Chef Flynn

As a 12-year-old, Flynn opened a dinner club in his own home that offered a menu that would be the envy of many an ambitious restaurant. As a 13-year-old, he completed internships at well-known restaurants, including Eleven Madison Park and Alinea. The 16-year-old genius chef found himself on the front page of  The New York Times. And at the age of 19, he opened his own restaurant, Gem, in New York. Food lovers the world over are familiar with his specialty, Beet Wellington (beet and other ingredients wrapped in puff pastry, a variation on the well-known dish Beef Wellington). This, in a nutshell, is the career of Flynn McGarry, the wunderkind of the culinary world and the subject of Cameron Yates' documentary. It would probably be a classic story about achieving-not without effort-the American dream were it not for the intriguing character of Flynn's mother, Meg, who made their impressive home archives available to the filmmakers (she is a director herself and has been filming her son from birth) and who is basically Flynn's on-screen shadow. It is thanks to her that Yates' captivating film feels more like a suspenseful psychological thriller, making us wonder who is really doing the directing here.