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Loosely based on the life of French president François Mitterrand’s personal chef, “Haute Cuisine” is a cream puff of a film. It’s sweet and airy without much nutritional value. You will definitely leave the movie hungry, largely because each dish created by Catherine Frot’s Hortense Laborie is more mouthwatering than the last. Do not make the mistake of going to the theater on an empty stomach, because “Haute Cuisine” is like looking at food porn on Pinterest for two hours. We’ll be craving truffles on buttered toast for weeks.The film is framed by Hortense’s time as a cook at the Alfred Faure base in Antarctica, skipping back to her work at the Élysée Palace. She begins her life at the palace when she’s whisked from her bed and breakfast in Perigord to Paris, based solely on the word of Joel Robuchon. President Mitterrand...

Watch a freshly cooked clip for Christian Vincent's Haute Cuisine, starring Catherine Frot, Arthur Dupont, Jean d'Ormesson, Hippolyte Girardot, Jean-Marc Roulot, Philippe Uchan, Laurent Poitrenaux and Hervé Pierre. The film opened this weekend (September 20th, 2013) via Weinstein Co, and is written by Etienne Comar and Vincent from the story by Danièle Mazet-Delpeuch. Hortense Laborie (Catherine Frot), a renowned chef from Perigord, is astonished when the President of the Republic (Jean d’Ormesson) appoints her his personal cook, responsible for creating all his meals at the Elysée Palace. Despite jealous resentment from the other kitchen staff, Hortense quickly establishes herself, thanks to her indomitable spirit.

Danièle Delpeuch, personal chef to former French President François Mitterand, met with me for coffee at New York's famous Algonquin Hotel on a late summer morning to discuss the film based on her life. She told me how and when she became friends with Catherine Frot, the role Gault Millau's "Chef of the Century" Joël Robuchon played in her hiring, mushrooms and the price of freedom. Matilda, the lovely Algonquin cat, joined us halfway through our conversation.

Danièle Delpeuch told Anne-Katrin Titze "Everybody can find something personal in this film." Photo: Tolley Haycock

Christian Vincent's Haute Cuisine, based on the true story of Danièle Delpeuch (Catherine Frot as Hortense Laborie), expertly opens up the doors to the kitchens where Monsieur le Président de la République (Jean d'Ormesson) resides.

Anne-Katrin Titze: In the movie, your alter ego is whisked away and doesn't know where she is going. She finds herself in this job,...

Over time, French president François Mitterrand grew weary of the fancy foods being dished up by his chefs, and so it came to pass that a little-known provincial cook was invited, in the late 1980s, to take over the president's kitchen. In this diverting, fictionalized version of the story, Hortense Laborie (Catherine Frot) is stunned by the offer, but quickly rises to the challenge set forth by Mitterrand (87-year-old newcomer Jean d'Ormesson, who is marvelous): "If you cook for me like my grandmother cooked for me, I'll be perfectly happy." Writer-director Christian Vincent and co-writer Étienne Comar, aided by Frot's quiet intensity, imbue Hortense's quest to pull off culinary miracles with an urgency that's almost absurdly compelling, and all the more entertaining for...