Sex, food and politics in Apple TV+ drama Carême, about France's first celebrity chef
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Alas, Antonin Carême has been dead since the 1830s, but nobody is perfect, right?
Most people have heard of Napoleon Bonaparte, but not many are familiar – even in France – with the story of this chef who cooked for the French emperor and his contemporaries, rising from a poor kitchen boy to become a standard-bearer of French cuisine.
Now a new
Apple TV+ period drama, Carême, argues that he was the very first celebrity chef – there is even a Top Chef-style cooking contest in front of a panel of judges.
For the vibe, think comedy drama series
The Bear but set in postrevolutionary Paris. Carême even directs his staff at one point to say 'Oui, chef', and we could totally imagine him, like the Disney+ show's Jeremy Allen White, in a Calvin Klein underwear advertisement, if those had existed back then.
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The series, which dropped its first two episodes this week, also shows how Carême was not just a cook, or master pastry maker, or, well, sex god. We watch as he is pulled into political intrigue by his boss, the cunning diplomat Talleyrand, and used as a spy.
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