A documentary by Lydia Tenaglia. Rated PG

The most famous chef you’ve never heard of, Jeremiah Tower invented the celebrity kitchen king just a little too soon to fully benefit from that now-commonplace notion. He masterminded the Californication of French cuisine at Alice Waters’s Chez Panisse, the Berkeley boîte that kicked off the foodie revolution in the 1970s. Later, he launched his own, much-imitated San Francisco eatery, a Studio 54 of fine dining tackily called Stars. Then he disappeared for 15 years.

He was actually hiding out in Mexico, although this fascinating, frustrating documentary never explains how that happened. It was directed by Lydia Tenaglia, producer of most shows hosted by Anthony Bourdain, who instigated this portrait and acts as an occasional tour guide. He refers to the handsome Tower as “the first fuckable chef”, pointing out that the public previously envisioned some variation of Chef Boyardee waving a ladle behind the swinging doors.

Although he always identified as gay (and speaks casually of a disturbingly early sexual encounter), the kitchen magician had his fill of both sexes, especially at Chez Panisse, where Waters worked especially hard to “convert” him. Their tug of war provided much of that bohemian hot spot’s house-made electricity, and circuits certainly fried when Tower left and the owner took all the credit for his innovative recipes.

Waters does not appear except in vintage footage, and there’s lots more archival material, plus copious home movies, in its first section, detailing an exceedingly strange upbringing that veered wildly between austere British boarding schools and opulent hotels and ocean liners. It’s a shame that Tenaglia overstuffs this initial chapter with stylized re-creations, following the current fashion for placing heightened drama ahead of the food-centred stuff most of us actually crave. The movie settles into something more balanced during the main courses, regarding Tower’s two most successful ventures, before leaving a sour aftertaste with his recent comeback attempt at Manhattan’s Tavern on the Green.

Tower’s friends and disciples clearly care about this aging rogue, while accusing him of keeping his best secrets buried. The same can be said of the movie, which leaves its tastiest treats under heat lamps too long, trotting them out when you’ve already lost your appetite.