<i>Chef's Table: Pastry</i> Isn't About Pastry
The dessert-focused continuation of the Netflix series is a fascinating study of creative ego.
“The curse of the pastry chef,” Michael Laiskonis says in the final episode of Chef’s Table: Pastry, “is always having to follow someone else.” Laiskonis would know: For eight years he was the executive pastry chef at Eric Ripert’s three-Michelin-starred New York restaurant, Le Bernardin. Working in the realm of desserts means never getting to be the main event, the raison d’être, the star.
So it’s fascinating that the newest clump of episodes from the Netflix documentary series , which focuses on sweets, treats pastry almost as a secondary subject. All the usual elements are there—Vivaldi-scored montages of culinary creation, kitchens gleaming with cold steel, close-ups of is all about ego.
