From cooking in a Chinatown basement to triumphing at the San Sebastian Film Festival
He might seem like an oddball, but most food-related films follow a very specific pattern: interviews interspersed with cooking scenes, inspiring landscapes, and epic music. It's a format perhaps more suited to television than the big screen.
Nor does it pretend to be a portrait of Jerald—a young man from Texas, raised on frozen pizzas, who, after a trip to Vietnam, becomes a hustler in the kitchen—but rather a reflection on collective effort. “It’s always easier to achieve what we want together than separately,” says its director, seasoned in commercials and accustomed to filming with a refreshing immediacy. The true protagonist is the chorus of characters who cross Jerald’s solitary life: from the determined cook Nhung to Chen, the unflappable restaurant owner, who recognize his talent and help him realize his dream when everything seems against him. “It has been impossible not to fall in love with this group of people, their tenacious spirit, and their incredible potential,” said actress Anna Castillo, president of the jury, when announcing the decision.
Fish sauce
The San Sebastián Film Festival is currently the only A-list festival with a gastronomic film section, an idea borrowed from the Berlinale, which has since discontinued its own section. Five films competed this year, each accompanied by a themed dinner. Interestingly, the screening of the winning film was the only one not followed by a large dinner, perhaps due to the difficulty of transporting the small Vietnamese kitchen from Chinatown to San Sebastián.
The story of Tetsuro Maeda, a Japanese man living in Bizkaia, is also that of a hustler who started in the kitchen to earn a living while backpacking around the world, until he found a place to put down roots in Axpe. He was presenting the documentary.
Joan Roca, among friends
From the mountains of Biscay to the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Parque Chacabuco, inside the Urondo bar, to draw a portrait of its owner, in The only pure fiction of the contest was the Thai one.
A stark contrast to the closing dinner, prepared by two of the world's most influential chefs. A few months ago, Dani García organized a massive birthday party for Joan Roca, which is now featured in the documentary.
