By Tracey Hill for Curtains Up
PARIS, France “Find a woman from the countryside to cook for me!” lamented French President François Mitterrand in 1988, after his first 7-year term.
The aging head of state had just fired his personal chef and he’d grown weary of the fussy, urban-chic cuisine that arose daily from his palatial kitchens. Yearning for the traditional country cooking from the days of old, he wanted someone to re-create recipes from timeworn cookbooks that he had memorized as a child. It seemed a daunting request, and his human resources department was faced with a strange and formidable task…until Danièle Delpeuch surfaced out of nowhere.
Delpeuch was a celebrated cook from the Périgord region who pioneered the revival of regional French cuisine, specializing in foie gras. Though not academically trained, she created the École d’Art et Tradition Culinaire du Périgord as well as opening a restaurant in the farm house of her sprawling 700 year-old truffle orchard. Having achieved success as a divorced mother of four was no easy endeavour, and by the time she was called to the Palace, her children had grown and moved out, which left her free to explore unchartered horizons.
Michelin chef Joel Robuchon purchased Delpeuch’s foie gras regularly, and when he caught wind of Mitterrand’s dilemma, he quickly recommended her to the Palace social director. She accepted the job offer on the spot, thus cementing her place in history as the first (and only)woman to hold the position of personal chef to a sitting French President.
Set primarily in the small basement kitchen of the grand Presidential Chateau Élysée in Paris, Les Saveurs du Palais is loosely based on Delpeuch’s book Mes Carnets de Cuisine. Du Périgord à l’Élysées. Cleverly, Les Saveurs du Palais takes on a double entendre in French, meaning ‘Tastes of the Palace’ and ‘Tastes of the Palate’.
From day-one, Delpeuch’s character, Hortense Laborie (played by the luminous Catherine Frot) is greeted with a less than enthusiastic welcome from the all-male, highly skilled galley of chefs who hold culinary court in the bowels of l’Elysée. While the 100 member cooking crew caters to visiting dignitaries and government officials, Hortense is hired to cook directly for Mitterrand. Her mandate is based solely upon producing authentic Bourgeois cuisine, using fresh, local ingredients. Often going over-budget, breaking rules and standing by her culinary convictions, Hortense becomes a force to be reckoned with, all while delighting the President’s taste buds.
To her charming, enthusiastic personal assistant Nicholas (Arthur Dupont) and anyone else in her realm, she insists upon being called by her given name, and not ‘Chef’. ( Later, Delpeuch stated that her reasons for doing so were because she was not a formally trained chef, thus creating an ambience of personal connection felt more natural than one of rank and hierarchy.)
Hortense’s first meeting with Le Président (played by famed French author Jean d’Ormesson in his first acting role at 86), takes a surprising twist, as his zest for all things gastronomic seems to overshadow his concern for more pressing political issues. The intimate mini food summit takes an unprecedented 50 minutes, confounding the President’s personal attaché, as his boss had never held a tête-à-tête with anyone from the Élysée kitchens. (As a point of history, Mitterrand was notorious for launching messages of grievance rather than praise down to anxiously awaiting cooks.)
Hitting it off with the boss only serves to irritate the portly, hostile head chef Pascal Lepiq, who becomes determined to undermine, bully and ridicule Hortense. His disdain for her lack of culinary training combined with his jealousy over her elevated status creates relentless friction. After the first official luncheon with Lepiq and his staff, who demean and humiliate her, Hortense haughtily declares that she will never again share a meal “avec les Machos”.
At the end of her first year, Hortense is coldly interrogated by the accounting department for inflating the food budget and challenged by Mitterrand’s doctors who forbid her to continue cooking with certain ‘banned’ ingredients. Her patience is further tested when Lepiq’s unending harassment and competitive antagonism nearly push her over the edge.
In one scene, Mitterrand, sensing her state of intimidation and stress, makes an evening visit down to her dimly-lit kitchen. As he diplomatically broaches the issue, she assiduously prepares his late-night snack of herb-buttered sourdough toast, topped with delicately sliced truffles, paired with a vintage 69 Château Reyas. “I don’t know about you, but it is precisely adversity that keeps me on my feet” rasps the elderly man, offering sage words of wisdom across the butcher-block counter.
A sincere plot, solid performances, noble script-writing and abundant cheeky humour make for an amusing little flick. However it’s the luscious cooking passages that transform Les Saveurs du Palais into a lavish foodie celebration.
Solicitously crafted scenes behold the cook’s creation of brouillade and cèpe mushrooms with eggs, fruit-of-the-forest pie, filet de boeuf au croute de sel, foie gras, fresh fish soup, cabbage stuffed with braised salmon and bacon chunks, poached pears in liqueur and the standard but fabulous Saint-Honoré cream cake topped with caramelized sugar and mini cream-puffs. The gorgeous, succulent food shots alone are worthy of the cost of a movie ticket.
Lucky audience members in attendance for the red-carpet preview were offered airy, mouth-watering nut meringues and enchanted by an appearance my both Danièle Delpeuch and actress Catherine Frot. The two friendly celebrities charitably answered a surfeit of questions asked by Montreal’s imminent culinary experts as well as press invitees.
Delpeuch, 70, spoke with wit and acuity; “I am the only female to have worked in the kitchens of l’Élysée (as anything more than an intern) to this very day…so yes, I do think fine dining is still a male-dominated realm, and that won’t change anytime soon unless women fight for their place. Me? Having been appointed personal chef to François Mitterrand was just a crazy stroke of luck…but I lost that battle in the end. I regret nothing, for experience is a form of adventure, and those 2 years were merely a tiny slice of my life journey.”
Delpeuch now owns a second truffle farm in New Zealand, and she has no intention of slowing down anytime soon.
Les Saveurs du Palais is released just in time for the kickoff of the Montreal Highlights Festival, which pairs beautifully with the festival’s theme of marrying art and gastronomy.
This is the thirteenth film for César award-winning filmmaker/screenwriter Christian Vincent. Its 2012 European release was critically praised and the North American distribution rights were recently purchased by the Weinstein Company and re-titled Haute Cuisine. Les Saveurs du Palais will be released in both French and French with English subtitles on March 1st, 2013 at Cineplex theatres across Québec.
