Documentary explores life at restaurant Troisgros

In Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros, the world’s most renowned gastronomic dynasty opens the doors of their eponymous restaurant to American filmmaker and documentarian Frederick Wiseman, for a four-hour film that lifts the lid on workings within the hallowed walls of Troisgros in Ouches, France.

The 93-year-old director Wiseman was given full access to the kitchen and dining room of the three-Michelin-starred restaurant, to make a film that avoids the over-produced clichés of modern gastro-documentary in favour of a more observational, fly-on-the-wall style of film that invites the viewer into the French family’s culinary world.

Piecing together hundreds of hours of rushes, Wiseman depicts a slow-moving and carefully crafted chronology of a day in the life of chefs César and Léo Troisgros, from kitchen prep to lunch service at Troisgros restaurant and sister-restaurant La Colline du Colombier, through to the chefs' interactions with local producers and winemakers.

The Troisgros family history and their accomplishments aren’t given space in the arc of the documentary; Wiseman, instead takes the viewer on a slow and careful journey through the chefs’ daily lives, alternating between their relationships in and outside the restaurant, their guests’ reactions and their culinary creativity.

While so many food documentaries fall for the mistake of worshipping at the altar of the celebrity chef, Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros is a serious and thoughtful exploration of the brothers’ work as artists in the kitchen, but also as the curators of a network of suppliers and guests. While many of the world’s best chefs court the attention of the global media, the Troisgros operate quietly and gracefully, in a world of their own creation.

Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros opened in NYC on 22 November with plans to expand the release across the US before its international release next year.