Step Up to the Plate

Well before many chefs of his generation, Michel Troisgros hit on culinary practice and culture which today lie at the heart of world gastronomy. Refusing to bend to fashion, his cuisine is unrestrained and personal, bright and cheerful, making the world-renowned Maison Troisgros resolutely modern even four decades after its inception. This tasty yet minimalist cuisine is echoed in Paul Lacoste's meticulous direction, where the handsome lighting and smart photography make the film a pure delicacy.

Made in France, English subtitled. In-depth portraits of internationally acclaimed chefs featuring exclusive interviews. Michel Bras is one of France's greatest cooks, obtaining his third star in 2000 and rated #7 on the 2008 World's 50 Best Restaurants chart. We will taste four dishes, cinematographically describe what we feel, then work through each dish's culinary fabrication to the true subject of the series: investigating the ways that one invents cuisine by revisiting their space and time.

Renato Berta, director of photography who won a César in 1988, this time appears in front of the camera under the direction of Paul Lacoste, who retraces the creative process of the Swiss filmmaker. Between archive images and anecdotes about his shoots with the greatest independent directors of his time (Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol and even Louis Malle...), Renato Berta confides how, from a script, he imagines the scenes of a film.