Los Angeles Film Festival

Kings of Pastry

(USA, 2009, 87 mins)

Executive Producer: Frazer Pennebaker
Producers: Flora Lazar, Frazer Pennebaker
Cinematographers: D.A. Pennebaker, Chris Hegedus
Editors: D.A. Pennebaker, Chris Hegedus

Sixteen of the France’s top pastry chefs compete for the ultimate accolade—the collar of the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France—in this mouth-watering film from esteemed documentarians D.A. Pennebacker and Chris Hegedus. Taking place every four years, the M.O.F. trials have candidates concoct over 40 different recipes over the course of three days in a race against the clock. Working side by side in an immaculate Lyons test kitchen, chefs produce everything from perfect cream puffs to immense and immensely fragile sugar sculptures, all under the scrutiny of judges who rate them for taste and artistry, as well as the neatness of their workstation.

Among this year’s hopefuls are Jecquy Pfeiffer, one of the founders of The French Pastry School in Chicago, and Luxembourg baker Regis Lazard, a second time finalist whose first trial ended in catastrophe when his sugar sculpture broke into bits. From Valence, there’s the highly talented Philippe Rigollot, pastry chef from the three-Michelin-starred Maison Pic, feeling the pressure to live up to his reputation as he and his fellow chefs strive for elusive but delicious perfection.

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