Mistura review – ice queen brings Peruvian culinary drama to a gentle simmer

Bárbara Mori takes the lead in a lukewarm story about a wealthy socialite who starts a home restaurant after being abandoned by her spouse.

What one anticipates from a movie centered on an upscale dining establishment is a fair amount of intensity: the turbulent pressure of staff pushed to their limits while chasing culinary perfection. Yet this Peruvian drama, set in the 1960s, opts for a restrained warmth, calm and refined. Perhaps it’s overly refined, considering the situation of its chef-owner, a high-society ornamental wife lacking any culinary background, who takes a bold risk in launching a successful eatery.

Bárbara Mori portrays Norma, an icy beauty who adopts a Jackie Onassis style: oversized sunglasses, voluminous blow-dried hair, makeup applied thickly like armor. One evening, Norma’s husband leaves her in a humiliating manner for a pageant winner. Sympathy might arise if Norma weren’t so harsh with the staff, snapping at housekeeper Rosa (Hermelinda Luján) and chauffeur Oscar (Cesar Ballumbrosio). It’s Oscar (who harbors a slight infatuation with Norma) who proposes she open a restaurant in the home to cover the mortgage. Norma’s father served as the French ambassador to Peru, and she inherited his enthusiasm for fine food. Though the script is somewhat contradictory on this point, as Oscar also remarks he’s never seen her so much as turn on the oven.