All of the seasons of the Netflix series Chef’s Table have followed the same formula: Concentrate on one chef per episode, and give their background as much attention as the food they make. In this new season of the venerable show, the filmmakers profile four chefs who are masters at noodle-making, whether it’s Italian pasta or the noodles for various Asian cuisines.
Opening Shot: As we see Evan Funke cracking eggs into a valley he made from a pile of flour, he says, “Few people know what it takes to be really good at making pasta.”
The Gist: The latest season of Chef’s Table turns its cameras on four master noodle makers. First up is Evan Funke, whose eponymous Beverly Hills restaurant features the chef, standing in the middle of the dining room buzz behind glass, one of the few current chefs who makes all the pasta his restaurant uses by hand. That means no machines at all: He mixes the dough, rolls it out, cuts it, stuffs it if needed, and shapes it himself. It’s a skill that he learned in Bologna early in his career and its a craft he’s proud that he’s continuing.
There are a number of scenes of Funke at his restaurant and his home, but we also see him in Italy, curling trofie in the house of a pasta maker named Sofia, whom he claims has made “some of the most beautiful pasta I’ve ever seen.” We also see him with his mentor, Alessandra Spisni, who has become like second mother to him. On his menu, he not only lists the origins of the pasta shape that a dish is made with, but he lists the women who taught him to make each shape.
In the tradition of Chef’s Table, the chef’s biography is as dominant as pictures of the food they make. His parents encouraged him to do whatever he wanted to do, but do it well. He was a bit lost in high school, uncomfortable with himself because of his weight. But a girlfriend suggested he go to culinary school, and within three months of starting his training, he was working at Spago. He decided to go off on his own and learn how to make pasta by hand when a chef he was working for refused to let him do it.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The many seasons of Chef’s Table that are on Netflix.
Our Take: Other noodle makers profiled in this four-episode season are Guirong Wei, famous for Xi’an cuisine in London; Pepe Guida, who the show calls a “dried pasta virtuoso”; and Nite Yun, who was inspired to concentrate on Cambodian cuisine after a visit to the country.
As usual, the featured food and the dishes the chefs create are only the co-stars, as the life of the chef is also featured. In the episode profiling Evan Funke, the concentration is on the people he learned pasta-making with, especially Alessandra Spisni. We see Funke teaching at her pasta-making school in Bologna, with the same amount of care and attention to detail his mentor brings to the craft.
Director Brian McGinn makes sure to show Funke’s attention to detail in other aspects of his life. When he goes to a woodshop to have a new Mattarello rolling pin made, he’s looking at the grain of the wood being used. He details his Porsche with the same attention he gives to a batch of tortellini. Even the burger he created for a restaurant he worked for shows that he’s interested in using quality ingredients and putting together flavors in interesting ways. But even though the burger looks great, Funke is clear his passion is in pasta.
This episode fetishized things a bit more than most, with a couple of scenes of Funke operating in his restaurant that were reminiscent of The Bear. At the end of the day, Funke is making food people eat, not trying to achieve world peace. And there are times when Funke comes off as a bit too intense about his work. But that might be the risk the filmmakers take when profiling people who are so invested in their culinary specialty.
Sex and Skin: Sexy shots of pasta dishes.
Parting Shot: “This was what I was meant to do, to make pasta,” says Funke as we see him picking up spread out dough on his Mattarello.
Sleeper Star: We would love to learn pasta making from Alessandra Spisni, or at least take a single class from her. She’s tough but warm.
Most Pilot-y Line: None we could find.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Sometimes we think that the show Chef’s Table and the chefs it profiles take themselves too seriously. But the biographical element of the episodes, along with the loving shots of the food itself, always wins the day. Chef’s Table: Noodles is no exception.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.