Love Charlie, The Rise and Fall of Chef Charlie Trotter

Rating: 6/10

Director and Writer: Rebecca Halpern

Style: Documentary

Time: 96 minutes

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2gVkngEg2M

You may never have ever heard of Charlie Trotter (I know I didn’t) but that doesn’t mean he isn’t a fascinating documentary subject.

He created a great deal of masterful culinary pieces of art that other great chefs rave about, but he was also very competitive and picky to his detriment.

Told with past family footage and interviews of friends, foes and family, this documentary shows that his mother says that Charlie was not a great cook. This is a child who never walked, it wasn’t easy for him.

But competition is part of Charlie’s family background.

Charlie worked too hard, got too picky and died too early at 54 years old of an aneurysm. Some say he was an alcoholic, but some friends deny it.

Charlie’s funeral was attended by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and was a who’s who of chefs around the world including Gordan Ramsay, Tetsuya Wakuda, Graham Elliot, Ferran Adria, Wolfgang Puck, Thomas Keller and more.

They will always remember Charlie’s quarter-century of 10-course improvised tasting meals, famous for never serving the same dish twice.

Self-taught and diverse, he also is credited with inventing micro-greens and taking vegetarianism mainstream. He was the Godfather of Food Porn.

He paved the way for TV personalities like Anthony Bourdain and Gordon Ramsay until he died in 2013, a shock to all.

It’s a delicious and delightful bite out of a chef’s life and you’ll enjoy every morsel.

Available on all VOD platforms.