During quarantine, perhaps you’ve tried your hand at baking some bread or pastries. A new documentary is now arriving that will offer some major inspiration to strive towards for your next culinary confection. Renowned chef Yotam Ottolenghi was asked by Metropolitan Museum of Art to collaborate on an exhibition entitled Visitors to Versailles (1682-1789) in which he would represent the famous château in cake form. The process was captured in Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles, a new documentary by City of Gold director Laura Gabbert. The Tribeca and Hot Docs selection will now arrive next month from IFC Films, and today brings the first trailer.
Jared Mobarak said in our review, “Laura Gabbert’s companion film Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles arrives to document the event and its myriad moving pieces while also allowing the general public a look at the splendor of what those lucky few enjoyed that June. We follow Ottolenghi as he explains his own beginnings in the industry and the reasons why he chose the quintet comprised of Dinara Kasko, Dominique Ansel, Sam Bompas, Ghaya Oliveira, and Janice Wong. From there we take a look inside their individual origins, listen as Ottolenghi discusses Versailles-era food with historian Deborah Krohn, and peak behind the curtain to become a fly on the kitchen wall as they work to bring their cakes to life. With 3D-printed molds, alcoholic whirlpools, and sugared stone, the only limit was their imaginations.”
See the trailer and poster below.
Via London, Versailles, and Instagram, OTTOLENGHI AND THE CAKES OF VERSAILLES follows famous chef Yotam Ottolenghi on his quest to bring the sumptuous art and decadence of Versailles to life in cake form at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He assembles a team-a veritable who’s who of the dessert world, including Dominique Ansel and Dinara Kasko-to help bring his vision to life. The pastry chefs create a true feast of Versailles complete with a cocktail whirlpool and posh jello shots, architectural mousse cakes, chocolate sculptures, swan pastries, and an edible garden. Ottolenghi acts as our guide throughout, disassembling pastries to give us the history of ingredients that we now take for granted, like sugar and chocolate. From acclaimed filmmaker Laura Gabbert (CITY OF GOLD, SUNSET STORY), OTTOLENGHI AND THE CAKES OF VERSAILLES perfectly captures the heights of human achievement and the frailty of decadence, adding taste as one more sense with which to experience the Met.
Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles opens on September 25 digitally and in theaters.