From Omeleto.
A chef stumbles.
Buddy Bontemps is a local street food legend and social media sensation in New Orleans who has just won a popular cooking competition that will give him the money to open his own restaurant. But before he can get the money, he has to complete a mentorship with the Michelin-star-winning Chef Deluca.
Bontemps thinks success is in the bag, but working under Chef Deluca rattles him. Bontemps is used to his own loose, eccentric style, cooking and working as he listens to his late father’s jazz album. But Deluca’s kitchen is run with military precision and a high degree of perfectionism. Bontemps struggles to adapt, but when a kitchen mishap threatens to derail him mentally, he must find a way back to his center.
Directed and written by Brad Courtemanche, this fraught, fascinating short drama captures the high-pressure atmosphere of a kitchen, where each staff member is a cog in a well-oiled machine that moves fast and balances many moving parts. Buddy is a street food cook with a huge following, as well as the winner of a major competition, but he can’t quite find his place in this precise and demanding operation. His struggles make up the spine and momentum of the narrative, and the stakes are high for him: if he doesn’t get through his mentorship, he won’t get the money to start his own restaurant.
Cooking competitions are some of the most popular TV programs to watch, but this narrative imagines what happens to the competition winner as they cope with the spotlight of a new arena, new expectations and new standards for excellence. The film has a loose-limbed, naturalistic style, with pacing as quick and dynamic as the New Orleans jazz music that makes up the film’s score. It’s the music that Buddy listens to constantly on his headphones, the album of his late father. He listens to it as he preps for the evening’s work, much to the consternation of his boss and mentor, who demands that his workers’ total focus and immersion.
Buddy finds a way to sneak his music in, which then causes him to mess up when Deluca demands Buddy repeat an order. When Buddy gets it wrong, Deluca humiliates him, lashing out at him verbally. As Buddy, actor Brandon Scales plays both the cool, confident street food star sailing on recent success, only to deflate when he comes up against a colossus like Deluca, played as all force and sharp edges by actor John Fiore. Deluca resists his stardom and treats Buddy like a kitchen grunt. For Buddy to rise to the occasion, he must summon up all his fortitude — and remember the love and care that got him to the position to begin with.
Part of the pleasure of watching TRUMPET GUMBO comes from the unique sense of place it conjures, from the conviviality of New Orleans to the hothouse pressure of a fine-dining kitchen. Within these vividly drawn environments, Buddy has to prove himself: he must pick up the pieces of his confidence after disaster and keep going without breaking his spirit. It’s a testament to those people who keep their eye on the prize, despite it all and a tribute to an intrepid, vibrant city that keeps trucking.
TRUMPET GUMBO. Courtesy of Brad Courtemanche at https://imdb.com/title/tt32605710.
