Food doesn´t only fills the stomach, but it’s also emotion. It can bring you back to a particular moment in your life. The way a meal is presented, the service and the ambience of the place you eat are all factors that contribute to the experience of eating. Like no other Sergio Herman understands this and his restaurant Oud Sluis received three Michelin stars and a perfect score of twenty out of twenty of Gault Millau. As a chef he´s at the top, but Herman was looking for a new challenge and decided to take a drastic step and close his highly awarded restaurant Oud Sluis.
Director Willemiek Kluijfhout followed Herman during this period of his life and creates a portrait of a man who strives for perfection, where each detail must be right. Oud Sluis was his life, a place where he spent more time than with his family. Even though he feels that closing his restaurant will change this, the reality seems to be different when he wants to open a new designer restaurant.
Earlier this year, I really enjoyed the Netflix series Chef’s Table, where various top chefs from different parts of the world were followed. That series was beautifully shot and the personal stories were presented well. When you compare this documentary with that it is clear that this one isn’t on the same level. Sergio Herman is a man of few words, so you get too little insight into who he is. Nevertheless, it takes a look into the life of a masterchef which the Dutch can be proud of.
