A film about pioneering chef Jeremiah Tower set to debut

Film buffs who are food lovers, mark your calendars. There is a new film titled Jeremiah Tower: The Last Magnificent that chronicles the life of pioneering chef Jeremiah Tower, one of the most controversial and influential figures in American gastronomy. The movie premieres this April in select cities.

Tower began his career at the renowned Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley in 1972, where he forged his reputation alongside founder Alice Waters. The duo had a contentious relationship, and after working at Chez Panisse for over a decade Towers left to form his own groundbreaking restaurant, Stars, in San Francisco. 

Under Tower’s direction, Stars birthed the movement now known as ‘nouvelle cuisine’ or ‘California cuisine’. After several years in his renowned restaurant and at the height of his fame, Tower mysteriously walked away from the culinary scene and remained out of the limelight for nearly twenty years. Then, to everyone’s surprise, he was named as the new chef at New York City’s troubled Tavern on the Green restaurant in 2014.

The film features interviews by Mario Batali, Anthony Bourdain, Ruth Reichl and Martha Stewart, as it tells the story of the rise, fall, and rebirth of America’s first celebrity chef.

Photograph courtesy The Orchard