It was an evening of multiple firsts. First, my first visit to the Berlinale, fittingly in the context of the culinary cinema that curator Tommy Struck has been taking me to for ten years now.
In addition, that evening saw the first performance of Fucking Perfect a documentary by Wilhelmiek Kluijfhout about the rough and tumble and the striving for perfection at Oud Sluis, the former three-star and only one of two restaurants in the world to be awarded 20 Gault Millau points. Sergio Herman.
A great film. It was certainly no coincidence that Kluijfhout, of all people, accompanied the nearly two-year phase that ultimately led to the closure of the Oud Sluis. You can’t give Herman enough credit for the great openness he showed to the film crew. One gets the feeling that at some point he no longer noticed the camera. Whether at the passport, on trips and lectures, in conversation with his parents or at home with his family. Ellemieke, the wife and second protagonist of the film, also acted there. In many conversations she continues to paint the picture and deals with her husband unsparingly but at the same time full of understanding. She reports the clearly recognizable first signs of burnout that accompany Sergio Herman’s perfectionism, which lasts up to 20 hours a day. So you watch slowly and wistfully as the Oud Sluis closes – and rejoice at Herman’s new project, The Jane in Antwerp. Which is, of course, anyway and absolutely worth a trip.
The result was a portrait of a man full of contradictions and longings, with the energy of a fighting bull, who at the same time picks herbs with great tenderness and arranges the most delicate plates.
Fucking Perfect is (m)an unconditional recommendation, it only remains to hope that a distributor will soon be found to bring the film to cinemas nationwide.
The accompanying menu, which distinguishes every screening of culinary cinema, came that evening from Tohru Nakamura (1 Michelin star) of Geisel’s Werneckhof and was nothing less than a tribute to the era of Oud Sluis. For more than two years, Nakamura worked there with Herman (not for him, but with him, as he always emphasized), eventually taking on the role of sous chef toward the end.
Nakamura served delicacies in four courses such as “blue mussels, ceviche, quinoa,” “scallop, Chinese cabbage, hijiki seaweed, clam shell mousseline,” and a truly excellent “lake trout from Epfenhausen, nashi pear picked in verjus, roasted Jerusalem artichoke, caper watercress oil.”
