Kings of Pastry
| Kings of Pastry | |
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Kings of Pastry
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| Directed by |
Chris Hegedus D. A. Pennebaker |
| Produced by |
Frazer Pennebaker Flora Lazar |
| Starring |
Jacquy Pfeiffer Sébastien Canonne, MOF Rachel Beaudry Philippe Rigollot Stephane Glacier, MOF Regis Lazard Frederique Lazard Philippe Urraca, MOF |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | First Run Features |
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Release date
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September 15, 2010 |
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Running time
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84 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Kings of Pastry is a film by D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus that follows a group of world-class French pastry chefs as they compete for France's most prestigious craftsmen award: Meilleur Ouvrier de France, awarded by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The competition, which takes place in Lyon, France, features a diverse range of creative trade professions, from carpentry to jewelry design to pastry making. The honor of wearing the blue, white and red striped collar given to the winners is considered to be the ultimate recognition of excellence in the pastry field. The film focuses primarily on Chef Jacquy Pfeiffer, co-founder of Chicago’s French Pastry School, and one of the sixteen finalist chefs competing — the sixteen finalists were selected from eighty semi-finalists during the semi-final rounds that took place in the months prior to the final competition.
The film features Jacquy Pfeiffer, Regis Lazard, Philippe Rigollot, and Sébastien Canonne, M.O.F. and begins at the French Pastry School in Chicago, where Pfeiffer prepares for the 2007 competition. While there, the school's co-founder and fellow teacher, Chef Cannone, a previous winner, serves as Pfeiffer's mentor. The theme of this year's competition is marriage, and the competition requires that all competitors create a wedding buffet consisting of a wedding cake, a chocolate sculpture, a sugar sculpture, cream puffs, chocolate candies, breakfast pastries and jam, tea pastries, a restaurant-style dessert plate, and a small sculpture (known as the "bijou") to commemorate the competition. Everything in the buffet, with the exception of the bijou, must be made from scratch and assembled in front of the judges over a three-day period. Keeping in mind that the presentation of his buffet will be judged on par with its taste, Pfeiffer works to develop close to forty recipes that are as visually exquisite as they are delicious.
Once his recipes and training regiment are established, Pfeiffer returns to his childhood home in Alsace where he adjusts his recipes to account for the nuances in French-quality baking ingredients. He is aware that the differences between French and American ingredients can affect the structure of his pastries as well as their taste. For example, French butter tends to have a higher fat and lower water content than American butter, and that slight variation can cause tremendous chemical complications in the baking process. While Pfeiffer is prepared to adjust his recipes, he does not foresee the timing challenges that will require him to rapidly revise his wedding cake and sugar sculpture in time for the fast-approaching competition.
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