A documentary on France's oldest and most prestigious pastry competition, the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France, is the focus of 'Kings of Pastry'.

Award-winning filmmakers D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus of 'Don't Look Back' and 'The War Room' provided a behind-the-scenes look, with exclusive first time access to the competition. The Meilleurs Ouvriers de France (MOF) is an epic three-day test of passion, perseverance, artistry and technical skill.

The blue, white and red striped collar worn on the jackets of the winners is more than the ultimate recognition for every pastry chef, it is a dream and an obsession.

Similar to the Olympics, the contest takes place every four years and requires that the chefs not only have extraordinary talent and nerves of steel, but also a lot of luck.

When looking for their next project, the subject of 'Kings of Pastry' seemed ideal.

The pair heard about the Meilleurs de France competition when their friend, Flora Lazar, decided to jettison a prestigious career in public service and enter Chicago's highly regarded French Pastry School to pursue her dream of becoming a French pastry chef.

After graduating, Ms Lazar told the filmmakers that her teacher, chef Jacquy Pfeiffer, an award-winning French chef from Alsace and one of the founders of the school, was competing in the legendary MOF competition.

Ms Hegedus said: "It sounds like it would make a terrific documentary."

"It had a lot of the personal drama that we look for in our films," added Mr. Pennebaker.

Like 'The War Room', it was a buddy story: Chef Pfeiffer's coach for the competition was Sebastien Canonne, who had started the school with him.

Chef Canonne won the competition several years earlier and wore the coveted blue white and red collar that told the world he was a member of France's culinary elite.

Filming began at the French Pastry School in Chicago where Chef Pfeiffer was preparing for the competition. Each MOF competition has a different theme. This year's was marriage.

The chef was hard at work designing a complex raspberry caramel, vanilla mousse, hazelnut wedding cake, shaped like a half dome, that he hoped would impress the judges with its originality.

Every competing chef would have to design and construct a complete buffet presentation suitable for a wedding, using only edible materials to make fragile sugar sculptures that would tower elegantly above the cakes and pastries.

Chef Pfeiffer figured his buffet might require as many as 40 different recipes. "One of the perks of making a pastry film is that you get to sample," admitted Mr. Pennebaker. "But we realised right off that these elaborate pastries were delicacies that we had rarely encountered."

In France, the film also follows French chefs Regis Lazard and Philippe Rigollot, two other finalists preparing for the competition.

Chef Lazard works at a patisserie in nearby Luxembourg and is being coached by the pastry chef for French President Nicolas Sarkozy. For all the finalists, the strain of the contest, both financially and personally, is enormous.

His wife explains, "When we built [our] house, before building the bedrooms and kitchen, we built this special kitchen in the basement for him to practise for the MOF. It was his dream so I let him do it again, but if he doesn't get it this time, that's it."

Chef Rigollot is the pastry chef at the renowned Maison Pic, the only three-star restaurant in France owned by a woman.

Growing up in the bakery where his mother worked, it has been his lifelong dream to wear the tri-colour collar of the MOF chefs. His wife, a chocolatier, also works at Maison Pic. She helps her husband prepare for the competition along with two other coaches, each highly regarded MOFs.

Chefs Pfeiffer, Rigollot and Lazard are three of 16 finalists chosen from 70 French pastry chefs who competed in the gruelling two-day semi-final process earlier that year.

For the final competition they travelled to Lyon, long considered the country's culinary capital, where Paul Bocuse, father of contemporary French cuisine, has his elegant restaurant.

During the next three days of mixing, piping, and sculpting, the finalists create an astounding array of products for their required buffets.

All their work is done under the watchful eyes of judges, who must decide if the competitors live up the standard required to receive the coveted collar from President Sarkozy.

'Kings of Pastry' will be shown at the Bermuda Documentary Film Festival on Friday, October 22 at 6.30 p.m. in the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute. Tickets are available now at www.bdatix.bm.