Kings of Pastry
First Run Features | Release Date: September 15, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
69
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 11 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
The French, no one needs to be told, take food and food preparation with extreme seriousness. "There are no 'all-you-can eat' places in France," one chef sniffs in this excellent Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker documentary. "The idea is to eat small amounts of the best food." Read full review
85
NPRElla Taylor
Kings of Pastry is about the craft, the teaching and learning, the collaborative work, the tedium, the heartbreak and emotional backbone it takes to make something lovely, even if that something is destined to disappear down a gullet in seconds - and even if the maker ends up a noble failure. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezDec 9, 2010
Some of the creations these chefs produce defy belief (and make you wish you could jump into the screen to have a taste). Read full review
75
Boston GlobeJanice Page
Kings of Pastry, goes inside an intense event that few Americans know much about - a kind of tradesmen's Olympics. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderAndrea Gronvall
The behind-the-scenes access to professional kitchens, the intricacy of the desserts, the venerable traditions, and above all the camaraderie and respect the chefs extend each other reveal the craftsmen at their civilized best; think of this movie as the antidote to Gordon Ramsay. Read full review
70
VarietyAlissa Simon
Given what seems like unprecedented access to the very masculine world of the French patissier, Pennebaker and Hegedus get their subjects to reveal a few trade secrets as well as personal aspirations. As their calm camera glides over the chefs' almost-too-beautiful-to-eat creations, viewers share their awe. Read full review
70
The New York TimesMike Hale
The film builds in interest and intrigue as it goes along, helped immeasurably by the directors' choice - canny or fortunate or both - of the astonishingly good-natured and likable Jacquy Pfeiffer, an Alsace-born, Chicago-based chef, as their chief protagonist. Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazineMatthew Nestel
The work is a brutal rite of passage that will click with anybody who has put it all out there and lost once, twice or thrice. And still got up to face the music again. Read full review
60
Time OutLisa Rosman
Common wisdom suggests bakers are sour because they reserve the sweetness for their work. But these competitors' kindness in the face of adversity-at one point, a well-established chef breaks down in tears while his colleagues comfort him-is what sticks with you the most. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
In a pressure-cooker environment, Pennebaker and Hegedus' moderately engaging but ultimately unsatisfying documentary feels disappointingly lukewarm. Read full review
50
Village VoiceMelissa Anderson
Most of the culinary footage is devoted to documenting-in flat, dull DV-the finalists' piece montée, or "sugar showpiece," in which sucrose is manipulated for its chemical properties, and dessert becomes a weird, often tacky sculpture. Read full review
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