SUPPLIED PHOTO Enlarge Image

Controversial New York chef Paul Liebrandt. And yes, that’s totally a bloody pig’s head. Awesome.

Food, as the best chefs understand, can be more than just mass to be plugged into one’s largest facial orifice. One restaurateur in this film makes reference to the "theatre of food," a phrase that encapsulates flamboyance and spectacle. Taste is important, but it is the climax of a greater arc.
   
Such is the philosophy of the titular figure in A Matter of Taste: Serving Up Paul Liebrandt, a documentary which focuses on the youngest chef to ever receive three stars from the New York Times (he was 24). Beginning in 2001, the film follows Liebrandt’s rocky professional progression over the next several years.
   
Having trained with three-Michelin-star chef Pierre Gagnaire in Paris, Liebrandt’s approach is to take traditional bases from French cooking and toss in the unexpected. Results include pig cheek and caviar; beer and truffle soup; and clams with pumpkin curry sauce.
   
His genius, says one interviewee, is how brilliantly he makes the unlikely flavour combinations work. Liebrandt, a tall, gangly customer with hair perpetually in his eyes, says it’s the "wonderment of discovery" he’s trying to bring out — especially following 9/11, when comfort food became the thing in New York.
   
That quest, to show there’s still room for surprise in food, provides the film’s narrative trajectory.
   
"What else am I trying to do here?" Liebrandt constantly asks himself.
   
What he seeks is something holistic which can simultaneously be an expression of his personality.
   
Some chefs resist the label but, in that latter sense, Liebrandt may indeed be considered an artist. His creative sense encompasses his overall concept: when he shows a picture of his mentor’s work, with bright, vibrant ingredients naturally "colouring the plate," Liebrandt observes that, to him, it says "springtime."
   
Such moments recall venerated Spanish chef Ferran Adria in the doc El Bulli: Cooking in Progress. To eat at Adria’s former restaurant, the world-renowned El Bulli, was likewise not just about flavour — it was about experiencing creativity.
   
Liebrandt isn’t the same mad scientist or daring explorer, but he occupies the same spectrum. What remains compelling about the film and its subject is how they similarly make one rethink food.
   
To return to the theatrical allusions, Liebrandt puts into perspective the kind of pressure a kitchen faces. It has only one chance to get it right every night for the customer, just like a stage performance.
   
People would be horrified, he continues, at how much work is required to open the doors of a restaurant each evening. He and his staff average 18 hours a day, six to seven days a week. Liebrandt himself turns down endless propositions, saying he’s married to his kitchen.
   
A Matter of Taste is ultimately not as fascinating as El Bulli, but it’s got itself a compelling subject and, unlike some docs, knows when to stop. Clocking in at just 65 minutes, the film may be unconventionally short, but stories should be as long as they need to be — and this one gives us plenty to reflect on the next time we’re packing cake into our pie holes.

• • •
   
For $38 you can enjoy A Matter of Taste following a three-course meal inspired by the film at Peasant Cookery, just across from Cinematheque. To purchase tickets for dinner and a movie, please call Kristy at 925-3456, ext 106