Aftertaste

When opening night at his new Shanghai restaurant turns into a pig-throwing disaster, disgraced celebrity chef Easton West returns to his hometown of Adelaide, Australia, to confront his past—and discovers a potential way to reinvent his career by partnering with his pastry chef wunderkind niece, Diana.

Easton and Diana decide to open a new restaurant, but first they’re going to need to convince local winemaker/property owner Margot Duplass to hand over a space for free—and convince Denise that Diana isn’t selling her soul to the Easton-shaped devil.

While Diana sets off in search of the perfect dessert for opening night of their new restaurant, June, Easton struggles to clear all the crap out of the house so that he can set up a dining room—and by crap, that of course means his rusted-in old drunk of a father.

As the restaurant prepares to open to industry and press, Diana has roped in Kwame and her best friend Nayani to work for free. But Easton has gone full control-freak, and as disasters pile up, he takes his rage out on his staff. Diana decides she can’t take much more of this and decides to serve a shocking dessert to the waiting crowd—which, much to Easton’s dismay, completely steals the show.

After Diana steals all the praise at their opening night and Easton attempts to fire her, he stumbles off into the Adelaide hills in search of solace but finds a drum circle—and hallucinogens. Meanwhile, as Denise takes Diana bed shopping, mother and daughter challenge some hard truths. When Easton makes a final play to convince Diana to come back to work, she’s wary of his promise to change.

The restaurant is a flourishing success, building off Diana’s unique ideas for experiential dining. But when the council shuts them down for all manner of health and safety breaches, Easton contemplates selling out and Diana contemplates bailing altogether.