My partner and I wandered up to the East Village to see A Matter of Taste, a new documentary about Corton chef Paul Liebrandt, which was shown in the Tribeca Film Festival. Director Sally Rowe checked in with Liebrandt over the course of eight years or so, and the film is an entertaining look at Liebrandt’s growth from a provocateur to the kind of chef whose cooking people fall in love with. It’ll air on HBO at some point; you should check it out. In the meantime, here are seven things I learned during the film.

1. I assume Liebrandt likes Dim Sum Go Go, because one scene was shot there. This is more ammunition for me to get my partner to go back there after the “spamcake incident.”

2. The first “t” in Montrachet—the restaurant that was previously in the Corton space—is silent.

3. Liebrandt’s engaging girlfriend (at least at the time), whose name I didn’t catch, runs the front of house at Corton; they met at Gilt.

4. One of the most amusing scenes in the movie is when Corton’s reservationist and restaurateur Drew Nieporent try to figure out which fake name might be that of then New York Times reviewer Frank Bruni. They knew that Bruni often used fake phone numbers, so they called to see which ones didn’t work….

5. When Corton launched, there was a “chicken for two” on the menu, evidently as Bruni bait; it was removed once the restaurant got three stars from the Times.

6. Liebrandt has a chihuahua-like dog that he says has made him want to be a better person, which explains the above photo, a promo for Animal Haven.

7. At one point—I think when Liebrandt was at Papillon—he tells devoted customers who call not to come on Friday or Saturday because the kitchen is too busy, that real foodies should come during the week.

P.S. Did anyone else think the background for the festival’s pre-film trivia was a strangely desolate take on Tribeca? It reminded me of those disaster figurines you used to be able to buy at Moss.