In addition to working on a Los Angeles restaurant with Sqirl’s Jessica Koslow, serving as an advisor to Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and publishing her first cookbook, acclaimed Mexican chef Gabriela Cámara is also the star of a new Netflix documentary short called A Tale of Two Kitchens.
Judging by the trailer, the film from director Trisha Ziff will explore the connection between Cámara’s Mexico City destination Contramar and her lauded San Francisco restaurant Cala. And while many Netflix documentaries like Chef’s Table or Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat lean heavily on the craft of cooking, it looks like this one will focus on the business of running restaurants — and specifically creating a sense of community among the staff.
“Having a Mexican restaurant in the United States is a paradox,” Cámara says in the trailer. “On the one hand, we have a culture that despises Mexican people. And on the other hand, Mexican food is an integral part of the American diet.” The trailer shows the staffers at her restaurants eating and working together, with one employee remarking, “Even with language barriers, even with cultural differences, the bond that we’ve been able to build working together, it opens up doors and it opens up conversations.”
The documentary, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last month, lands on Netflix next Wednesday, May 22.
• Netflix [YouTube]
• A Tale of Two Kitchens [Netflix]
