In Danish filmmaker Christoffer Boe’s foodie drama “A Taste of Hunger,” the world of fine dining, and the quest for a highly coveted Michelin star, is presented as a stylish, high-stakes thriller laced with eroticism and subterfuge. Co-written with Tobias Lindholm, “A Taste of Hunger” is set in Copenhagen, which boasts 26 Michelin-starred restaurants, including two, Noma and Geranium, which have earned the rare three Michelin stars.
Indeed a product of the famed tire company, the Michelin guide was started in the early 20th century as a simple road map and restaurant guide to encourage French drivers to explore their country by automobile (and therefore to drive more, and thus buy more tires). They started awarding restaurants star ratings, and now, the Michelin guide has evolved into a sort of Academy Awards of the food world, making or breaking a restaurant with splashy announcements of their annual star ratings. It’s the drive to achieve a Michelin star that bonds, and almost breaks, Maggie (Katrine Greis-Rosenthal) and Carsten (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), an ambitious couple who have invested everything in their restaurant, Malus.
“A Taste of Hunger” is structured in intertwining storylines. One takes place over a night in which Maggie and Carsten are thrown into personal and professional chaos after they believe a diner sent by Michelin was served over-fermented lemons while they weren’t in the kitchen. Maggie hits the streets of Copenhagen trying to track down this mystery diner, her journey complicated by a spurned lover Frederik (Charlie Gustafsson), who manipulates the situation for his own benefit.
