Inspired by celebrity chefs and cooking shows — and especially Gordon Ramsey — Jordan Saffron: Taste This! is a mockumentary that takes its audiences places few mockumentaries dare go. Places like baths, dream sequences, and sexual encounters.
Sergio Myers wrote, directed, and stars as Jordan Saffron, and most of the actors in Jordan Saffron: Taste This! improvise their roles. Improvisation does not come naturally to all actors, and some seem uncomfortable; however, Dimitry Mignon as Saffron’s Haitian sous chef, Jean Claude, handles the task particularly well. Stealing the show is Steve Schirripa as Louie, Saffron’s beleaguered partner in both a television program and a restaurant. Schirripa, in his displays of anger and frustration, is the most sympathetic—and convincingly real—of the characters.
Jordan Saffron (nee Kowalski) is an arrogant, hard-drinking, drug-abusing celebrity chef in Hollywood. He spends a lot more time having sex with a variety of women, partying, and complaining about how hard it is to be a chef (“customers are demanding”) than he does cooking. He so identifies with his role as chef, he is never seen wearing anything but a chef’s coat and pants.
One would think the food would have a starring role, and there is one scallop dish that looks fantastic (but doesn’t taste fine) making an appearance, but the rest of the food is unappetizing on purpose (eggs with sushi and gin?). The scallop dish is served early in the film to a food critic and his party who are visiting Saffron’s chic Mediterranean-themed restaurant. The critic assures his guests that anything they order will be wonderful, only to be served a disappointing appetizer.
The critic (well played by Justin Jacobson) advises his associates not to eat the food, and declares “Saffron has lost his touch.” Steven Ford, perfect as the maitre d’ (and why not, he owns the restaurant where the scene was filmed), tries to soothe the ruffled patron when Saffron bursts from the kitchen, insults the critic, then throws all the customers out of his restaurant.
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