Kings of Pastry

One part of earning the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France, an award given to craftsmen including pastry chefs, is a demonstration of mastery of the basics. People who can make insane cakes and complex desserts involving dozens of ingredients and elaborate preparation prove their worth in part by making good cream puffs. The same might be said of husband-and-wife filmmakers Pennebaker and Hegedus, whose résumés separately include Bob Dylan doc Don’t Look Back (Pennebaker), Startup.com (Hegedus) and The War Room (together). This doc is a demonstration that the basics, when done by masters, can be very tasty.

If you’ve watched the Food Network, you can imagine the thrill of a well-executed layer cake, the agony of a shattered sugar sculpture. Kings of Pastry follows several of the 16 finalists who have spent years training for this three-day trial of their skills judged by French masters. One of their subjects is Chicagoan Jacquy Pfeiffer, with whom we spend the most time. It’s a good choice; Pfeiffer’s intensity and understated humor make him easy to root for. It’s almost embarrassing how exciting Hegedus and Pennebaker make this material. This may be light fare compared to some of their other work, but not every doc can be brussels sprouts.

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