Chef Flynn -1 week engagement at Hot Docs Cinema Jan 25

CHEF FLYNN
Directed by Cameron Yates

One-Week Engagement
Begins January 25, 2019
Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema in Toronto
 

 

Chef Flynn McGarry was 10-years-old when he showed interest in taking over the kitchen duties from his divorced mother Meg who had no interest in cooking.  Around 13 he opened a supper club in the living room of his mother's California home, using his classmates as line cooks and serving a seasonal foraged tasting menu to wide-eyed Los Angelenos.

As the years pass, Flynn grows both as a chef, and a teenager, eventually outgrowing his family kitchen, and his mother's camera and in a search for increased knowledge and to be taken seriously he ventured out to stage at many world class restaurants which included a trip to Scandinavia.  Flynn all the while honing his style on Pop Up restaurant events.

Flynn's mother Meg with a background in film was documenting Flynn's life from the time he was born and amassed 18 years of personal archival footage as well as intimate vérité, this feature documentary portrait is not only the study of a rising star thrown into the media spotlight at an early age, but also a reflection on motherhood and what it means to give up one's own identity in furtherance of a child's passion.

Director Cameron Yates (The Canal Street Madam) captures lightning-in-a-bottle to reveal Flynn’s singular drive and passion as he navigates the often-cutthroat world of fine dining.

Chef Flynn had its Canadian premiere at Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, and screened at Sundance, Berlinale, SXSW in 2018.

I had a chance to speak with the Director Cameron Yates and Flynn's mother Meg this week.

Cameron Yates

1.     How and when did you get involved in the documentary?

"I read articles in the New Yorker and found info online in 2012. and found the Dining with Flynn videos on Youtube and was totally fascinated and wanted to find out more about Meg so I contacted her through a connection from the films producer"  

2.     Since Meg had a film background did she have a specific vision for the project and did you have a pre conceived vision of where you wanted to take it? 

"Meg handed over hard the hard drives and ever asked to see anything".  "She was crying after screening".

Cameron met with Meg, Flynn and his sister Paris for dinner in New York,  Flynn ordered for everyone.  

It took a year of chatting with Meg before he came on board to direct. He felt that Meg was ready to hand over the reigns by then,  Meg asked Cameron to shoot the last dinner at their LA home.

They filmed for about 5 years.  Cameron felt that the film was more of a mother and son relationship than just a Teen Prodigy story.

Chef Flynn now has his own restaurant in New York which is named after is mother.  It's called Gem, which is Meg spelled backwards.

Cameron tells me that Flynn is very hands on in his restaurant with him shopping at the local farmer's market, picking the flowers, music and the hiring and firing of staff on top of his masterful cooking ability he wants to be taken seriously as a restaurant owner and fine dining Chef and ditch the Teen Prodigy moniker.

He has built a community of friends in New York that include his sister Paris and her friends who are nearby and the family that is his kitchen staff.

Flynn's mother now lives in a Studio in LA where she still makes short films while working full time as an assistant.  I spoke to her about her incredible influence in Flynn's life.

Meg McGarry

1.  Did you have thoughts of what you thought Flynn would be when he grew up? 

"We  found footage of cooking shows of Flynn playing with his sister and her calling him Chef Flynn.  He Dressed up like Emeril when he was 2 for Halloween.  

I just wanted a kind and healthy baby.  If your child shows and interest in something you should embrace it.  Played baseball, guitar and did different things in an exhaustive way.  He has natural ability. Around 10 he was interested in taking over kitchen.  At 11 wanted to learn on Internet and with cookbooks.  He created his own dishes at 12.  He apprenticed where I hung out.  By 13 he had extraordinary kitchen skills".

2.  How did he convince you to do the pop up in your home?  

"It was oganically formed by cooking for family, friends and birthdays. When it grew we asked for donations for the food.  My father cooked huge Chinese food meals on Friday nights.  Our home had a restaurant area.  At the beginning we held the pop ups twice a month.  I had pro friends to help cook and serve.  He gained a bit of fame at the start because of his age.  When you are young you have a lot of energy.. people achieve a lot in their youth.  The first article in the New Yorker was because of  journalist who came to dinner at the house and wanted to write about it and the New Yorker picked it up.  We met Chef Daniel at a book signing and Flynn showed him photos on his phone of the food he cooked and he realized he can cook from a very complicated cookbook.  He was able to go and work the line in his New York restaurant and they soon realized  his hard work and talent."

3.  Does he have other ideas of what he wants to do?  

"He shied away from things that take away from restaurant, he works 5 days a week.   After 1 year it's still fresh. Sometimes has a day off and does parties or goes to movies, concerts and other things.

He lives close to the restaurant and his sister lives near him.

I live in LA and visit every 4 months" 

Meg still writes and made a short film about a  year ago.   She feels it's time to step back and let Flynn fly on his own and develop his wings.

I have now watched the film twice.  One before Hot Docs and again before this interview and I picked up new subtle images and words after watching it the second time.

It's very interesting when you combine a passion, a supportive family, and an interesting life story how things can amplify quickly in the media and change dynamics of one's life.

Go see this film.  A lot of the footage is raw footage filmed over the early years but then moves to Flynn's breakout as a professional Chef.

One on One with Ants on a Shrimp director Maurice Dekkers

At Hot Docs I  had a quick one on one chat with Maurice Dekkers the Director of "Ants on a Shrimp", the documentary about famed Michelin Chef Rene Redzepi's restaurant Noma setting up a PopUp restaurant in Japan.

Maurice and his crew want to shoot like flies on a wall or ants on a shrimp and give the viewer a look from the inside of the inner workings of a high level restaurant in food development.  Rene's goal was to be uncomfortable and break outside of any pre conceived box that people expected him to fall in to. He was a stranger in a new place looking for a way to merge terroir, technique and style to create new dishes you could only find in that particular location at that particular time.

I asked Maurice 10 questions about the film and the food. 

1.  How did you become involved with this project?
"I was working with Rene on a a television series when the opportunity to document the Noma popup came up.

2.  How long did it take to film?
"A couple of months, about a month in the restaurant and the rest in Denmark and around Japan".

3.  What were some of the challenges?
It was self funded. Jumping on it quickly after discussing it with Rene.  It was his first long form documentary.

4.  What do you think about food bloggers?  We agreed that there are good ones and bad ones but he also said that food bloggers helped with his chocolate business, Tony's Chocolonely, in Amsterdam.  He also said that Rene likes storytelling and likes the way some bloggers tell a story about the food.

5.  How big was your crew?
It was a crew of 3 people.

6.  Did you and the crew get to eat any of the Noma food while filming?
"Yes of course, we were the Guinea Pigs".

7.  What was the weirdest thing you ate?
"Cod sperm" and foraged things you don't know you can eat.

8.   Do you have any other projects lined up?  "No, not now".  He will be busy doing the festival circuit for a while.

9.  Have you spent any time at any Toronto Restaurants?  He went to one restaurant for Tapas with the group from Eatable Films but he couldn't remember the name but he enjoyed it.

10.  Do you think Rene's approach in developing recipes using native local food could be a solution to issues like food insecurity, poverty and food waste?

He wasn't sure but thought maybe in some ways, although the food at Noma is very expensive because of the research and development and the man hours to produce the labour intensive food.

He also said that Rene's approach to the Japan Noma was to be uncomfortable and not do exactly what they did in Denmark but learn from their surroundings.

Read my post about the film "Ants on a Shrimp" here:

At the time of this post the film was just beginning the festival circuit so there isn't a theatrical release date yet.  

Foodies at Hot Docs

I was very interested in checking out the Documentary FOODIES at the Hot Docs Film Festival this week in Toronto since I also have a blog called Starving Foodie and have a lot of food blogger friends.  It wasn't the film that I expected though.

It's a documentary made by a Swedish production company and 3 directors,  Thomas Jackson, Charlotte Landellus and Henrik Stockare who became interested in exploring the world of foodies after speaking with some high profile chefs who follow where these global foodies go and what they say about the food.  It focuses on 5 different Foodies, an outspoken New Yorker, Steve Plotnicki, who used to work in the music business.  A demanding Brit Andy Hayler, who thinks his opinions are extremely important.  A younger Asian male Perm Paitayawat and the female Katie Keiko, who should totally get together and go to these restaurants together.  And a European fashion model Aiste Miseviciute, who loves to travel and explore different restaurants and take photos of her travels and meet up with friends along the way.

It was filled with a lot of "food porn" though and a lot of "what is that" kind of food.

They all say that they pay for their own meals and write whatever they want on their blogs.  They seem to have an endless supply of cash to travel the world and eat at all of the Michelin Star restaurants.  One is funded by his parents,  the young Asian girl saves her money to travel.  The fashion model also pays her own way.  The 2 older gentleman seem to have amassed their fortunes and now spend it travelling anywhere they want to.   One of the gentlemen has been to all of the Michelin star restaurants in the current years guide and is creating his own guide from an algorithm  he created based on the number of times the foodies eat at the restaurants.

Personally I couldn't relate to these Foodies.  They are nothing like the group of food bloggers that I meet up with at local media events and festivals in the city.  Maybe that's because we are Canadian and we are all very polite and grateful for a good meal.  We don't have deep pockets although a few are able to travel they aren't hitting up all of the Michelin star restaurants.  I only know one foodie who works in the medical profession who can afford to go to some of these restaurants.

Other than the model who seemed very personable and gracious I found a lot of the other ones kind of obnoxious and a bit rude.  The 2 younger Asian foodies seemed to be very withdrawn even.

My foodie friends are all very social and friendly so it was a bit odd for me to watch some of them.

What I enjoyed about the film was seeing all the different restaurants around the world.  Places I had never heard of in a lot of remote locations even.

It seems to be very popular at Hot Docs and I know that there are a whole lot of foodies in Toronto so I bet they were interested in seeing this film.

The film didn't have the heart that the other film I saw FOR GRACE  did but if you are into looking into the world of a few global food travellers then this is the film you should check out.

The New York man Steve Plotnicki was in attendance with the director for the Q&A after the film.  When asked where he had lunch he said Dynasty in Yorkville.  The audience just hummed...  not exactly where everyone expected him to go but he said it was his friend that chose the restaurant.

One thing of note.   Most of the scenes were shot of the foodies dining alone because the restaurants wouldn't let them film the other diners so it seemed a bit weird.  They said that they don't normally dine alone.