Article Previews Doc Fest: Kings of Pastry November 5, 2009

Accompanied by the endearing pastry chef Jacquy Pfeiffer, Kings of Pastry reveals the world at the very top of French pastry making, where every four years, the Olympics of pastry production takes place in Lyon. Sixteen chefs face three gruelling days of waking up at 4am to produce lollipops, cream puffs, cakes, and most striking of all, their sugar masterpieces: tacky sculptures of sugar flowers and chocolate arcs a metre high. The whole experience is comparable only to the pernickety judging of Master Chef mixed with the endurance of the Tour de France. But even that description is way off. All the chefs compete for the title of Meilleurs Ouvriers de France, MOF for short. An award given by the highest French official: the President himself. Apparently to be an MOF is the highest honour held in pastry making, such that fraudulently wearing the tricolour MOF collar is a criminal offence in France. So with passions on their utmost edge, we watch the steady handed chefs create their works with the utmost care and love.

That the documentary itself moves along with supremely calculated pace is no surprise: this was produced with the BBC by one of the biggest documentary making teams in the world, Pennebaker and Hegedus, and we will definitely be seeing it on our TV screens in the near future. But what it may lack in its originality of direction, it more than makes up for in its expert showing of a very strange and wonderful world. There is something reassuring watching the long segments of Gallic shrugging and confectionary sugar being molded into delicate ribbons set to Django Rheinhardt-esque guitar. 

Director: Chris Hegedus & D A Pennebaker

Country: USA, UK, Netherlands

Premiere: World

Dates: 06 November, 17:45 Showroom 1

Watch for: Gallic shrugs, old men intellectualising pastry