The Pleasures of an Omakase Movie |

By Gaetano Kazuo Maida

“It’s never finished. It’s always in movement.”—Michel Troisgros

Okay, so let’s say you’re like me and you don’t customarily (like, never!) spend $1000 for lunch for two, and it happens that you don’t live in France, and yet you have good taste in food, you know what it is to enjoy a fine wine occasionally, you’re curious about the synergies between sustainable agriculture and restaurants, and at the moment are feeling a bit peckish. Well, the universe is generous, and Menu Plaisirs Les Troisgros offers a reasonable facsimile of enjoying one of the world’s top haute cuisine institutions from the comfort of your own seat or couch for four hours, about the duration of a really nice long lunch, albeit without the tasting bit.

Perhaps not the universe, per se (see what I did there?), but Frederick Wiseman, the 94 year old (!) veteran American filmmaker justifiably celebrated for his many documentaries like Titicut Follies, City Hall, Ex Libris, National Gallery, Central Park, and so many more, has chosen the multi-generation Guide Michelin-starred Troisgros family and its several venues in France to be the most recent landscape to embed himself in with his camera (and who could blame him?).

I’m not going to spoil the pleasures (again, eh?) of viewing this film by describing every scene, but will say that Wiseman invites us to explore the rarified world of the Troigros restaurant, hotel, café, kitchen garden, source farms, wineries, a food truck(!), apiary, and the many people involved, in a sort of “day in the life” immersion. We begin with planning a menu, head out to the farms and markets to see what’s in season and ready, move into prep, listen in on technical and financial discussions about customers and wines, greet the lunch diners as they arrive, serve astonishing meals, converse with diners, reflect, and rinse and repeat. It’s intimate and precise, yet still informal and open, all the while contrasting the intensity of the business with the beauty and calm of the surrounding countryside. And true to the form, there is no music, no narration, no text cards—everything we need to know is in the footage and dialogue. Wiseman skillfully uses the servers’ and current head chef Michel Troisgros’ conversations with diners, and the off-screen audio of the meal orders being announced, to keep us oriented to the story he wants to tell. (It helps to understand French of course, to avoid having to turn away from the detailed images to read subtitles.)

La Maison Troisgros has had three Guide Michelin stars for over thirty years, an amazingly long time to remain at the very top of the restaurant world. Michel’s father Pierre and uncle Jean were key innovators of nouvelle cuisine there. And the Troisgros don’t trade in trendy molecular cuisine either: we see everything from frogs, snails, lamb brain, crayfish, turbot, fois gras, pigeon, kidneys, eel, and John Dory, to shiso, caper leaves, beetroot, rhubarb, passion fruit, white asparagus, and artichokes with stems. When in doubt about handling the lamb brains, they pull down well-used copies of the classic French reference works, Escoffier and Larousse, to confirm techniques. And don’t get me started on the cheeses: there’s a nearly comical scene of a diner making her cheese selection from a groaning cheese board, with the server and the diners trading expert observations on each variety (remember de Gaulle’s famous quote!*). There’s talk of 5,000-20,000 bottles of wine (even they are shocked), and the staff offer precision advice on wine pairings with the meals. There also seems to be a California-level of accommodation for multiple food allergies and intolerances, some linked to customers by name (as opposed to table number). One thing is clear: the Troisgros family are close, they work together amazingly well, and the senior Michel seems to be graciously yielding control to his sons, both chefs.

The film is truly a visual masterpiece. The framing, the light, the interplay of modern interior and rural exterior through the glass walls, the calm throughout, and the precision editing and sound design establish an order that mirrors the impeccable dining experience the Troigros family is known for. This is a master class on three levels of fine French dining (don’t forget the food truck!), and a lasting antidote to food television (and a far cry from Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles or The Bear for sure).

Speaking of Bourdain, his television series did an admirable job of engaging with issues of inclusion, recognition of immigrants’ contributions, disparities in benefits in the industry, etc. That’s not what Wiseman is about. He lets the world he’s chosen reveal itself on its own terms in its own time, and if it’s a somewhat insular realm, so be it; there’s no commentary or opposing view offered.

And there may well be opposing views… the world of the Troisgros (and Thomas Keller and Eric Ripert and Dominique Crenn and Daniel Humm, etc.) is clearly only for the very top financial tiers of the population of course (except for that food truck!), and there may be concerns about celebrating this rarified circle without also investigating say, the living conditions of the suppliers and the staff, the energy use at the restaurants and hotels, and the environmental effects of all this activity (there’s a helicopter pad!), etc. That might be worth pursuing, but that’s another film for another director; Wiseman is a master of his “reality fictions” as he calls his films, and while his choice of subjects may be limited to his personal curiosity, his artistry is fully on display in this film, and is a pleasure unto itself, beyond the vicarious thrill of enjoying an insider’s view of the Troigros et al.

One might also quibble about the final long sequence of fixed-camera scenes with the servers and Michel engaging with diners at table; these are the kind of scenes other directors would perhaps consign to the DVD bonus collection, but taking it all in as a piece (think of this as an omakase meal by Wiseman), they sum things up and add to the delicious experience of this multi-course feast of a film. Bon appetite!

* ”How can anyone govern a country with 246 varieties of cheese?”—Charles de Gaulle

Menu Plaisirs Les Troisgros Website

Directed by Frederick Wiseman

Documentary / 359 min. / USA / some English, and French with English subtitles

Menu Plaisirs Les Troisgros started showing in theaters in late December and will play into the Spring. Some upcoming screenings are announced here (scroll down). There are also special Bay Area showings at the Roxie in San Francisco on Monday, January 15 and Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive on Sunday, January 14 and Saturday, January 27. More BAMPFA info and tickets here.

Director’s Statement:

“During the summer of 2020, I stayed at a friend’s house in Burgundy for a month. To thank my friends, I looked in the Guide Michelin for a good restaurant nearby. I found Troisgros and we had a great lunch. After the meal, the Chef, César Troisgros stopped by our table. We thanked him for the delicious meal. Without planning, I suddenly asked him whether he would consider having a documentary film made about his restaurant. He said he would think about it and came back a half an hour later and said, “why not?” We then exchanged some letters, and he granted me formal permission. I waited to shoot the film until spring of 2022, when the Covid epidemic waned. Making a film about a 3-star Michelin restaurant had always been one of my fantasies. Also, I thought a film about a restaurant had links to my institutional series.”

Frederick Wiseman in conversation with Florence Almonzini at the New York Film Festival 2-23.

Filmmaker Magazine interviews Frederick Wiseman. Read it Here.

Frederick Wiseman selects favorite films in the Criterion Closet.

Michael Troisgros makes one of his dishes.

Gaetano Kazuo Maida is a media professional and strategic planner. He spent over twenty years in the restaurant business on both coasts, and has been active in the tea arena here and in Asia. He was a founding director of the Buddhist quarterly Tricycle, producer/director of several films including Peace Is Every Step, and is executive director of Buddhist Film Foundation, which produces the International Buddhist Film Festivals and the new streaming service BuddhistFilmChannel.com, coming soon. Maida has written for EatDrinkFilms about his search for the perfect Bialy, automats, Latin master musician John Santos, Jewish food films, Les Blank’s ALL IN THIS TEA; and reviewed HALLELUJAH—Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song, THE VELVET QUEEN–In Search of Snow Leopards, CITY OF GOLD, THE BIGGEST LITTLE FARM, IN SEARCH OF ISRAELI CUISINE, and RAMEN SHOP.