a hateful wench and even Amy Adams' natural charm couldn't overcome it.

If you like food porn, this movie will disappoint you. (Eat Drink Man Woman - now there's a movie that will make you drool.) As with the book, there's just not enough about the food.

Which leads me to what I think is the movie's biggest problem (ditto the book): Julie doesn't see herself as a cook, she sees herself as a writer. She doesn't care nearly as much about the food as she does about her blog. Here, the interests of the creator and the audience diverge. Seeing someone cook onscreen can be interesting; seeing someone write onscreen is decidedly not.