PBS Whets the Appetite with The Inn at Little Washington Documentary

The opportunity to experience a Michelin-star meal may be months away, but viewers can live vicariously through a new documentary now playing on PBS. "The Inn at Little Washington: A Delicious Documentary" takes viewers inside the fascinating world of one of America's premier dining experiences.

Chef Patrick O'Connell, known as "the Pope of American Cuisine," is revered as a pioneer of refined American cooking and the eclectic restaurateur who transformed a modest country inn from an abandoned gas station into an international culinary temple. But behind the fairytale, humor and whimsy lies a story of a self-taught chef who started with nothing and overcame a decades-long feud with a fiercely conservative rural town to create one of the most renowned restaurants in America.

"I've always looked at the kitchen as if it were the stage of an incredibly delectable theater, and it only feels fortuitous that the 42-year journey of The Inn at Little Washington will soon be played out cinematically in homes across America," says O'Connell. "I am excited to share a side of myself with the world that not many people may know."

"The Inn at Little Washington: A Delicious Documentary" explores O'Connell's ornate world and his magnificent obsession: the double five-star, five-diamond, Michelin-starred restaurant and inn, The Inn at Little Washington. Long considered one of the greatest dining experiences in America, with the quirkiest cast of characters imaginable, the film follows both the front and back of the house as this O'Connell and his team celebrate their 40th year in business while chasing the ultimate accolade: a third Michelin star. For one year, the cameras capture it all.

"Within minutes of meeting Patrick O'Connell, we knew there was something so genuinely captivating about him and his unlikely success story in rural Virginia," said the film's director, Mira Chang. "Patrick has spent his life in pursuit of the impossible – perfection – so to be able to capture one of the most momentous occasions of his life on film and share it with the world is truly inspiring."