Bitter Feast

Well, this one goes out to all the hard working chefs out there, you know the ones….the ones that cook. Anyone who has spent time in a restaurant working (a good one that is) knows that it’s a relentless pursuit to be consistent. That, actually, is the biggest challenge in a restaurant, given the many moving parts that go into a day’s business. Two people coming in to eat at 11pm on Friday, needs the same attention on all fronts as the 8 top pre-theater customers on Sunday afternoon. Critics, now, are a dime-a-dozen tweeting as they are eating, often criticizing food that they really have little or no idea about. It turns my stomach when people spend more time interacting on their phone than truly tasting the food and understanding the source.

Now let’s be fair, there are lots of arrogant, what I call “change the world with a plate of food” chefs who have lost their way and cook for their ego and not for the craft, products and guests. These yahoos drive me as crazy as the mid-bite tweeters but, alas, that’s life today. Nothing seems to be as it was when I was coming up as a cook.

What this movie does, is act out the deepest desires of all the chefs who have had really shitty, unfair things written about their food and experiences by people just wanting to bitch and complain. It’s a fantasy that I had when I used to pilot the ship and this movie brings it to the big screen.

The basic premise is this…..A food blogger called J.T. Franks writes a rumor about Chef Peter Grey that ultimately causes the arrogant chef to lose his restaurant, TV show and mind. He captures the blogger and runs him through a series of culinary tests; trying to teach him a bit about respect as well as showing him that cooking food is not as easy as he thinks. This was a fun film for an old working chef to watch.