What to Binge This Weekend: Feast Your Eyes on 'Chef's Table'
If you’re looking for a binge-viewing experience that nourishes as well as entertains, look no further than the Netflix six-part entry into the foodie game, Chef’s Table. No, this isn’t yet another Top Chef/MasterChef Junior competition series… not that there’s anything wrong with either of those (especially MasterChef Junior). Instead, each episode provides an intimate look at the professional and personal lives of six cooking world iconoclasts who are all famous… but not Bobby Flay-level famous. That’s probably the reason why creator/executive producer David Gelb was able to get so close to them, catching them in unguarded moments that Flay or Food Network stars like Giada De Laurentiis and Ted Allen wouldn’t allow.
Gelb cut his teeth on food documentaries with the acclaimed 2012 non-fiction feature, Jiro Dreams of Sushi, a profile of Jiro Ono, a Tokyo-based chef generally regarded as the world’s master sushi maker. (Even President Obama has paid a visit to Jiro’s ultra-cozy restaurant, located adjacent to a Tokyo subway station.) As much as that film focused on Jiro’s philosophy about the art of sushi, it also painted a compelling portrait of his family life, specifically his relationship with his eldest son, who was expected to assume the mantle of the family business.
Chef’s Table is similarly attuned to the way that a chef’s approach to food is largely shaped by his or her personal experiences outside of the kitchen. In the first episode, Italian chef Massimo Bottura describes how his avant garde versions of classic Italian home-cooked dishes like lasagna and tortellini emerged from a childhood spent watching his mother and grandmother artfully constructing the family meal. Meanwhile, Los Angeles-based Niki Nakayama — the star of the fourth installment — describes how the gender prejudice she experienced early in her career doubled her determination to pursue a form of Japanese cuisine, kaiseki, that’s more challenging and less commercial than standard sushi fare.
Those personal stories lend Chef’s Table an extra resonance, but let’s be honest: What you’re really coming for is the food porn. Gelb and his team of directors deliver on that promise, offering up lovingly photographed plates of food that are best viewed with a glass of wine and a plate of artisanal cheese at the ready. In addition to Italy and L.A., the show skips across the globe from New York and New Zealand, to Austrailia, Sweden, and Argentina. It’s an around-the-world feast for the eyes that will have you think twice about ordering takeout from the same old pizza place.
Chef’s Table is available to stream on Netflix.
