Paul Liebrandt’s HBO Documentary A Matter Of Taste Nominated For An Emmy

In 2007, provocateur chef Paul Liebrandt teamed up with Drew Nieporent to open Corton. Liebrandt, a NYT three-star wunderkind in the 90’s notorious for his wildly imaginative food pairings, had burned through three restaurants and needed the fourth one to last. While they built their restaurant, an HBO camera crew followed their process, while researching how Liebrandt’s career came to this point.

Now, that documentary is up for an Emmy.

This morning, the National Academy of Television Arts and Science announced the nominees for the News and Documentary Emmy Awards, and A Matter Of Taste, which follows the two as they prepare for the opening and anxiously await a review from Frank Bruni and “the paper of record,” is nominated in the Outstanding Arts and Culture Programming category.

Also appearing in the documentary: scores of the team’s friends from the restaurant industry offering their opinions on Liebrandt’s “comeback,” including Grant Achatz, Thomas Keller, Eric Ripert, Heston Blumenthal, William Grimes, and Daniel Boulud. (Liebrandt, as the HBO synopsis wrly pointed out, was someone that people either “loved — or loved to hate.”)

A Matter of Taste competes against obviously lesser documentaries, such as The Story of Hip-Hop and the Crack Generation, produced by a team including Ice-T.  Liebrandt is clearly cooler than Ice-T.

[National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences via Eater]

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