Carême takes place during the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte after the French Revolution. The chef, played by Benjamin Voisin, is hired by a French foreign minister Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (Jérémie Renier) to make creative pastries that will impress the people with whom he’s negotiating.

The series, about a celebrity chef in Napoleonic France, has a loose relationship to historical facts. But that frees it to be spry and fun.