By Adam Rabiner
Chef Flynn, which premiered at Sundance in January and opens November 9th at Film Forum in New York City and November 16th at Nuart Theatre in L.A. before expanding to select cities nationwide, spans about six formative years in the life of a rising American chef. During this time you learn about his early years running an informal “supper club,” Eureka, out of his house on top of a hill in Studio City, California, his sold-out guest stint at Los Angeles restaurant Playa, internships, cooking for a week at Eleven Madison Park, and his own pop-up restaurant.
The movie traces his evolving talent and growing celebrity status beginning with a feature notice in the New Yorker’s Talk of the Town, a guest appearance on Larry King Live, a Ted Talk-like appearance on the changing face of the restaurant industry, and culminating with a cover photo and feature article in The New York Times Magazine. It’s a meteoric ascent for any up-and-coming chef. It is particularly remarkable for Flynn McGarry, cited by Zagat in 2014 as a “culinary game changer under thirty.” For when this movie was being made, Flynn, now nineteen, was not yet even sixteen years old.
You first meet Flynn running down the slope of a hill like any ordinary playful boy with an affinity for the outdoors. But Flynn is pointing out the various edible shrubs, flowers, and weeds, like a young “Wildman” Steve Brill. “Flynn has always been different,” his artistic mother, Megan McGarry, later tells us. “I try and make sense of how this happened.”
Even though Chef Flynn is directed by Cameron Yates, it is very much Meg McGarry’s film. A film-maker as a young un-married woman in the 1980s, she continued creating movies after she had a family, prominently featuring her children and husband (a photographer) in starring roles. Her predilection for incessantly filming everyone in her household provides rich fodder for scenes such as baby Flynn playing with pots and a hard-boiled egg or a ten year old Flynn, dressed in a white apron and chef’s hat, using a blow torch to prepare an elaborate banquet for his family.
Meg documented kitchen centered playdates with schoolmates and even made a mockumentary about his “restaurant” Eureka, opened in 2010 and named after a nearby street. Because Flynn was upset by this playful look at a little kid running an “exclusive” restaurant, she decided to make more serious follow-ups featuring Flynn’s signature dishes: Deconstructed Caesar Salad, Faux Tuna Sushi (watermelon cubes covered with sugar and sesame seeds), Sous-vide Short ribs with Shitake Mushrooms and Polenta in a Blackberry Red Wine Reduction Sauce, and Beet Wellington. Throughout the film Meg provides steady, thoughtful, often humorous but always insightful narration. “I feel like I wrote this” she observes of the arc of Flynn’s career and life. And in many ways she did.
Even though Flynn is different (your typical ten year old doesn’t use a cleaver to split open a huge turkey to cook it evenly) and home-schooled (Meg decided on this after witnessing him being repeatedly bullied), he is a pretty “normal,” good-natured, and well-adjusted child in most respects. Parents will recognize his sometime self-consciousness at the constant gaze of the camera and occasional embarrassment - “Get my mom out of the dining room!” he orders on one particularly stressful night when he felt she was doing more harm than good talking to the patrons.
Flynn’s level-headedness and maturity is especially tested after his star appearance on the cover of the New York Times Magazine. Many trolls questioned why he deserved it, slammed him for his parents’ “connections” to Hollywood, belittled him because they bought him $1,000 worth of restaurant equipment which he kept in his bedroom. It must have been difficult to have been the focus of so much hate on social media but many of his chef collaborators took to Twitter to defend him and he is comforted later on when two random strangers approach him at the Union Square Farmers Market to tell him they’re on his side. While the media is making a big fuss over Flynn, he doesn’t like the word “prodigy” or even much “chef.” Flynn prefers to say, “I cook food.”
He is tested again on opening night of a NYC pop-up restaurant where he churns out excellent meals but does not deliver on service. “I need to calm down” he tells himself, “Before I have a brain aneurysm. This is the worst experience of my entire life.” His mom tries to put this in perspective for him, but he has to learn the hard way that failure is an important lesson that all leaders must learn at some point.
Chef Flynn tells the story of Flynn’s single-minded pursuit to realize his dream of opening up a restaurant in New York City. It’s sometimes hard to tell the difference between the archival home video and the up-to-date footage, though one clue is Flynn’s higher, prepubescent voice versus his deeper one. The movie reminded me in some ways of the film Boyhood by Richard Linklater, filmed over twelve years with the same cast. Like in Boyhood, you see an imperfect but loving family doing its best to make its way in the world. The Plow to Plate Film Series is very fortunate to screen this moving and multi-layered documentary in New York City, in person with the filmmakers, before its release next month to the general public. It’s rich and endearing and sure to leave you rooting for Flynn’s new restaurant, Gem, (Meg spelled backwards) here in the Big Apple.
Chef Flynn, which premiered at Sundance in January and opens November 9th at Film Forum in New York City and November 16th at Nuart Theatre in L.A. before expanding to select cities nationwide, spans about six formative years in the life of a rising American chef. During this time you learn about his early years running an informal “supper club,” Eureka, out of his house on top of a hill in Studio City, California, his sold-out guest stint at Los Angeles restaurant Playa, internships, cooking for a week at Eleven Madison Park, and his own pop-up restaurant.
The movie traces his evolving talent and growing celebrity status beginning with a feature notice in the New Yorker’s Talk of the Town, a guest appearance on Larry King Live, a Ted Talk-like appearance on the changing face of the restaurant industry, and culminating with a cover photo and feature article in The New York Times Magazine. It’s a meteoric ascent for any up-and-coming chef. It is particularly remarkable for Flynn McGarry, cited by Zagat in 2014 as a “culinary game changer under thirty.” For when this movie was being made, Flynn, now nineteen, was not yet even sixteen years old.
You first meet Flynn running down the slope of a hill like any ordinary playful boy with an affinity for the outdoors. But Flynn is pointing out the various edible shrubs, flowers, and weeds, like a young “Wildman” Steve Brill. “Flynn has always been different,” his artistic mother, Megan McGarry, later tells us. “I try and make sense of how this happened.”
Even though Chef Flynn is directed by Cameron Yates, it is very much Meg McGarry’s film. A film-maker as a young un-married woman in the 1980s, she continued creating movies after she had a family, prominently featuring her children and husband (a photographer) in starring roles. Her predilection for incessantly filming everyone in her household provides rich fodder for scenes such as baby Flynn playing with pots and a hard-boiled egg or a ten year old Flynn, dressed in a white apron and chef’s hat, using a blow torch to prepare an elaborate banquet for his family.
Meg documented kitchen centered playdates with schoolmates and even made a mockumentary about his “restaurant” Eureka, opened in 2010 and named after a nearby street. Because Flynn was upset by this playful look at a little kid running an “exclusive” restaurant, she decided to make more serious follow-ups featuring Flynn’s signature dishes: Deconstructed Caesar Salad, Faux Tuna Sushi (watermelon cubes covered with sugar and sesame seeds), Sous-vide Short ribs with Shitake Mushrooms and Polenta in a Blackberry Red Wine Reduction Sauce, and Beet Wellington. Throughout the film Meg provides steady, thoughtful, often humorous but always insightful narration. “I feel like I wrote this” she observes of the arc of Flynn’s career and life. And in many ways she did.
Even though Flynn is different (your typical ten year old doesn’t use a cleaver to split open a huge turkey to cook it evenly) and home-schooled (Meg decided on this after witnessing him being repeatedly bullied), he is a pretty “normal,” good-natured, and well-adjusted child in most respects. Parents will recognize his sometime self-consciousness at the constant gaze of the camera and occasional embarrassment - “Get my mom out of the dining room!” he orders on one particularly stressful night when he felt she was doing more harm than good talking to the patrons.
Flynn’s level-headedness and maturity is especially tested after his star appearance on the cover of the New York Times Magazine. Many trolls questioned why he deserved it, slammed him for his parents’ “connections” to Hollywood, belittled him because they bought him $1,000 worth of restaurant equipment which he kept in his bedroom. It must have been difficult to have been the focus of so much hate on social media but many of his chef collaborators took to Twitter to defend him and he is comforted later on when two random strangers approach him at the Union Square Farmers Market to tell him they’re on his side. While the media is making a big fuss over Flynn, he doesn’t like the word “prodigy” or even much “chef.” Flynn prefers to say, “I cook food.”
He is tested again on opening night of a NYC pop-up restaurant where he churns out excellent meals but does not deliver on service. “I need to calm down” he tells himself, “Before I have a brain aneurysm. This is the worst experience of my entire life.” His mom tries to put this in perspective for him, but he has to learn the hard way that failure is an important lesson that all leaders must learn at some point.
Chef Flynn tells the story of Flynn’s single-minded pursuit to realize his dream of opening up a restaurant in New York City. It’s sometimes hard to tell the difference between the archival home video and the up-to-date footage, though one clue is Flynn’s higher, prepubescent voice versus his deeper one. The movie reminded me in some ways of the film Boyhood by Richard Linklater, filmed over twelve years with the same cast. Like in Boyhood, you see an imperfect but loving family doing its best to make its way in the world. The Plow to Plate Film Series is very fortunate to screen this moving and multi-layered documentary in New York City, in person with the filmmakers, before its release next month to the general public. It’s rich and endearing and sure to leave you rooting for Flynn’s new restaurant, Gem, (Meg spelled backwards) here in the Big Apple.