There’s Nothing Half-Baked About 'Carême'
Carême wants you to think that it’s a show about the self-invention of France’s first celebrity chef, who was also a scruffy, yet gentlemanly, amateur spy of surprisingly great consequence in the Napoleonic era. It isn’t not that, but this show’s engine runs on sexiness, and I’m pleased to report that it begins precisely as it means to go on: with a taste test gauging the subtle distinctions between two different styles of whipped cream, which handily doubles as foreplay.
Both aspects of the encounter between Marie-Antoine Carême (Antonin to his friends, played by Benjamin Voisin) and his lover Henriette (Lyna Khoudri) are played with total sincerity and commitment, because tiny nuances of flavor and texture are important in every kind of social interaction! Everything this man does is undertaken with the utmost care and precision, and creative flair! His entire life is art!
(I shudder to think of how challenging his laundry must be.)
