''Haute Cuisine'' is a 2012 French

comedy-drama film Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

based on the true story of Danièle Mazet-Delpeuch and how she was appointed as the private chef for

François Mitterrand François Marie Adrien Maurice Mitterrand (26 October 19168 January 1996) was President of France, serving under that position from 1981 to 1995, the longest time in office in the history of France. As First Secretary of the Socialist Party, he ...

. The original French title is ''Les Saveurs du Palais''.

Plot

Hortense Laborie (

Catherine Frot Catherine Frot (; born 1 May 1956) is a French actress. A 10-time César Award nominee, she won the awards for Best Actress for '' Marguerite'' (2015) and Best Supporting Actress for ''Family Resemblances'' (1996). Her other films include ''Le D ...

), a renowned chef from Périgord, is astonished when the President of the Republic ( Jean d'Ormesson) appoints her his personal cook, responsible for creating all his meals at the

Élysée Palace The Élysée Palace (french: Palais de l'Élysée; ) is the official residence of the President of the French Republic. Completed in 1722, it was built for nobleman and army officer Louis Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, who had been appointed Gove ...

. Despite jealous resentment from the other kitchen staff, Hortense quickly establishes herself, thanks to her indomitable spirit. The authenticity of her cooking soon seduces the President, but the corridors of power are littered with traps..."Haute Cuisine"
/ref> The story is framed by Laborie's later role cooking at a French Antarctic research station.

Cast

as Hortense Laborie * Arthur Dupont as Nicolas Bauvois * Jean d'Ormesson as The Président *

Hippolyte Girardot Hippolyte Girardot (born Frédéric Girardot; 10 October 1955) is a French actor, film director and screenwriter. He is the father of actress Ana Girardot. Selected filmography * 1973: '' La Femme de Jean'', directed by Yannick Bellon, Rémi * ...

as David Azoulay * Jean-Marc Roulot as Jean-Marc Luchet *

Brice Fournier Brice Fournier (born 20 July 1966) is a French actor. He appeared in more than thirty films since 2004. Selected filmography References External links * 1966 births Living people Male actors from Lyon French male film actors Fr ...

as Pascal Le Piq * Arly Jover as Mary *

Joe Sheridan Joseph Michael Sheridan (27 November 1914 – 30 September 2000) was an Irish politician, originally with Fine Gael but for most of his career an independent. Sheridan came from Colmcille in County Longford, and had three brothers and two sist ...

as John *

Laurent Poitrenaux Laurent may refer to: *Laurent (name), a French masculine given name and a surname **Saint Laurence (aka: Saint ''Laurent''), the martyr Laurent **Pierre Alphonse Laurent, mathematician **Joseph Jean Pierre Laurent, amateur astronomer, discoverer ...

as Jean-Michel Salomé * Hervé Pierre as Perrières *

Manuel Le Lièvre Manuel may refer to: People * Manuel (name) * Manuel (Fawlty Towers), a fictional character from the sitcom ''Fawlty Towers'' * Charlie Manuel, manager of the Philadelphia Phillies * Manuel I Komnenos, emperor of the Byzantine Empire * Manu ...

as Loïc *

Steve Tran ''yes'Steve is a masculine given name, usually a short form (hypocorism) of Steven or Stephen Notable people with the name include: steve jops * Steve Abbott (disambiguation), several people * Steve Adams (disambiguation), several people * Steve ...

as Grégory * Thomas Chabrol as The prefect of the Chief

Production

Parts of the movie were actually filmed at the

, in a three-day shooting window where filming was only allowed when then President

Nicolas Sarkozy Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa (; ; born 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012. Born in Paris, he is of Hungarian, Greek Jewish, and French origin. Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Se ...

was not at the palace.

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...

served as a stand-in for the

Crozet islands The Crozet Islands (french: Îles Crozet; or, officially, ''Archipel Crozet'') are a sub-Antarctic archipelago of small islands in the southern Indian Ocean. They form one of the five administrative districts of the French Southern and Antarcti ...

in the movie. The film crew spent six days there to film on location.

Reception

The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

reports a 68% approval rating with an average rating of 6.1/10 based on 31 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "While it'll certainly be an easier sell for foodie filmgoers, ''Haute Cuisines beautifully filmed biopic should satisfy most viewers hungry for a beautifully filmed dramedy." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, it has a score of 61 out of 100 based on 14 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

References

External links

* * * (en) * * * 2012 films Cooking films French cuisine 2010s French-language films French comedy-drama films 2012 comedy-drama films Films directed by Christian Vincent Films scored by Gabriel Yared 2010s French films {{2010s-France-film-stub