Review: Love, Charlie: The Rise and Fall of Chef Charlie Trotter

An unflinching portrait of Trotter, and a peek into a chef's life

I had only heard of the name Charlie Trotter and how he was one of the top chefs in the United States. While Wolfgang Puck is the celebrity chef to the stars, Trotter was the serious gourmet chef in Chicago.

It was a shock to hear he died in 2013, as I thought he died only a few years ago -- but it's almost a decade ago.

Love, Charlie, The Rise and Fall of Chef Charlie Trotter is a very good documentary that explores every aspect of his life from childhood to when he died at the age of 54 of a stroke.

Trotter wrote many letters to his first wife Lisa

Director Rebecca Halpern deftly weaves together super 8 films, previous interviews of Trotter, as well as interviews with his mother, sister, ex-wife and celebrity chefs like Puck, Emeril Lagasse, and Grant Achatz.

They tell the story of a guy named Chuck Trotter who seemed happy-go-lucky, but if he did something he was quite passionate, a bit eccentric and cocky. His ex-wife Lisa has wonderful memories of Trotter when they met in college and she kept all his letters and postcards he sent to her.

He decided to become a cook, and threw all his energy into it, interning in many places, moving on to the next if he felt he wasn't learning anymore. Then he decided to go to Europe with the goal of opening his own place, and that's when he met Lisa again who happened to be in Paris. They critiqued restaurants they went to, and sketched out his ideal place, which would be modelled after Fredy Girardet's eponymous restaurant in Switzerland.

Chuck became Charlie Trotter, which meant becoming more serious when he opened the restaurant in 1987. He wanted to prove to his father, who was financing the restaurant, that he could pull this off. His father was supportive, but also critical, constantly putting Trotter and Lisa, now his wife and manager on their toes, with restaurant consultants telling them what to do.

Bourdain with Trotter and Lagasse

That led to Trotter becoming more difficult to work for in the kitchen, which led to him having a cameo in My Best Friend's Wedding, where the documentary shows the clip of him screaming in the kitchen, "I will kill your whole family if you don't get this right! I need this perfect!" He was confident enough to parody himself on film.

However, his father also warned him to listen to his staff and look after them; they would complain to his father about how they were treated. The film shows a typewritten letter that his father gave him in 1993 -- but it doesn't seem like Trotter listened to the advice as the same problems were still festering 10 years later.

Meanwhile Trotter would eat, breathe, live and sleep in the restaurant, causing his marriage to fall apart. Lisa wanted out, and soon he married another woman who gave birth to his son, Dylan.

But when it came to his cuisine, Trotter was a genius -- Puck says Trotter was championing vegetables at a time when they were secondary elements on the plate. A food journalist pointed out Trotter was using quinoa before anyone else knew what it was. And he was keen on using micro greens, which made one farmer's produce famous. 

He was also willing to take risks -- going from a la carte and set menu to just set menu, and then not offering cocktails, only wine. As he says himself in an interview, he wanted to control the entire dining experience from beginning to end because he knows the food better than his guests.

Trotter influenced numerous young chefs 

The documentary even interviews Trotter's best customer, Ray Harris, who ate there at least once a week if not more, and claims he never ate the same thing twice. He basically made Trotter's chefs go crazy trying to figure out a new set menu for him. But Harris loved everything Trotter put in front of him.

Perfection was everything for Trotter. Achatz -- a top chef in his own right, recalls how he once prepared food on dishes that were dusty and got chewed out for it by Trotter. Achatz wanted to quit, but Trotter laid a guilt trip on him that he would let the rest of the team down if he left.

When Michelin finally came to Chicago in 2010, Achatz had his own restaurant, Alinea, and it was given three stars, while Trotter received two. He was angry at Michelin for not knowing what is good food, but others in the film point out Trotter had lost his touch, hadn't changed things up in the restaurant, and the second year also received two stars.

The financial crisis in 2008-09 caused Trotter's restaurant empire to crumble; his various restaurants in Los Cabos, Las Vegas and a takeaway eatery in Chicago all closed.

In 2012 he decided to close his restaurant after an impressive 25-year-run, claiming he would travel and do a master's degree. By this time he was already suffering mini strokes, but he refused to see a doctor after being traumatised when he was six years old. 

His sister recalls at Trotter's funeral how so many people came up to her and her mother, telling them how Trotter had made them the chefs they were today, or how he profoundly affected their careers.

It's a bitter sweet end for Trotter, who affected so many people, but died so young. Love, Charlie is unflinching in its portrayal of Trotter, both the good and bad, and gives an insight into how chefs are under a lot of pressure everyday. Their food has to be top notch all the time, because one bad meal and that guest will never return, and will tell all their friends about their bad experience.

And he relies on his brigade, his team to execute these dishes perfectly every time, which is why they are under a lot of stress too. But some people thrive on this pressure, while many others cave in. That said, the days of screaming chefs is pretty much over -- no one will take that kind of verbal abuse anymore. 

Nevertheless Trotter represents a certain period in American fine dining and will forever be remembered for his contribution in putting Chicago on the culinary map.

Love, Charlie: The Rise and Fall of Chef Charlie Trotter

Directed by Rebecca Halpern

96 minutes