Stage: The Culinary Internship (2019)

(On TV, March 2022) There’s a fascinating 2011 non-fiction book called The Sorcerer’s Apprentices, by Lisa Abend, that peers behind the scenes of the legendary haute-cuisine restaurant el Bulli and concludes that, for all of the restaurant’s aura of high-tech molecular cuisine innovation and envelope-pushing, none of it would be possible without the small army of stagiaires jumping at the chance to do backbreaking manual work in exchange for a great entry on their resumés. Things had not changed by 2019, as Stage: The Culinary Internship follows the thirty stagiaires of similarly high-class high-innovation restaurant Mugaritz. A few members of the class are selected and followed through their experience, first preparing and serving the meals, then (if they’re selected) coming up with ideas for the next season of meals. A variety of fates await our stagiaires, from being selected for the prestigious Research and Development follow-up, to quitting the stage midway through. The documentary crew clearly had ample access and authorization to shoot during a lengthy period in Mugaritz, as we go into the kitchen and the dining room, peeking at the process through which courses are designed and following the stagiaires as they perform the required menial work to keep “one of the best restaurants in the world” smoothly running. Director Abby Ainsworth’s Stage: The Culinary Internship is not great filmmaking (there isn’t much style to be found here, even if the courses look great), but it’s absorbing viewing for anyone even slightly interested in the highest end of cuisine. Sure, the chefs get the headlines—but spare a thought for the stagiaires who make it all possible.