'Jiro Dreams of Sushi' opens April 27

The year's hot food movie - or actually cold, given the subject - will open April 27 at the Park Terrace. I got to see a very advance screening of 'Jiro' last October at a James Beard Foundation event in New York, and I can tell it's a special kind of food-movie magic.

Here's a link to the blog post I did last fall, including a short trailer that will give you the idea:

http://obsbite.blogspot.com/2011/10/sushi-that-is-dreamy.html

Sushi that is dreamy

In New York a couple of weeks ago, at the end of a two-day James Beard Foundation conference on sustainability, I had the chance to view a new documentary, "Jiro Dreams of Sushi." It won't be released until March.

Since I was poised to leap in a cab and head to the airport, I perched at the very back of the auditorium, where I ended up sitting next to the filmmaker, a so-young man named David Gelb. I didn't expect to get so caught up in the story and found myself pushing off my departure, wanting just a few more minutes of it.

Gelb borrowed money from everyone in his life to realize his dream of making a movie about Jiro Ono, the 82-year-old owner of Sukiyabashi Jiro in Tokyo. It's the tiniest of restaurants, only 10 seats and no bathroom, yet it has 3 Michelin stars and its owner is recognized as the world's master of sushi. Gelb's film is so beautiful, it's hallucinatory and revelatory: A life aimed at a perfection that the master himself believes is unattainable.

Here's the trailer, a very brief 50-second experience. Like a single piece of perfect sushi, it might whet your appetite to watch for an unusual film.