This by-the-book documentary is more Wikipedia summary than interrogation as it tracks the life and times of Charlie Trotter, once one of the most notable names of the culinary world.
★★☆☆☆
Charlie Trotter once ran the most acclaimed restaurant in Chicago. As a king of the culinary world, he became renowned for his constantly changing tasting menus, often focusing on vegetarian dishes—far from fashionable in the 1990s. He was also renowned for being a nightmare.
This documentary, led by Trotter’s first ex-wife Lisa Ehrlich and narrated by friends, foes and adorants, begins with a whistle-stop tour of Trotter’s early life: a happy childhood without any foodie flair, a burgeoning interest in cooking during university and, without much explanation, his decision to become a chef. His mother recalls three times she visited him at college, and was served first spaghetti, then lasagne, then poached salmon and spinach soufflé on each occasion. Just like her, the audience misses out on the actual story in favour of a smoothed-out highlight reel. Where did this passion come from?
We swiftly move onto his time staging in various restaurants, where his ferocious dedication kept him working grueling hours. Brief interview clips of Trotter reflecting on this time present him as a little funny and a lot full of himself, confident that he is the next—or current—big thing. Soon he has his own restaurant, run by a ragtag bunch of friends, family and young hospitality staff, and his star is on the rise. Like most stories with a hubristic, ambitious protagonist, pride comes before a fall.
The whole piece feels very hesitant to criticise Trotter outright. The talking heads all praise his skills as a chef, assuring that his abrasive personality and mistreatment of staff and wives (often one and the same) were a side effect of his devotion to the restaurant rather than mistakes or a personality flaw. His self-centred nature is excused time and again, justified by the quality and creativity of his work. Threats he made to employees who ‘wronged’ him are alluded to, but their consequences barely touched on.
Even ex-wife Ehrlich expresses little anger towards Trotter for his neglect of her and their life together, while his protege/close friend/arch enemy Grant Achatz has great respect for the man, in spite of the older man’s aggression towards him. The only real behavioural criticism that Trotter receives is from his father, in a letter sent early on in his career, which is brought up a few times but seems to have had no impact on the man. Trotter’s son and subsequent wives are conspicuously absent from proceedings.
What is interesting is the window into the culinary world of the 1990s that the film provides, the changing trends and styles that were innovative at the time but now feel passé. Footage of Trotter’s restaurant seems painfully old-fashioned, heavy furnishings and a flood of beige a world away from what is deemed fashionable now. References to the dawn of molecular gastronomy and TV-famous chefs are equally engaging, but these light contextual groundings of Trotter’s story are—as much of the doc is—surface level. Other attempts to place Trotter’s story in its broader context don’t really land, with a passage detailing the man’s thoughts on 9/11 out of place both tonally and narratively.
Throughout the piece, snippets of Trotter’s letters are shared on screen, carefully preserved by Ehrlich. These are meant to give us an insight into the man behind the meals, but his writings are barely used to their full potential. Occasionally we see hints of vulnerability behind the harsh facade, but these are presented in isolation rather than creating a more complex picture of the chef.
The Verdict
Love, Charlie paints the outlines of a domineering figure but keeps things sketchy. The documentary brings up some broader questions about the nature of ambition, of the sacrifice and obsession so often deemed the cost of success, yet never gets into the weeds of these ideas, instead skating over the surface of anything that requires real interrogation of Trotter’s character.
Words by Lucy Carter
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