Kings of Pastry: Movie for a Bohemian Season

After watching Kings of Pastry, it's official.  I do not want to be a pastry chef.  Not the fancy French kind at least.  These guys are hard core performance artists.  I was amazed watching one of them make a wedding cake that seemed to be constructed of sixteen layers of mousse, ganache, cake, jam and dacquoise.

Now if you have me making cream cheese brownies, snickerdoodles and red velvet cupcakes all day, I'm a happy camper - but elaborate sculptures made out of blown sugar? Mais, non!

But this was a totally fascinating documentary.  I was able to peep into the world of elite French pastry chefs, and while the characters weren't exactly the quirky color characters you often see in documentaries, I truly found myself caring about them and rooting for them as they participated in the contest.  I even yelled at the screen several times and almost cried.

But here is why I loved this movie, and why I'm deeming it a movie for a Bohemian Season:

• It's about passion and endurance - loving something so much you'll work at it until your fingers bleed.  That impresses me.
• It's about risk - these are high stakes, and there's a very good chance many of these chefs won't win the coveted prize, but they do it anyway.
• It's about failing and picking yourself back up and trying again - many of these chefs fail the test multiple times and keep coming back until they win.

This movie was an inspiration to reach for greatness - and a reminder that it doesn't come easily and it doesn't come overnight.

p.s. If you have Netflix, it's available for streaming!