De smaak van de ziel

When Erik van Loo, the current chef and owner of restaurant Parkheuvel in Rotterdam thinks of potatoes, his thoughts always go back to his father's potato soup, a butcher from Limburg. He still makes that soup. He just has to finish it in a more sophisticated way to be able to serve it in Parkheuvel. Cees Helder, the first Dutch chef to clinch a third Michelin star, was his predecessor. Helder sold his business at his peak and thinks wistfully back to the final piece of veal he prepared there. The third key figure in this documentary about cooking as an art and taste and deep-felt emotion is master taster Paul van Craenenbroeck, on whose judgement the granting of a Michelin star depended. Film is unable to convey smell and taste, but the telling photography, making ample use of close-ups, tries to make the experience as palpable as possible. What begins with the birth of a lamb or on mussel beds eventually sparkles on a plate like a modern painting.