MANILA, Philippines - The fabled Bocuse D?or culinary competition frames this documentary about the Spanish contestant?s preparations and travails en route to Lyon, France, where the ?Olympics of cookery? is held.
The Bocuse d?Or gathers together the top chefs from 24 countries for a two-day cook-off involving compulsory ingredients. In 2006, those were Norwegian halibut and king crab, and Bresse chicken.
Fish and fowl haunt the contestants in the months leading up to the competition, as the chefs invent and perfect dishes that reflect their countries? cuisines while conforming to the precise standards of classical French cooking.
National pride is at stake?Spain hasn?t won in 20 years, and placed second to last in the previous year, to boot?and it falls on the imperturbable master chef Jesús Almagro and his assistant Félix Guerrero, to reclaim their motherland?s honor.
We watch with breathless anticipation as Almagro labors over his creations, only to have them harshly criticized by a panel of Spain?s top chefs, led by the French winner of the Bocuse d?Or in 2005, Serge Vieira, brought on as a consultant.
Almagro, who won a Madrid competition and then a national competition, makes an odd standard-bearer. Like many Spanish chefs, his style is improvisational and messy, particularly by the standards of French cooking style.
Our hero, who begins to resemble a stunned hen as the film progresses, listens implacably as his concepts and techniques are roundly trashed. By the time the documentary shifts to Lyon and the competition, Almagro has all our sympathy, and it?s all anxiety and nail-biting suspense as he races against time (chefs are given only five hours to cook two complicated dishes) and deals with unforeseen problems, like an intractable toque.
Aided by whimsical musical choices, snappy editing, and deadpan humor, ?El pollo, el Pez Y el Cangrejo Real (The Chicken, the Fish and the King Crab)? introduces us to the rarefied world of haute cuisine, where egos swell like soufflés and the saying ?too many cooks spoil the broth? has never been truer.
Along the way, the documentary takes us to Norway and France and introduces us to the unsuspecting ingredients themselves?the ?happy halibut? jostling each other in a Norwegian fish farm; the monstrous king crab with its killing claw and eating claw; and the patriotic Bresse chicken, whose blue legs, white feathers, and red combs make them truly French fowl.
The film tempers the professional bragging and chest-thumping with strategic interludes featuring Almagro?s home life (he?s apparently a bachelor who lives with his parents) and interviews with his proud mother, who expresses the anxiety that her stolid son cannot.
One wonders if director José Luis López-Linares means to deflate the self-important, self-proclaimed ?titans? of the kitchen, but it?s clear that everyone in this movie is animated by a love for food and cooking, and this insight leaves a pleasant aftertaste.
Vicente García Groyon teaches Film and Literature at De La Salle University. His novel, ?The Sky Over Dimas? (DLSU Press, 2002), received the grand prize for the novel from the 2002 Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature and 2004 National Book Award. His short stories are collected in ?On Cursed Ground and Other Stories? (UP Press, 2004).
