Top five Chef’s Table episodes
By EMMA BREHENY1
FRANCIS MALLMANN, Season 1, Episode 3
Elusive, eccentric, complicated. It’s easy to be fascinated by Argentine chef
Francis Mallmann. He lives of the grid on his own island. He builds huge fires in the
remote reaches of Patagonia. In one scene, a man wades into the water to deliver
him wine as he sits in a rowboat eating a fish he just reeled in. Then there’s his
cooking; it’s elemental, it feels real and there isn’t a pair of tweezers in sight. You
can almost smell the fire and the lamb cooking al asador in the crisp winter air. It’s
a refreshing counterpoint to the many cerebral moments of Chef’s Table.4
NIKI NAKAYAMA,
Season 1, Episode 4
If you love to back an underdog, Niki
Nakayama is the chef for you. Not only
did she break into kaiseki, an especially
male-dominated style of Japanese cooking,
she also defied the expectations of a family
who didn’t believe she could succeed. In
just one example of her ambition, it’s policy
at her tiny LA restaurant N/Naka to not
ever repeat any dish for a diner, keeping
extensive notes on their past visits. In my
favourite scene of the episode, Nakayama
agonises over the menu for an upcoming
guest as her sous chef Carole Iida-
Nakayama ofers advice. “He’s a child,”
Iida-Nakayama snaps, eventually. “He’s
eight years old.”2
CHRISTINA TOSI,
Season 4, Episode 1
Momofuku Milk Bar founder Christina Tosi
seems as refreshing as soft-serve after
multiple episodes of hyper-serious chefs
discussing their personal food philosophies.
Tosi wanders the aisles of her local bodega
in New York City searching for inspiration for
her desserts; that’s how her celebrated
Cereal Milk came about. Her food trades
heavily in nostalgia, sure, but it’s clear
that she has a knack for knowing what
makes people happy. This is one of the
few episodes that examines food consumed
at scale, which also strips away some of
the pretentiousness that plagues the series.
But Tosi is the star, and her appetite for fun
is infectious. Even when she’s getting deep
on why she doesn’t ice the sides of her
cakes, she catches herself and throws in
a sardonic, “that’s my diatribe on cake”.3
JEONG KWAN,
Season 3, Episode 1
Perhaps the most hypedChef’s Table
episode, it’s a (very polite) rebuttal to much
of what today’s top chefs claim to stand for.
Jeong Kwan, who cooks in a cloistered
temple outside Seoul, is the real deal.
Despite never training formally as a chef, the
Buddhist nun so enchanted Eric Ripert with
her food that he brought her to New York to
cook at Le Bernardin. Watching her prepare
a meal feels as far as you can get from
fine-dining. She mostly cooks ingredients
she has grown herself, alone, slowly and in
silence. Everything is about nourishment and
harmony. Watching her movements and
listening to her talk is incredibly soothing.
The whole episode feels like a meditation.5
MICHEL TROISGROS,
Chef’s Table: France, Episode 4
Father versus son. Tradition versus change.
Salmon and sorrel. Timeless themes combine
with cult dishes and Michelin stars in this
episode, focusing on the weight of culinary
history as it falls on the shoulders of Michel
Troisgros. The Troisgros name is synonymous
with cuisine nouvelle and is known to just
about every gourmand of a certain age. The
story of a third-generation family restaurant
in a small French town – famous for a dish
of salmon in sorrel sauce – is a stark contrast
to today’s era of restaurant groups and
gimmicky dishes made for Instagram. This
is a story of how legacies are made, and the
enduring influence of French tradition.
AllChef’s Tableepisodes are on Netflix.PHOTOGRAPHY ROB SHAW (BOOKS, CANDLES). STYLING AIMEE JONES (BOOKS) AND LIZ ELTON (CANDLES)
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