Chef's Table: Pizza

This is perhaps the most pretentious piece of television I have ever seen. The classical music overlaid on the basic, boring interviews of these chefs that use "raw ingredients", juxtaposed by the modern art critic explaning why they are so sophisticated is nauseating. It's a bit embarrassing, and honestly feels like satire.

This isn't to say that the food that these people making isn't good. But to showcase a few chefs and act like they are "Michelangelo" is silly. "I was the first one to bring dough and pizza to television." Give me a break.. You can get good pizza similar to any of these depicted in almost any large city.

If you are looking for comedy, which I only have to assume is their aim, stick to a more approachable and less self-aggrandizing show like 'Nailed It', or 'Is It Cake?'.

Chefs table is a food show known for its cinematic shots, heavy use of slow motion, long piercing stares and melancholy philosophical musings by the chefs featured. In short, a food show that takes food and itself very very seriously. There are probably only a few handful of restaurants and chefs in the world you could use this format on without it becoming off as pretentious tosh.

When I think innovative thought provoking food worthy of the pomp that this show serves up, I think of Alain Passard at L'arpege (which was rightfully covered in season 1). I don't think pizza, delicious as it is. If this is the path the show is going down I would say brace yourself for 2023 chefs table - cheeseburgers.

Would be a 1/10 but I gave it a 2/10 for it's unintentional comedy factor. To think you can say with a straight face that you are the "Michaelangelo of cooking" because you threw random toppings on a piece of dough until it tasted alright is truly bordering Steven Seagal-esque levels of self awareness.

The episodes where people are speaking for themselves are pretty good, although I do find the origin stories rather sad and whiny throughout - and the chefs unlikeable except for the first episode. The worst part is that they use voice translations instead of subtitles - and they frickin' play the original dialog (eg Italian) loudly in the background - while at the same time playing a stilted American voiceover from someone who sounds like they read and speak at a third grade level. No emotion or inflection whatsoever. It's unbearable. I would rather hear the people speaking in their own language - some of which I'll understand - and read subtitles - than hear a horrible American actor who doesn't even sound like the people in the film look. (Blind people, by the way, have their own adaptive equipment so don't say this is more inclusive.) It sucks balls of mozzarella and ruins the series.

Don't get me wrong, some serious food porn is served up, but as other users have pointed out, there's a lot of pretentiousness throughout the series. In my opinion the only chef who deserved such an honour to be included in a Chefs Table episode is Franco Pepe, do yourself a favour and skip to this episode first. Chris Bianco has a very interesting take and I would definitely try his pizza, but others in the series seem to think adding "weird" ingredients to their pizza makes them above everyone else. I don't want flower petals on my pizza, that's not how this works. I'm very saddened that this is where chefs table has gone, the quality control and screening of content has seemed to gone off a cliff. At least two episodes in this series shouldn't have been made.

I come late to Chef's Table and when I started watching this series, I expected serious documentaries about pizza restaurants. Instead it is a series about the egos and pretentions of famous chefs.

Pizza is simple street food. I have eaten it on four continents. But an excellent slice does become more wonderful just because you throw some kimchee at it or buy your vegies with a handbasket at the local market.

The main contention of this series is that a restaurant is a success not because of location or value or front-end service or decor or atmosphere but solely because of the ingredients and the passion of the head chef.

I contend that any decent chef with a wood-fired oven can make a pretty good pizza at $50 a pop. What few chefs can do is provide a great street lunch for $5 or $10.

Watching this series I was reminded of glossy magazine articles that tried to convince me that one wine is worth a hundred times more than another because it was grown on the north side of the valley versus the crap that is grown on the south side.

I gave this series five stars for photography and travelogue aspects. The rest is soap opera and BS.