It is going to be a scrumptious mini-season of the Chef's Table, an award-winning American documentary series on world-renowned chefs; starting April 13, Netflix will air four episodes featuring the most celebrated pastry makers in the business—a bird's eye view of the genesis of some of the most mouthwatering desserts on the planet.
In Chef's Table: Pastry, you will meet Christina Tosi, a pastry chef from New York, whose retro confections like the (cumbrously named) cornflake-chocolate-chip-peppermint cookie, crack pies and sprinkle-laced cake truffle tossed up a bakery empire. The founder of Milk Bar tutors celebrities like Seth Rogen, and her cereal milk soft serve is a Kendall Jenner favourite.
On the other end of the spectrum (and the globe) is chef Will Goldfarb, whose all-dessert restaurant in Bali is most popular for its creme brûlée made of cocoa paste, mangosteen bitters, and Balinese sea salt. His was a tumultous life. Goldfarb opened his trademark Room 4 Dessert in Manhattan—think 1920s hedonism, only for taste buds—before he fell out with his partners and later made a decision to move to Bali with his family. Before the journey, however, he was diagnosed with a malignant tumour in his right leg.
Or take the case of Jordi Roca, a Spaniard whose radical experimentation got him the title of the world's best pastry chef from the British magazine Restaurant, in 2014. Some of his more eccentric creations include stuffing caramelised olives, black olive oil and dried olives in a dessert, and developing an edible perfume as a foundation for another.
Chef's Table: Pastry will also feature Corrado Assenza of the famous Cafe Sicilia Noto in Italy, known for his specialties like fresh buffalo mozzarella with bergamot jam.
The series has completed three seasons, and has featured 18 "culinary visionaries" so far. Directed by David Gelb of the Jiro Dreams of Sushi fame, the show was lauded for its slick narrative style and an artistic fervour which sometimes borders on the myth-making.
It has also received its share of brickbats. Critics rued that the show lionised the most expensive restaurants owned by celebrity chefs, imbuing them with a halo of invulnerability. But the last season was praised for its profiling of more interesting personalities like Jeong Kwan, a Buddhist nun breaking new ground with temple food in South Korea, and Ivan Orkin, a goofy American Ramen chef in Tokyo.
The mini-season on pastry chefs has already received flak for not including enough women; Tosi is the only woman to be featured so far. On the flip side, in this year's nominations for 'outstanding pastry chef' at the James Beard Award, considered the Oscars for food, all twenty nominees are women.