Mandagsfilmen: The Taste of Things (Pot-au-feu - veien til hjertet)

In a film that will captivate both food enthusiasts and romantics, we meet the chefs Dodin Bouffant and Eugéne in their culinary collaboration on an estate in Southern France at the end of the 19th century – and in their long-standing love for each other.

France, 1885. Eugénie has worked as a cook for the famous restaurateur Dodin for 20 years. She is considered excellent in her field. Over the years, because Eugénie and Dodin spent a lot of time in the kitchen together, feelings arose between them. Their shared love for food has created unique, delicious, and exquisite dishes that are unparalleled and attract many diners from around the world. However, Eugénie, a lover of freedom, never wanted to marry Dodin. So Dodin decided to cook for his beloved for the first time.

Pierre Gagnaire, one of France's leading and most famous master chefs with 14 Michelin stars and acclaimed as the world's best chef, served as culinary chef during the filming.

The Taste of Things (Pot-au-feu – veien til hjertet) is about the renowned chef Dodin Bouffant, who in an idyllic, rural Southern France at the end of the 19th century creates the most incredible dishes for himself and guests from the upper class. With him on the team is the chef Eugénie (played by Juliette Binoche), whom he has worked with for over twenty years at the estate where they both reside.

However, Dodin and Eugénie's relationship is not just professional, and it becomes apparent early in the film that Dodin has proposed to Eugénie several times and been rejected each time. Eugénie apparently declines the proposals to preserve the professional, culinary partnership that the two have built and maintained over the years, even though we sense a deep love between the two main characters from very early on in the film. At the same time, it turns out that Eugénie has health challenges that could easily complicate both cooking and the relationship.

The film features colorful, bright scenes where the two chefs prepare and present a wide variety of French dishes together with two young apprentice chefs. In the opening sequence, we witness uninterrupted cooking in the kitchen of the estate – from preparation to serving – as the chefs move between pots and cutting boards in what resembles a choreographed dance. This is definitely the film for food lovers, but beneath the many cooking sequences, there is also a great love story, namely the one between Eugénie and Dodin.

The Taste of Things is a romantic, quiet, and warm film about the love between two people who have worked and cooked side by side for many, many years. There is also something mysterious about the way the film takes its time to show everything in cooking down to the smallest detail – a mystique that perhaps also describes the love Eugénie and Dodin share with each other.