It has been said that everyone thinks at 3 in the morning they can sing, manage a baseball team and operate a restaurant.
A Matter of Taste should discourage most from an innocent pursuit of the third goal. Filmed over a 10-year period, the documentary traces the career of a talented, spaniel-eyed food wunderkind, Paul Liebrandt – a French-trained British chef who takes on New York.
Liebrandt wins the early rounds, becoming the youngest chef, at age 24, to be awarded a three-star rating by The New York Times.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Manhattan starts getting in some licks. Liebrandt is a beer and truffle soup kind of guy and so isn't happy when one employer decides to go comfort food – beer and burgers. Filmmaker Sally Rowe catches the cuisinier feigning sleep in the kitchen.
Before long he quits. Another restaurant fires him. Liebrandt designs gourmet marshmallows for a while. At 27, he has a photo spread in Vogue, but no job. No girlfriend either.
"I'm too nice a guy," he laments one empty afternoon. "I get in the friend zone, not the end zone."
And then, lucky for Liebrandt (not to mention Rowe's film), a wide and wealthy restaurateur, Drew Nieporent, sets him up with a swell place in Tribeca – Corton, on West Broadway. And the film gallops to an exhilarating, theatrical climax as Liebrandt, going mad with worry, throws himself into the big opening.
No more mister nice guy: We see him turn into Goodfellas muscle, upbraiding kitchen staff over poorly presented dishes:
"You send me two pieces like that again and I'll put both your heads through that wall, okay?"
"Bridget, let me see you care," he implores a sous chef drooping at the stove.
At home, Liebrandt prattles on about a trembling terrier – "Spencer makes me want to be a better person" – and worries about the imminent visit of Times food critic Frank Bruni. The last 20 minutes turn into Ratatouille, as Liebrandt and Bruni face off in a duel of death (for the restaurant and Liebrandt's reputation).There's some juicy insider stuff here: Bruni may well have a bit of Anton Ego, Ratatouille's miserable food critic, in him. Apparently, he leaves a paper clip on the washroom sink to see whether the place is kept tidy.
That's what Liebrandt believes, anyway. But perhaps not. Liebrandt's company are so paranoid they look for potential trouble in the guest list. One reservation is for a Timothy Burr. Hmm, compact that, what do you get? Timber! That's gotta be Bruni's code name and sure proof he means harm.
A Matter of Taste does an admirable job demonstrating how much body and soul go into a good restaurant. Liebrandt's staff put in 18-hour days. And we see the chef filling notebooks with menu and food ideas. "What story am I telling here?" he wonders aloud about one dish. Elsewhere, there is discussion about the emotion of a side dish.
People who favour restaurants with lots of parking and a free salad bar will watch this with heartsick boredom. Foodies will love it and wonder what some of Liebrandt's dishes taste like.
Chocolate-covered scallops anyone? No, well then how about mackerel tartare with black-olive jelly and smoked-bacon sorbet?
A Matter of Taste: Serving Up Paul Liebrandt opens Thursday for a limited run at Toronto's TIFF Bell Lightbox.
Special to The Globe and Mail
A Matter of Taste: Serving Up Paul Liebrandt
- Directed by Sally Rowe
- Featuring Paul Liebrandt, Thomas Keller, Heston Blumenthal, Grant Achatz, Eric Ripert and Frank Bruni
- Classification: NA