Only bad thing about this foodie documentary is that you can't taste the cuisine, writes Christine Powley.
Director: Joseph Levy
Cast: Grant Achatz, Dave Beran, Nick Kokonas, Annie Breitbach, Cindy Breitbach, Mike Breitbach, Mikey Breitbach, Ashley Martinez, Francisco Martinez, Gabby Martinez, Thomas Keller
Rating: (G)
5 stars out of 5
Food porn has taken over television and now it is coming for cinema. Well not really.
Spinning Plates (Rialto) compares three very different restaurants but no-one is handing out recipes or competing in ludicrous challenges. Instead we follow each restaurant as they explain why they are in the food business. At the beginning I thought the point of linking the three in the one documentary was to illustrate the differences. By the end I had realised they all shared a common philosophy of loving their customers with good food.
Alinea in Chicago is as high end as they come. Chef Grant Achatz uses tweezers to plate his micro herbs and comes from the mad scientist school of cookery. Breitbach's Country Dining of Balltown, Iowa has been in the same family for five generations.
It is a high-volume operation regularly serving more than double the town's population on a Saturday night and people are happy to wait more than an hour for a table. La Cocina de Gabby in Tucson, Arizona is a ma and pa operation with Gabby cooking the Mexican food her grandmother taught her mother and her. They are struggling but remain optimistic.
All the food is so different but each cook believes they are sending powerful messages of love with each plate. By the film's end you share their belief in what they are doing.
Best thing: The three stories turn out to be equally appealing.
Worst thing: Knowing you are never likely to be able to taste any of the chefs' food.
See it with: A foodie friend so you can nudge each other whenever Achatz does something tricky with foam.
