Carême, a historical drama on Apple TV+, purports to tell about the exploits of the titular French chef turned international spy. As the show explores the life and career of Marie-Antoine Carême, also known as Antonin Carême, it incorporates sex, espionage, and politics into a crafty tale of life in Napoleonic Europe.
Benjamin Voisin plays Carême in the eight-part French-language series about the real chef. Carême is based on the book Cooking for Kings: The Life of Antonin Carême, the First Celebrity Chef by Ian Kelly, one of the creators of the show. It blends fact and fiction in a fascinating way that draws upon the events of Carême’s life and introduces audiences to additional figures like Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord (Jeremie Renier), a French diplomat.
While there’s no evidence Carême was actually a spy, his real life is every bit as fascinating as his on-screen counterpart.
Antonin Carême Became One of the Most In-Demand Chefs of the 19th Century

Born to a poor Parisian family during the late 18th century, Marie-Antoine Carême started working with food at a relatively young age. The show gets this right, a fact that director Martin Bourboulon thinks might surprise viewers: “A young man from an underprivileged background who, thanks to his skills, thanks to what he knows how to do, is able to interest the people in power and is able to put his skills at the service of powerful people, in this case the politicians under the reign of Napoleon. I think that’s an interesting trajectory.”
Carême did have an interesting path to success after he became an apprentice to Monsieur Sylvain Bailly, one of Paris’ best-known pastry chefs. Carême developed his culinary skills while learning to read and write. He also studied art and architecture, both of which he worked into his pastry creations.
In Carême’s words,

“When I was seventeen, M. Bailey took me as his premier tourtier. That excellent master showed lively interest in me, and afforded me every opportunity for improvement… To the service of M. Bailey my drawings and my nights were devoted, and indeed, his kindness merited my utmost pains. Under him, I made myself an inventor…. Having made myself master of all the branches, I executed various unique and original dishes.”

Carême distinguished himself by creating elaborate designs using pastry, marzipan, and sugar. He displayed them in the bakery window, awing passers-by with replicas of Greek, Italian, and other global structures. He attracted the attention of Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, a leading French statesman who held a tremendous amount of influence in France, although he often fell in and out of favor with Napoleon Bonaparte. It was through Talleyrand that Carême was introduced to other important figures on the European stage.

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Carême Opened His Own Shop in 1803

By 1803, Carême had acquired enough prestige to open a shop in the Rue de la Paix in the prominent shopping district of Paris. He specialized in elaborate pastries but also honed his cooking skills. He became an expert in saucing, notably, and he is regarded as the individual who established the mother sauces: espagnole, velouté, allemande, and béchamel. These sauces formed the foundation of the petit sauces used to prepare meat and other dishes.
Carême did more than just cook. Throughout his career, Carême wrote treatises on pastry, cake decorating, and confectionery, alongside providing instructions for creating menus and recipes. He even designed clothes to be worn by chefs and the like, ones that optimized both practicality and elegance.
Carême was comprehensive in his approach to everything in the kitchen and the dining room alike. His influence in the culinary world was widespread, as scholar Paul Freedman explained:

“He helped establish a routine for how kitchens were run… He also defined dishes and the repertoire of sauces, what was considered to go with what food, what kind of garnishes would be standard, and the kind of multi-course dining that would come to be characteristic [of haute cuisine]. And as his original metier was confectionery and sugar sculpting, even having a centerpiece of sculpted food is owed to Carême.”

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Carême Became an International Celebrity and Served the Wealthiest Households in Europe

Antonin Carême cooked for Talleyrand, Napoleon, and other French elite, but also served meals to Tsar Alexander I of Russia and King George IV of England. At perhaps his most famous meal at the Brighton Pavilion in 1817, Carême offered 120 dishes, each masterfully created and crafted for the dignitaries.
The celebrity chef traveled Europe throughout much of the 1810s, returning to France in 1821. Carême worked for the wealthiest man in France, James Rothschild, until he retired in roughly 1830. Carême never stopped developing new recipes and experimenting with food. His soufflé Rothschild — a sweet, frozen soufflé — was created while the chef was in service to the household and included a gold-leaf embellishment.
In addition to having a pervasive influence on food, cooking, and dining, Carême was “almost the last of his kind.” Paul Freeman again,

“He lived still in the time of the courts and chefs finding aristocratic patrons. He doesn’t have a restaurant or interact with ordinary people, [and] his tremendous number of cookbooks aren’t directed towards amateurs, but towards other chefs. So he’s a transitional point to the purely modern celebrity chef, who are celebrities in the sense of media exposure, their television presence or just their ability to be a character and to run a restaurant.”

Director Martin Bourboulon acknowledged that the show takes “liberties” but did stress that there was “no anachronism… no parody.” And, while Carême may not have been a spy, he did have a big role in the politics and diplomacy of the early 19th century. His meals brought together the most influential individuals in the world and were likely the background to conversations and agreements that affected people far beyond the table upon which they were eaten.

Carême

Release Date

April 30, 2025

Network

Apple TV+

Benjamin Voisin

Antonin Carême

Jérémie Renier

Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord