Film Review: Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros 

Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros 

 Cynthia Karena immerses herself in documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman’s study of a family-owned, Michelin-starred restaurant in France’s Rhône-Alpes region.

If you love food and are interested in a behind-the-scenes look from paddock to fine dining restaurant plate, then this is the film for you. Otherwise, you will be bored with discussions on everything from drying cheeses to farming techniques to encourage biodiversity.

But be warned, this documentary is four hours long. However, I found it all fascinating. I learned so much. Did you know that the terracotta orange colour you see on a French cheese is a bacteria characteristic of cheeses from Northern France? Or that the main issue with goat cheese is that if it is wet it will be too bitter?

And not only cheeses. There are petites leçons on wine production, cattle grazing, sustainable farming practices, bees, milking, and growing the most beautiful tomatoes I’ve ever seen.

The camera work at the markets showing fresh fruit and vegetables made my heart sing. The mushrooms look like sculptures and the cherries en masse look very sexy.

We also are treated to the intricacies of running a fine dining restaurant, including the entire process of researching, preparing, and organising the dishes. We are a fly on the wall to all the ins and outs, discussions, and decision-making that goes on. For example, chefs chatting about cooking methods while poring over two well-worn culinary reference books is a delight. For me, it was more about their curiosity and determination to get the procedure right rather than the discussion of how to cook brains the right way.

The Michelin three-starred restaurant, Le Bois Sans Feuilles (The Woods Without Leaves), run by the Troisgros family, is in central France in Ouches, about 100km west of Lyon, set in gentle rolling green hills and beautiful old farmhouses.

What I also loved was the French language centred around food. Listening to conversations about food in French, with subtitles to help me understand, was a pleasure and hopefully will help me (yes, I took notes) when next talking about food in France.

A worthwhile film to see – more of a journey – if you love all things food.

Have you seen this film? Please share in the comments.

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