Kings of Pastry

The Meilleur Ouvrier de France is the highest title a craftsman can be given in France. For pastry chefs it is less a goal than an obsession. The competition runs three days; everything from chocolate to sugar sculptures approaching two metres is made, and a single wrong movement can end it all. Shot together by D. A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, the documentary follows Jacquy Pfeiffer, a co-founder of a pastry school in Chicago, as he returns to France to compete. The film is interested in people rather than recipes: months of preparation, sleeplessness, family, and what one broken piece of sugar means. It was the first time a camera was allowed into the competition. What comes of it is a film about craft rather than about a cooking contest.