GrimPrecise I'll tell you why so serious

GazerRise Fantastic!

Manthast Absolutely amazing

Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

sixpence1106 A good friend of mine was in her mid 50's. She was now married and retired from working for the city. Karen had wanted to open a restaurant all her life and never had the opportunity. She found a small place and decided to finally fulfill her dream. She was at the restaurant hours before it opened every day so she could get the food ready for that day. The restaurant was only open for breakfast and lunch. But, being obsessively clean, the restaurant had to be spotless at the end of the day so she was there for hours after it closed. I don't even think she was open a year before she gave it up. She loved cooking, but admitted that she had no idea how hard it would be to have a restaurant. The cleaning, the food ordering, the paperwork, the cooking, dealing with people, etc. She said it was just too hard and too stressful. I don't think people have any idea what restaurant owners/chefs go through. Its long hours and hard work, sometimes, for very little money. I heard on one show that many Michelin star restaurants don't even make a lot of money. The cost to maintain these restaurants is very high. They do it for the love of cooking. I wish a lot of people could watch shows like this so the next time they feel the need to complain about something trivial, they will think twice about it. I can understand people who eat at Grants restaurant once, just to see what it is like. But, my idea of dining is not eating little bits of things frozen or blasted with heat and thrown on a table. I would rather have anything to eat at Breitbach or the Martinez's restaurant any day. I do appreciate Grant's passion and his skills at what he does. The documentary was very well done and done with a lot of heart.

jayjun1992 This is everything that you would want in a food-based documentary for both foodies and non- foodies alike. It feels authentic and real without being harsh or brazen. As the film unfolds, you get a good sense of who these restaurant owners/chefs are not just as business owners but also as fellow people struggling to keep their dreams alive. It is refreshing also to see that these restaurant owners belong to completely different demographics, having experienced completely different obstacles so that most viewers could relate to at least one of them. The focus on the food and the kitchen gives a look into each of these chefs approaches to applying a mixture of their hard work and heart into their culinary creations. Though they are all different, all the delectable food definitely entices and intrigues and will make your mouth water. Watch this and it won't disappoint, even for those who are not typically interested in documentaries.

wuigee Spinning Plates is a documentary on three different restaurants and their owners/cooks. We inter-cut between one of the most acclaimed restaurants in the world, a Mexican restaurant on the verge of going out of business, and an extremely popular small town restaurant. We meet all the owners and see how much their restaurant means to them.Each of the three stories are unique and compelling. There is a wide arrange of emotions portrayed and felt. There is nothing being pushed on the audience, no politics, or biases. The film just takes you behind the scenes to show you how the restaurants are run and why. Through interviews, you get to see the heart, dedication, and passion of the owners.This documentary seriously changed my view on cooks and restaurant owners. I can now appreciate high quality meals as art. And I recognize the passion and hard-work that goes into these kinds of businesses. By the end of the film you see a common theme of love and companionship for each restaurant.I highly recommend this documentary to everyone. I cannot imagine somebody not liking this.

kelvinho84 Spinning Plates is a documentary film directed by Joseph Levy. It centers on three restaurants, each one unique not only for its cuisine, but also its owners and their turmoil. Levy introduces us to Chef Grant Achatz and his Michelin three-star rated restaurant Alinea in Chicago. It is followed by the Martinez's struggling Tuscon Mexican restaurant La Cocina de Gabby. Finally, we have the Breitbachs and their restaurant Breitbach's Country Dining, which has been around Baltown, Iowa for over 150 years. While these three samples seem random, albeit eclectic, the film's final moment ties everything together into a coherent narrative about food and family. I admire how Levy presents us with three restaurants, each one unique for its economic and social status in the culinary world. The Martinez's restaurant is a struggling familial enterprise. Francisco Martinez is an overly optimistic father, whose only wish is to have his restaurant succeed in order to provide for his daughter. His wife Gabby is the restaurant's sole chef, who beliefs her style of home cooking is what makes her food distinct. However, circumstances arise where they are forced to leave the home Francisco bought for his wife. Out of the three stories in the film, theirs is the most heartbreaking and familiar for it signals not only the economic slide but unearths the realities of the restaurant business. The other family owned restaurant in the film centers on the Breitbachs. Their restaurant is so firmly established in their small town that it has become a cornerstone of the community. Unlike the Martinez's restaurant, it is not economic difficulties that unsettle the family but sheer bad luck. The Breitbach's Country Dining was twice destroyed by fire. Both times the community gathered together to help rebuild it. Their storyline reveals how food is both personal and communal. It looks at how the restaurant transcends business and settles into the realm of a communal relic. In perhaps the most detached of the three, but more engaging, at least for me, is on Chef Grant Achatz and his famed restaurant Alinea. Grant represents the current explosion of high cuisine, where the trend now is the fusion of cooking with science. Where he and his team cook in is a kitchen and a science laboratory hybrid. Pots and pans sit next to Bunsen burners. Before Grant started his own career, he worked under Thomas Keller, who many consider to be one of the greatest chefs. As an avid fan of Mr. Keller, whose laurels extend from his esteemed restaurant The French Laundry all the way to his role as a consultant for Pixar's Ratatouille, I can never tire of listening to his infinite wisdom. Grant is a product of Keller, who focuses on providing not only an artistic and memorable experience, but also, nurturing the customers on a primitive level. While his story seems to be the most artificial, compared to the struggle faced by the Martinez family, Levy flips the script by revealing of Grant's fight against cancer. Levy does a successful job at bringing back his story down to Earth, making him more empathetic. Levy goes a very good job at juggling the difference in class and economic standings with these three restaurants. The ending of the film with Grant's voice-over is a touching ending that ties the themes of the movie together. Despite the difference in social and economic standing, the film purports to say that food and restaurant function similarly. The ending makes you rethink about these three restaurants. It no longer seems like they are just three disparate restaurants but shows the trajectory of how a restaurant can grow on a grassroot level into one that sits atop the culinary world. Spinning Plates is a delightful film for the casual viewer and for food buffs like myself.