The collar awarded to the winners of the Meilleur Ouvrier de France (Best Craftsman in France) is more than the ultimate recognition for every pastry chef - it is a dream and an obsession. The 3-day competition includes everything from delicate chocolates to precarious six foot sugar sculptures and requires that the chefs have extraordinary skill, nerves of steel and luck. The film follows Jacquy Pfeiffer, founder of The French Pastry School in Chicago, as he returns to France to compete against 15 of France's leading pastry chefs. The filmmakers were given first time/exclusive access to this high-stakes drama of passion, sacrifice, disappointment and joy in the quest to have President Sarkozy declare them one of the best in France.
Set in a small farming community in mid Wales, a place where Koppel's parents - both refugees - found a home. This is a landscape and population that is changing rapidly as small scale agriculture is disappearing and the generation who inhabited a pre-mechanised world is dying out. Much influenced by his conversations with the writer Peter Handke, the film maker leads us on a poetic and profound journey into a world of endings and beginnings; a world of stuffed owls, sheep and fire.
A dash of youth, a pinch of age, and an unrecorded recipe: Mudder's Hands is a charming documentary conversation about arthritis, centered around the tradition of baking Newfoundland raisin bread.
In the New Mexico desert, pie equals love. Kathy Knapp left her privileged life to bake pie in dusty Pie Town, a once forgotten corner of the world with few amenities. Why? To find her center and give the world pie. This is her story.
British home cook Mary Berry prepares the ultimate Christmas feast with all the trimmings; chefs Angela Hartnett and Monica Galetti share favorite festive recipes; Mary and television host Rylan Clark try to convert some children to Brussels sprouts.
Dame Mary Berry travels to her mother’s homeland of Scotland, where she’s joined by friends Andy Murray, Iain Stirling and Emeli Sandé to cook indulgent Christmas dishes.
In the winter of 2012, Certified Master Chef Rich Rosendale and Corey Siegel earned the opportunity to represent the United States in the prestigious cooking competition known as the Bocuse d'Or. Held every two years in Lyon, France, the Bocuse d'Or represents the pinnacle of competition cooking. With the United States determined to make the podium for the first time ever, Rich and Corey embark on an intense one-year training regimen that includes the construction of a secret test kitchen inside of a decommissioned cold war bunker. Together with some of America's greatest chefs, they will vie for culinary glory at the Bocuse d'Or in Lyon, France.
Pelican, a bakery located at Asakusa, Tokyo, becomes crowded every morning. There are only two types of bread sold. It looks ordinary but meet a bakery that has been loved for 74 years with a taste you won't get tired of even if you eat it everyday!
Richly detailed amateur ethnographic film on the agrarian economy and society in rural Punjab.
More and more people are suffering from wheat and gluten intolerance. Wheat protein was long considered to be the cause of this scourge, and today gluten free products are on all the supermarket shelves. However, there is now increasing suspicion that it is not wheat but how it is processed that makes bread a potentially unhealthy food. Industrial processes simply do not give bread enough time to mature. More and more bakeries are reacting to this by introducing former production methods and ingredients such as champagne rye, emmer or in vogue chia seeds. Bread is baked according to old recipes, sometimes using home grown and home milled grains.
Nicolas Supiot shows us his unique and authentic way of making all natural sourdough bread.
Mina has everything going for her, but her world is turned upside down when work sends her to her hometown in Tennessee where she must convince an old, stubborn restaurant owner to sell his property. There is just one problem- the restaurant is now owned by her ex-boyfriend Clay, who claims he will never sell. He resists her negotiations every step of the way, and all the while sparks fly.
A short film about the serene and dream-like town of Squallitch, Greater London. Introduced by British filmmaker, Alan Brown; scrutinised by Guardian columnist, Randolph Lloyd Kopecky; later rebutted by Alan Brown and even later surrebutted by Randolph Lloyd Kopecky.
A week in the life of Paterson, a poet bus driver, and his wife Laura, a very creative artist, who live in Paterson, New Jersey, hometown of many famous poets and artists.
A young witch, on her mandatory year of independent life, finds fitting into a new community difficult while she supports herself by running an air courier service.
Grace has baked her dearest friend a birthday cake. However, when Grace's gesture is not appreciated, her generosity takes an obsessive turn.
Three children visit their friend Bethie's clubhouse where they are encouraged to be as silly as possible as long as they learn and do well in school. Everything is silly at Bethie's clubhouse, the door tells knock-knock jokes, the books jockey to be read first, and the TV reminds Bethie when her favorite show "Ivana the Iguanna's Beauty Tips" is on. Add to that an assortment of silly visitors like Kitty Kat Man, Captain Schnorer the Worldwide Explorer and various talking animals who all break into wonderful musical numbers while educating the kids.
A mother surprises her son with a birthday treat – an ultra-dark and bittersweet chocolate cake. Its mysterious taste makes strange things happen.
A samurai from the Edo Period time travels to present day Japan where he meets a divorcee and her son. Soon, he discovers a passion for making pastries.
Friedrich Schiller, a respected baker in Einbeck, enjoys a seemingly idyllic life with his wife and nine children. As he approaches his silver wedding anniversary, he nearly succumbs to a fleeting liaison with a spirited woman named Lollo. Though the episode ends harmlessly, it awakens a crisis of conscience in Friedrich, threatening the harmony of his devoted family.