A ‘Delicious’ film you can almost taste
REVIEWED BY RENEE DALLOW
The French film, Delicious, is part of this year’s Alliance Francaise Film Festival. It is a film that you feel you can taste. The French do not just cook to eat, they cook to live. Every morsel that goes into the pan is treated with love and respect. There is a scene in the film that aptly shows this when chef, Piere Manceron, delicately feeds his new assistant, Louise, freshly picked produce from the forest, one piece at a time, so she can savour the different tastes and smells that go into a recipe.
Degustation is a French term for a type of menu which literally means tasting. The film begins with the humiliation of Manceron, Gregory Gadebois, when he adds a new truffle to the degustation menu he has prepared for a dinner, hosted by the Duke of Chamfort. The Duke’s aristocratic clients do not appreciate the new addition, a potato and mushroom truffle, which Manceron has called “The Delicious.” After being humiliated by Chamfort’s guests and refusing to apologise, Manceron is thrown out of the Chateau. This experience eventually leads Manceron, with the help of fallen countess Louise (Isabelle Carre), his son and others loyal to his cause, opening up the first restaurant and turning the tables on Chamfort, just prior to the onset of The French revolution.
An exquisite film in which every frame is a painting and every scene a lesson in the beautiful art of French Cooking. Subtle, sweet and superbly, Delicious.
★★★★★
