The Taste of Things with Ludo Lefebvre
The Taste of Things with Ludo Lefebvre
The chef-owner of Petit Trois was quite smitten with the food-focused French film. (I was, too.)
I was happy to see Poor Things take home several deserved trophies at The Oscars last Sunday. Yet the Academy completely snubbed my favorite film of last year: The Taste of Things by the Vietnamese-born French director Tran Anh Hung. The movie is a romance that stars Juliette Binoche as Eugénie, a brilliant cook, and Benoît Magimel as Dodin, the gourmet who she works for. Set in a country estate in 1889 France, The Taste of Things unfolds as a love letter to elemental French cuisine. It’s beautifully acted, directed, lit, staged, and shot, and if you haven’t seen it yet, I implore you to buy tickets at your nearest Laemmle as soon as possible.
L.A.’s own master of French cuisine is chef Ludo Lefebvre of Petit Trois and the now-closed Trois Mec. Before settling down in Los Angeles, Lefebvre was classically trained in France by a cast of renowned chefs, including Pierre Gagnaire, who served as the culinary director on The Taste of Things. Lefebvre is also huge fan of the film, so we sat down to discuss his favorite scenes, how it has inspired him in the kitchen, and more.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
The Angel: When did you cook under Gagnaire and what was your time like working with him?
Ludo Lefebvre: I worked with him the ‘90s in Saint-Étienne in France [at the chef’s now-closed eponymous restaurant]. He was a two-star Michelin chef, and then we got three stars. At the time, Mr. Gagnaire was very different than a lot of chefs because of his creativity, in his use of flavors, and especially in his plating. His plating was beautiful. He's an artist, there was a lot of color, and sauce on the plate everywhere. If [social media] was around then, he would be the king of Instagram, because nobody was doing it like him. Every day we changed the menu. He was very avant garde.
Do you think those traits made him a good fit to be the culinary director of The Taste of Things?
LL: The food in the film is so different [from his style]. Mr. Gaginaire is a very creative chef who often breaks the rules of French cuisine. When I was working with him, I came from a very traditional training and after a week there, I was breaking the rules, which was great. He knows how to cook everything, but his style is more unusual in terms of ingredients and flavor. Whereas the cooking in the film is very old-school. It’s very traditional French food. It was cool to see that he knows how to do that so well, too.
How did the film make you feel when you first saw it?
LL: I felt very proud to be a French chef and to have classic French training, because you can see that French cooking is really all about love, about caring about what you do. It reminded me that the conditions of French cuisine are about simplicity — nothing is hiding. We’re not putting a ton of spice, it’s just ingredients and technique. Watching the first 30 minutes of the movie, I was wowed. I immediately wanted to go to my kitchen and cook. It was so romantic, so straightforward. No bullshit. Very authentic cuisine. Everyone was so focused on cooking; it was a synchronization, like [Dodin] was a maestro and [cooking] was his music. I was very impressed with the look of the food, the color, but what really impressed me the most was the sound, and I know the sounds, because I’m in the kitchen every day — the seasonings, once you deglaze, whisking, it’s like a show, it’s like a concert in the kitchen.
What was your favorite scene?
LL: I really love when Eugénie is doing the vol-au-vent — making the puff pastry, the crayfish, the sauce à la minute, and how when Dodin cracks it, the sound is so romantic. It’s just a simple dish, but we don’t do it that much anymore. I want to bring it onto my menu now. The movie has given me a lot of inspiration, and has reminded me how French food is not just steak tartare, steak frites, onion soup, escargot. It reminded me of the tradition of cooking. You see the quality of the ingredients, and the way she takes care, she’s so gentle. I want to cook like that a bit more, and get more inspiration from old-school French dishes. I was very pleased that the movie was in French, too, because [I loved] listening to them speak in French about the recipes and the history of French cuisine.
Which dish in the film is the hardest to pull of in terms of technique?
LL: I’m known for my omelette, so it was cool to see their omelette. It’s very simple, but very technical, and Eugénie did it very well. The pot au feu is such a simple dish, too, everything is just poached, but when you see all of the different ingredients they use, the way they cut them, and the way they clean them, it’s so gentle. I also loved seeing Eugénie make the baked Alaska for dessert, and how the little girl almost cries while eating it. Every dish is made in such a dedicated way, and the movie covers everything about cooking — hunting for the best ingredients, the technique, the way they move their hands, and use the knives. And everything in the movie is so fresh — she baked the baked Alaska à la minute. I would be exhausted to cook a dinner like that. The stress, oh my god.
The movie has reminded me how French food is not just steak tartare, steak frites, onion soup, escargot. It reminded me of the tradition of cooking. You see the quality of the ingredients, and the way she takes care, she’s so gentle. I want to cook like that a bit more, and get more inspiration from old-school French dishes.
How has the film influenced your cooking?
LL: Tonight I’m doing a vol-au-vent for one of my investors. I’m going to do a quick puff pastry and then later I’ll make the vol-au-vent. He’s on the board of the New York Film Festival, and he saw The Taste of Things last fall and loved it. It was just out in America and he told me to see it.
There are other great movies about food [Big Night is a favorite], but prior to The Taste of Things, I’ve never seen a film so focused on every element of the cooking process.
LL: It’s a ballet. Gaginaire is an amazing chef. I was surprised to see his cameo in the movie. It was cool to see him talking through the eight-hour menu served by the prince. I don’t know how they ate like that before.
What do you make of Dodin serving pot au feu to the prince in response to that extravagant meal?
LL: I was surprised. Pot au feu is a dish for peasants. It’s not a fancy dish. You take tough meat and cook it for a few hours to create a simple stew. I would never do a pot au feu for a prince or a VIP. I will say that to cook simply is the most difficult thing. Pot au feu is very simple, but it’s very technique-driven — you want to make sure everything is cooked perfectly with texture and flavor. In the movie, you can see that. The older I get, the more I’m cooking simply.
You hosted a dinner in celebration of the movie at Petit Trois. What did you serve?
LL: Pot au feu, of course, since it was a center dish of the movie. I used a fancier cut of beef though, a tenderloin, as opposed to a traditional shoulder or other tough part of the cow. We did leeks salad with vinaigrette. And then a pear with nougatine. I loved the look of the phyllo-wrapped pear with whipped cream [that Dodin served Eugénie in the movie], and the sound of Eugénie eating it. Juliette Binoche’s acting was great, especially the expression on her face when she eats. People loved the movie, and it was cool to have guests come eat after they saw it. If you don’t want to cook or eat after The Taste of Things, something is wrong with you.
What makes The Taste of Things such a powerful movie about food?
LL: The way they shoot the scenes. I know there’s a chef behind it because it’s so technical, so sexy, so romantic. You can taste the food and imagine the flavor when you look at it. I feel like I’m in the kitchen with them when I watch it. [It activated] all five senses. They didn’t forget anything. I’ve watched it three times, including with my wife and kids. My kids loved watching the cooking scenes. Especially my son, he’s learning to cook a little bit, and I taught him how to cook an omelette, so when he watched that scene, he said, “Papa, papa! The omelette is wrong.” Because it has a bit of coloration, and I told him I don’t like omelettes with coloration. I explained to him that it’s country-style. I’ve seen Babette's Feast (1987) and it was great for the time, but of course the technical ability we had to make movies back then wasn’t the same as we have now.
I also loved how the film was lit, since it took place in the late 19th century.
LL: That too. And I loved the way they dressed. You see Dodin, he’s cooking, and then he goes to give Eugénie the food, and he’s dressed up. They really care about how to look when they serve food, which is not to wear a T-shirt, like we do now. You dress to respect the food. I met Juliette at the restaurant through the movie, and I was pretty stressed to cook for her. I just thought, ‘Oh my god, in this movie she had amazing food by Gaginaire.’ It was so much pressure. But I was very pleased to have the opportunity.
