Every year between November and April, Mugaritz — the renowned fine-dining restaurant in San Sebastian, Spain — closes its doors to the public in order for the culinary staff to develop and curate an imaginative menu for the forthcoming season. Overseen and run by leading chef Andoni Luis Aduriz, the Mugaritz staff is composed of form-pushing and outside-the-box thinking gastronomes that, every season, jointly undertake a radical and total reconceptualization of the menu. The staff — emboldened by the Mugaritz mantra, “No bread, no dessert” — aim for a stripped-down culinary experience that also entails “no utensils.” As one of the head chefs informs the young culinary staff during one brainstorming session: “What’s creativity for? To solve problems. What’s our problem? We must create a menu of over twenty dishes…[that] has to be surprising, exciting…it has to piss people off.”

In Mugaritz: No Bread, No Dessert, director Paco Plaza’s fly-on-the-wall filmmaking enables us to curiously observe the feisty and overly confident staff envision and concoct some truly eye-catching — and bizarre — dishes. As Plaza’s lens captures creative missteps (and mind-blowingly ambitious culinary fusions), it also skillfully reveals the erratic but rewarding process of complex, visionary gastronomy.—Jose Rodriguez

Paco Plaza