One of the greatest French chefs tries to prevent his restaurant from becoming obsolete in King Georges. Georges Perrier is a world renowned French chef, who has run his restaurant Le Bec-Fin in Philadelphia for forty years. Georges hires young new protégé Chef Nicholas Elmi to revitalize the restaurant, but finds it difficult to relinquish control. In addition, with fine dining restaurants on the decline, Georges struggles with remaining relevant and keeping his restaurant open.
At one point in King Georges, Georges Perrier is described as a “perfectionist in an in-perfect world.” Indeed, the film shows Georges as quite short-tempered towards his restaurant staff, with him almost coming off like a French Gordon Ramsay. However, his hotheaded approach is simply because he wants his dishes to have a certain level of quality. Georges’ views are often clashing with those of his protégé Nicholas Elmi, who wants to try and modernize the restaurant, so it can remain relevant.
If anything, King Georges is lamenting the obsolescence of fine dining in the United States. Most modern people are not willing to go to a “stuffy” high-class restaurant, where they they are served multiple small-portion courses. The film can also be seen as documenting both the end of Georges Perrier’s culinary career and the start of Nicholas Elmi’s career, the latter of whom won the cooking competition Top Chef in 2014. In addition, as with many cooking documentaries, King Georges features many mouth-watering dishes on display and it is probably not advised to see this film on an empty stomach.
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Screening Times:
- Thursday, March 3, 6:45 PM – Bloor Hot Docs Cinema