Chef's Table: Pizza

I've loved the Chefs Table series. Each chefs ability and craft are unquestionable, but the personal stories of each elevate the series to another level. The food is merely a sub plot.

They're all well made, telling the story of the chef as well as their families and the communities they come from. It's been fascinating to learn about different cultures an the affect it has on the chefs. They're shot beautifully with a great soundtrack to match. I'm one episode in and it looks to be an excellent continuation from the BBQ series.

Hopefully there'll be more beyond this. In such a frenetic world, with so much division, worry, anxiety, it's a perfect antidote to life to throw on an episode of Chefs Table and lose yourself for an hour.

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.

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.

Finally!! With the boom that the last decade has seen in the culinary arts coming to the forefront of television and entertainment, and just exposure in general, this is a truly SUPERB production. The first three episodes evoke so much raw emotion - the passion that drives these chefs (often bordering on varying degrees of insanity) is simply breathtaking. Diving deep into these chefs' stories, shedding light on how they're wired and how their genius has been developed over time and at what cost. The level of sheer focus (obsession) is beyond inspiring. And most episodes I've seen always touch on the importance of doing things differently today - with a focus on sustainability, quality, and local sourcing of food items and ingredients.

A food documentary in which I bawl my face off?!? (Chris Bianco) Very memorable.

Why does the dub over not match the subtitles? It's super annoying. There are two voices and it's distracting.

It's the only downside to an interesting show.

Why does the dub over not match the subtitles? It's super annoying. There are two voices and it's distracting.

It's the only downside to an interesting show.

Why does the dub over not match the subtitles? It's super annoying. There are two voices and it's distracting.

It's the only downside to an interesting show.

Why does the dub over not match the subtitles? It's super annoying. There are two voices and it's distracting.

It's the only downside to an interesting show.