In attempting to avoid anything too political (Mitterand's policymaking) or personal (Hortense's background), Haute Cuisine comes across as blander than its overly-respectful makers may have intended.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 4, 2025

This is a film full of charm, a touch of humor, and one great performance from Catherine Frot.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 21, 2022

It's mouth-watering, but not exactly nutritious.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 10, 2013

With a title like Haute Cuisine, one can expect a high degree of gastronomic titillation. On that score, the film delivers.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 3, 2013

"Haute Cuisine" has no grand conflict or important message or really anything much that you'll remember past dinnertime, but it has abundant charm and it leaves you hungry, which is all we ask of a food movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 3, 2013

Haute Cuisine is an epicurean dream where the dishes conjured up by the characters are as essential to the experience as the characters themselves.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 3, 2013

Unlike Hortense's flavorful cooking, Haute Cuisine is aggressively bland. It's the type of French film that you'd recommend to people who think they don't like French films for being arty.

| Original Score: B- | Sep 27, 2013

A pleasant dramedy inspired by a true story.

| Original Score: B | Sep 27, 2013

A small pleasure, especially for those of us who love our "food movies."

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 27, 2013

A marvelous performance by Catherine Frot as Le President's private cook.

| Original Score: B plus | Sep 27, 2013

"Haute Cuisine" is a bonbon, not of a full-course meal.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 27, 2013

A feature-length cooking show with some biographical details thrown in for good measure.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 26, 2013

If you love France and food, separately or in combination, you will almost certainly forgive Christian Vincent's workmanlike direction, the tedious score, and the near-total absence of dramatic conflict.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 26, 2013

This movie keeps up a vigorous pace and carries you along on the force of its self-confidence.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 23, 2013

Ms. Frot brings a sympathetic mix of determination and passion to Hortense, who dedicates herself to making dishes that suit the president.

| Sep 19, 2013

A reserved, trs simple tale that raises the occasional smile and tummy rumble but keeps hiccuping because of the drawn-out parallel story about her subsequent tour of duty.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 19, 2013

Narrowness of focus keeps the movie from becoming bloated with self-importance, but it also leaves it feeling a little inconsequential-more of a pleasing snack than a satisfying meal.

| Original Score: B- | Sep 19, 2013

Delicious in every way: a must for foodies, but also for anyone who wants to see beautiful work done on the screen, presented in the most prideful way.

| Sep 19, 2013

Vincent seems to have consciously designed Haute Cuisine as a small movie...But that simplicity is a winning choice.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 19, 2013

When a movie's high-stakes moment is whether a cream cheese should be considered dessert, it's hard not to motion for the check.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 19, 2013