Haute Cuisine Review
By David Kempler
Tepid Food
It's sometimes fun to watch great food on display, especially when you have not had to toil to create it (not that I am capable of doing more than boiling the occasional egg). Christian Vincent's "Haute Cuisine" tells the based-on-truth tale of Hortense (Catherine Frot), a chef who rose to unlikely heights in France.
When we first meet Hortense, she is among a group on board a ship bound for a French Antarctic station. We have no idea who she is at this point. There is also a man and woman filming a documentary on board. Why they are there is also unclear. Almost as unclear is that the female filmmaker is overly fascinated with Hortense even though she has no idea who Hortense is. Something about the way the others treat her triggers her curiosity. All she or we are certain of is that Hortense is the cook at the Antarctic station and that she is leaving and heading back towards France, shortly. All is revealed through a series of flashbacks.
What we learn is that for some reason, Hortense was once plucked out of obscurity to be François Mitterrand's personal chef at his government residence. Mitterand served as the President of France from 1981-1995. It is explained to us as someone who met her recommended her. It seems a bit far-fetched to me but I'll buy it for the sake of trying to enjoy "Haute Cuisine".
When she first comes to work, the rest of the kitchen staff, in particular the head chef of the kitchen that serves the President, laughs her off as a silly woman who is incapable of being a great chef. She is only a woman, after all. Without much effort I am sure you can imagine how this all plays out, and you would most likely be correct in your assumptions.
There is minimal tension and conflict here. All there really is, is great looking food, some sweet personal chats between Hortense and the President, and a cute stage production at the base in Antarctica. Unfortunately, that is far from enough. It is sweet, like many of the prepared dishes, but "Haute Cuisine" would have been better served if it had some other flavors to sink our senses into.
