It\u2019s not 10 seconds into Car\u00eame<\/em> and a devilish French chef is thrusting a cream-topped finger into a cooing mademoiselle<\/em>\u2019s mouth. There\u2019s not a lot about this series that\u2019s subtle.<\/p>\n But delightful, yes. Especially if you maintain a laissez-faire<\/em> attitude toward facts, even while watching a show based on a historical figure. Car\u00eame<\/em> highlights the banquet halls and boudoirs conquered by Marie-Antoine Car\u00eame, frequently cited as one of the founders of haute cuisine<\/em>, as well as \u201cthe first celebrity chef.\u201d (That moniker is in the title of Ian Kelly\u2019s 2004 nonfiction book Cooking for Kings: The Life of Antonin Car\u00eame, the First Celebrity Chef,<\/em> upon which this series is nominally based.)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n It\u2019s not 10 seconds into Car\u00eame<\/em> and a devilish French chef is thrusting a cream-topped finger into a cooing mademoiselle<\/em>\u2019s mouth. There\u2019s not a lot about this series that\u2019s subtle.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n But delightful, yes. Especially if you maintain a laissez-faire<\/em> attitude toward facts, even while watching a show based on a historical figure. Car\u00eame<\/em> highlights the banquet halls and boudoirs conquered by Marie-Antoine Car\u00eame, frequently cited as one of the founders of haute cuisine<\/em>, as well as \u201cthe first celebrity chef.\u201d (That moniker is in the title of Ian Kelly\u2019s 2004 nonfiction book Cooking for Kings: The Life of Antonin Car\u00eame, the First Celebrity Chef,<\/em> upon which this series is nominally based.)<\/p>\n The show is among an increasing<\/a> number of co-productions between Apple TV+ and France, and I suppose everyone involved wanted to give an international audience what it expects: rich food, lusty romps, and Napoleon.<\/p>\n The writers (led by Davide Serino) kick history up a notch, to quote another famous chef<\/a>, positioning Car\u00eame not just as the man who first filled puff pastry with savories and popularized the tall white hat, but also as a spy, working on behalf of the Machiavellian political fixer Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-P\u00e9rigord.<\/p>\n While Car\u00eame did achieve greatness in Talleyrand\u2019s kitchen, there is no evidence<\/a> to support that he was involved in any of his employer\u2019s shifting factionalism\u2014despite it being the main course of the show\u2019s story. It nonetheless makes for rip-roaring television. Once the flavors of Car\u00eame<\/em>\u2019s eight episodes begin to marry, the show transforms into something like the original Mission: Impossible<\/em>, but instead of disguises and microfilm, the spy craft is cr\u00e8me fraiche and truffled capon.<\/p>\n The contortions each chapter\u2019s script takes to show how Talleyrand deploys the crafty Car\u00eame \u2014passing secret code through the placement of a leg of lamb on a menu, for example\u2014is exactly the kind of preposterousness I look for in a frothy television series. Just as you should never doubt that a French dessert can get more decadent, never doubt this show will get more wonderfully ludicrous.<\/p>\n The series is led by the dashing Benjamin Voisin, whose haircut and outfits make him look as if he\u2019s playing keyboards for Duran Duran in between takes. It\u2019s not an intentional anachronism, but a deliberate disregard for stark realism. The same could be said for the multicultural casting. Though one can find examples to rationalize this modern approach\u2014Napoleon famously had a Black general<\/a>, so maybe he also had a Black aide-de-camp who did his pastry-related errands\u2014my recommendation is to not bother or care.<\/p>\n Alice Da Luz and Benjamin Voisin in Car\u00eame<\/em>.Apple TV+<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Yes, it is unrealistic that Car\u00eame would have a young Black woman as his second-in-command; his girlfriend would be played by an actress with Algerian heritage; and one of Paris\u2019s other great culinary masters would be an older Black man, and that no one would ever make a comment about any of this. But it is arguably more<\/em> unrealistic that Napoleon\u2019s passage from first consul to emperor would be due in part to the succulence of a surprise veal chop. (That moment comes during a cooking competition with rules eerily similar to the series Chopped.<\/em>) The show knows what it\u2019s doing.<\/p>\n But Car\u00eame never asked to be crossing borders and sneaking around palaces. The problem is that his gifts are too valuable to a scheming villain like Talleyrand, played with an exaggerated elegance by J\u00e9r\u00e9mie Renier.<\/p>\n The trouble begins in the first episode. Car\u00eame is working in the galleys at a vast, orgiastic soir\u00e9e when Napoleon (who isn\u2019t in the series all that much) suffers some kind of seizure. Car\u00eame\u2019s familiarity with herbs isn\u2019t just for sauces; it is frequently medicinal, and he saves the day with some sort of elixir. This is what gets him on the Napoleon\u2019s radar, though he\u2019s already a known quantity to Talleyrand, an important figure in all things political and gourmand. (Also an ex-bishop with several children, plus a mistress who likes nothing more than to bathe in diaphanous gowns.)<\/p>\n Car\u00eame rejects an offer to work for Napoleon; he\u2019d rather stay with his stepfather, Bailey; devise architecturally innovative pastries; make love to his girlfriend; and occasionally dispense philosophical remarks. But soon Bailey is arrested on trumped-up charges of treason (sure, he\u2019s not the biggest Napoleon fan, but he\u2019s not a threat) so Car\u00eame turns to the influential Talleyrand for help. Next thing you know, he\u2019s doing whatever the skeevy nobleman asks, in the hopes that it will lead to Bailey\u2019s freedom.<\/p>\n Da Luz and Voisin in Car\u00eame<\/em>.Apple TV+<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Cut to a few episodes later, and this means coitus with Josephine in the icehouse, where Talleyrand knows they\u2019ll be discovered, so he can blackmail her into saving the institution of divorce. Trust me, it all makes sense on screen.<\/p>\n And this is just one of the wacky schemes Car\u00eame is forced to perform. Meanwhile, the Inspector Javert-esque chief of police, Fouch\u00e9<\/a>, is on Car\u00eame\u2019s trail, connecting him to a foiled terrorist attack made on the first consul. Fouch\u00e9 is played by the marvelous Micha Lescot, one of the great sniveling worm performances of recent history. (Imagine Rowan Atkinson\u2019s Black Adder, but not a joke.) Every time he\u2019s on screen is a delight.<\/p>\n
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