|
''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.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.pbs.org/pov/film-files/pov_kingsofpastryguide_action_discussion_file_0_2.pdf )〕 ==Plot== The film features Jacquy Pfeiffer, Regis Lazard, Philippe Rigollot, and Sebastien Canonne, M.O.F. and begins at The French Pastry School in Chicago, where Jacquy prepares for the 2007 competition. While there, the School's co-founder and fellow teacher, Chef Sebastian Cannone, a previous winner, serves as Jacquy'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.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Press Book )〕 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, Jacquy works to develop close to forty recipes that are as visually exquisite as they are delicious. Once his recipes and training regiment are established, Jacquy returns to his childhood home in Alsace where he adjusts his recipes to account for the nuances in French-quality baking ingredients.〔 Jacquy 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 Jacquy 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. While in France, the film introduces two other competing chefs, Regis Lazard and Philippe Rigollot. Regis, who worked at Gerard Cayotte's patisserie in Luxembourg, is coached by the pastry chef for French President Nicolas Sarkozy. This is his second time competing. Rigollot is the pastry chef at the renowned Valence restaurant, Maison Pic, which is the only three-star restaurant in France owned by a woman. This is Rigollot's first time competing.〔 Shortly after the 2007 competition, Rigollot opened his own pastry shop in Annecy, Pâtisserie Philippe Rigollot. Following the preparation period, the film continues on to Lyon for the final competition. Over the course of three grueling days, the sixteen finalists meticulously assemble their buffets under the constant scrutiny of the judges, among whom are world-renowned pastry chefs Jacques Torres, Pascal Niau, and Pierre Herme. Since the contestants are critiqued not only on the taste and artistic quality of their buffet but on their workmanship as well, the judges let no detail of the process go unnoticed. They inspect the chefs' work spaces for signs of messiness, going as far as to examine the chefs' aprons for fingerprints, and their waste-bins for discarded surplus.〔 Their ubiquitous presence does little to ease the contestants' anxiety, and instead, the chefs' mounting stress threatens the stability of their alarmingly delicate sugar sculptures. As the final day of the competition draws to a close, and the contestants race to finish their buffets, the panic among them swells, and more than one chef and delicacy buckle under the pressure. Philippe Rigollot's sugar sculpture collapses in the kitchen, devastating him and saddening the MOF judges, but he decides to soldier on and earns an MOF through high marks in the other categories. The other two main characters are not selected for the title. Jacquy Pfeiffer plans to take the test again and marries his girlfriend. Regis Lazard's future regarding MOF is not certain. Pfeiffer opted not to take the exam again in 2011.〔()〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kings of Pastry」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|