HAUTE CUISINE

As the chef-owner of a modestly successful provincial restaurant, the last thing Hortense Laborie expected was to be called on by the president of France himself to act as his personal chef. Soon after taking the job at the Élysée Palace in Paris, she discovers that navigating the protocols imposed by the kitchen’s snobbish all-male old guard is even more challenging than catering to the president’s culinary whims. As the battle for influence over the head of state wages on among the kitchen staff, Hortense sets out to prove that she can take the heat.

Based on the real-life story of the personal chef to former French president François Mitterrand, Haute Cuisine uses the politically charged kitchen and corridors of the Élysée Palace as an exquisite backdrop to a nonstop parade of mouthwatering dishes in the tradition of classic French cuisine. French favorite Catherine Frot gives a spirited performance alongside newcomer Jean d’Ormesson—an accomplished writer making his screen debut at age eighty-seven—in this deliciously French comedy.

—Ian Hollander