For Grace (2015) Reviews

• A Great Chef With a Stunning Ambition to be the Best in the World

  gregorybmowery2016-03-20

  Curtis Duffy is the chef/co-owner of Chicago's Michelin three-starred restaurant, Grace. This is an engrossing profile of this handsome, quiet and purposeful chef. Duffy first attracted national attention working for the exacting Charlie Trotter, one of the first of Chicago's modern chefs who was at the forefront of explosive growth in America's third- largest city. Apparently working with Trotter was a brutal experience, and while he is low key about his time there, he was clearly unhappy. He left to work at Trio, where encountered Chef Grant Achatz, who is world famous as the chef of his own restaurant, Alinea (Achatz and Duffy are the only possessors of three Michelin stars in the Windy City).Their time together clearly was warm, as Achatz appears in this film (as does another popular Chicago chef, Rick Tramonto) and is praiseworthy towards his former colleague and now rival). Duffy would go on to Avenues, where he earned two Michelin stars and a large portfolio of accolades. Avenues was a tiny space and Duffy itched for a third Michelin star. So he and his partner, Michael Muser, conceived Grace. It would take nine months and consume nearly $1 million dollars. This is basically the movie up to the halfway point, where we are brought back to Duffy's early youth. HIs father, Bear, had married Jan, a girl from Colorado. Bear worked for her father's tire retreating business and assumed he would one day take over the business. Instead, the business was sold to someone else. This disappointment would send the family back to they Bear's small hometown in Ohio, where he had trouble earning a decent living and money became a real issue. As Bear and Jan marriage crumbled, young Curtis was experiencing his own troubles. He wasn't a gifted student and was often beating up school mates or getting into trouble. It would be a home economics teacher who kept her eye on the boy giving him encouragement when he was forced to take a home economics class, which was mandatory for all students. It was in Ruth Snider class that Curtis found his vocation--cooking. The film reaches an emotional tipping point when we learn of a horrific family tragedy that would shatter the lives of all the Curtis children. At this point, FOR GRACE swings back from Curtis' difficult youth to the long delays in getting GRACE up and running. By now, his marriage to his wife, Kim has crumbled and he is living alone in Chicago. The long hours demanded of a professional chef have taken their toll on his marriage. We see Curtis interacting with colleagues, his friend and business partner, Michael, as well as the designer and architects who created the restaurant space--all with a camera following. FOR GRACE is about the redemption of a young boy who becomes a world-class chef. We see in Curtis Duffy, the kind of grit, devotion and determination of a great chef who finally gets to preside over a great restaurant that is purely his vision. Duffy does this with an almost Zen-like sense of quiet. While he smiles easily, there are no tantrums in his kitchen, and the staff demonstrates their own devotion to getting the job done right. Clearly there is respect here on both sides. A highlight of the final moments, is Ruth Snider's appearance on opening night with her daughter. For both teacher and pupil, this is an emotional reunion. This film does an admirable job of showing us this man's long and often harrowing journey to that lofty state.

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