Warts & All - Ginette McDonald à la Carte

Television (Full Length) – 2003

With "à la carte" meaning ordering individual items off a menu, this documentary explores Auckland's booming restaurant culture, back in 2003. Host Ginette McDonald (of Lynn of Tawa fame) visits and works in many eateries, from Chinese to Italian to a humble fish and chip shop. There are insights into how the other half lives, with Simon Gault (pre-Masterchef) cooking for an unnamed Hollywood producer aboard a luxury yacht — for a total rental price of $5,000 a day! McDonald also visits a chef training school, a teppanyaki restaurant, and joins revered Auckland chef Judith Tabron at the fish market.

Now did you know we spend 10 percent of our food budget in restaurants? In fact, these days, most of us eat out more often than we go to church. But when you think about it, food is sort of the new religion...
– Presenter Ginette McDonald introduces this documentary