Spinning Plates - Movie Review

Eating is a function of survival. But it has evolved into much more than simple satiation. Dining out can be as much about nurturing as it is about nourishment. Sure, some restaurants (particularly fast food) are about filling the hole in your stomach. Yet many restaurants provide diners the opportunity to taste the soul of the person who crafted their meal. Spinning Plates examines this common thread between three very different restaurants.

Grant Achatz is the Award-Winning chef at Alinea's in Chicago, one of just eleven "three-star" Michelin restaurants in the United States. Achatz has been on a steady trajectory upwards for a decade, creating gastronomic art (molecular gastronomy) with his scientific food creations. He is a rare chef whose creativity exposes his own personal story through food. Using scientific processes, Achatz recreates experiences that appeal to the eyes, the nose and especially the palate. His story is one of wild success against incredible odds. We learn about an illness that threatened to take his life, if not "only" his sense of taste and smell...elements crucial to his success. His personality and passion for food shine through in this intimate examination of his work.

Achatz' urban success is counter-balanced against the backdrop of the pastoral landscape of Iowa. Here, we find the Breitbach family restaurant that has been feeding the community since the 1800s. People travel hundreds of miles to eat at the rural landmark, which serves thousands of guests on holidays like Mother's Day. We meet the patriarch of the family, who is more to the community than just a restaurant owner. He delivers food to people who are not able to get out, he mows the lawn for a disabled man, he is a community pillar. When his restaurant explodes into flames on Christmas Eve, the community comes together to rebuild. They are rebuilding their own lives, their community center, their social gathering place. Shortly after reopening, disaster strikes again, burning the second restaurant back to the foundations. The community is shaken. But again, they pull together and rebuild. It is not about the food...it is about community, and passion...and probably the fried chicken.

Further West we find La Cocina de Gabby in Tucson, Arizona. It is a small Mexican restaurant in a seemingly well-traveled location. We learn that Gabby sold her jewelry to pursue the American dream. Her husband helps in the restaurant and expresses his passion for his wife's cooking. They are an adorable couple pouring their hearts and souls into a failing enterprise. Their two-year-old daughter is incredibly bored in the restaurant. Paying for daycare during their twenty-hour days is clearly out of the question. The couple have everything staked in their restaurant and risk losing their home as well as their business. We watch with heartbreak as their dream comes crashing down. Their passion seemingly dashed, yet Gabby's husband always seems to find a smile through his tears with an incredible, unquenchable optimism and thirst to fulfill their dream.

I watched Spinning Plates at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival this week. I was treated to a Question and Answer session with Joseph Levy, the director. Q&A is great, because I find other people have the same questions I had. This foodie documentary was exceptional on its own, but the soundtrack was really amazing. Levy explained that he wanted a musical score that he could treat with a different effect for each restaurant, bringing them together as the arc of the narrative tied together the common passions that food can evoke. This artistic approach to the soundtrack made sense when Levy related that he was a film score major at USC.

My other big question concerned Gabby's family. I am not a "bleeding heart" liberal by any stretch of the imagination. But I believe in hard work...and I still believe in the American dream. America was built by immigrants with undying passion to accomplish the impossible. I saw that rare spark in this family and truly wished them success. I would probably travel to eat at their restaurant. Yes, that sounds ridiculous, but it's true. Levy shared that Gabby and her husband are opening a new restaurant and the businessman behind Alinea's in Chicago has offered to help them with their business model. What an incredible story. The passion of food really does transcend when an award-winning restaurateur donates his time to help a taqueria succeed.

Documentaries can be boring and preachy. I always enjoy a solid documentary that evokes emotion without proselytizing. Spinning Plates strikes that difficult balance. It is a powerful documentary that appealed to my foodie tendencies. The intimacy of interaction with the restaurants and their owners/chefs struck a chord with me. In the end, we find a film about family, community and overcoming adversity. Something we all can identify with. Thank you Mr. Levy. And best wishes to Gabby. Streaming on Netflix now. 8/10.