Trumpet Gumbo - A Visceral Short Film about Passion

What am I passionate about?

“Trumpet Gumbo” is a 2025 short film directed by Brad Courtamanche. TV Chef Buddy Bontemps experiences the pressures of an actual kitchen in his mentorship with Chef Deluca. Much of the stress comes from the fact that if he doesn’t complete the mentorship, he won’t get his own restaurant, which is his dream.

I watched “Trumpet Gumbo” at the New Hampshire Film Festival. Cooking and restaurant stories have always appealed to me, like FX’s “The Bear” and “Ratatouille” (2007). “Trumpet Gumbo” is a visceral experience, from sharp edits that make you feel the immense pressure, to a moral about never giving up for the sake of your dreams.

The film stars Brandon Scales as Buddy Bontemps. Scales plays the character with remarkable restraint and intensity. Although he has experience in the area, Buddy feels overwhelmed by the atmosphere in the kitchen. Buddy shows viewers how to overcome stress and continue to reach for their dreams.

John Fiore plays Chef Enzo Deluca. Deluca is not here to be your friend, barking out orders and shouting obscene language. Despite his hotheaded attitude, he’s only doing his job and subtly improving Buddy’s tactics through a trial by fire.

Anthony Hoang, Jenna Molone, Andrew Gilligan, GeGe Jackson, and Alessendro Lombardi Larson play other restaurant staff. More credits include Jimmy Pereira, Zultan Pereira, Brinton MacFarland, Laura Corda, and Paul Taft.

“Trumpet Gumbo” is directed by Brad Courtamanche, who has been a filmmaker since 2012. Over the years, he has made many short films and worked on both features and television before stepping away from the industry for four years to settle down with his family. He returned to filmmaking in 2023.

Courtemanche’s direction is confident and deliberate, balancing the intensity and urgency as he guides audiences through Buddy’s world.

“‘Trumpet Gumbo’ is my love letter to my kids that anything is possible, including coming out of retirement to make movies with babies,” he said. “It’s also an ode to the place I once called home in Louisiana.”

Courtamanche said he wrote the script in two hours. After six months of pre-production, he shot the film in three days at the restaurants Stages at One Washington and Black Trumpet in Dover and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Editing the film took three months until the entree was finished.

The short starts in a calm atmosphere as we watch Buddy prepare for his day. I like the music selections; the trumpet is fitting with the title. Food is also featured enough to be a character of its own in several delicious montages.

However, the tone immediately changes once Buddy arrives in the kitchen. The kitchen sequences are intense, capturing the tension and fast-paced service. The camera becomes more aggressive and restless with tighter cuts, mirroring the mounting pressure of service.

Authenticity was Courtamanche’s main goal in his direction. “I wanted to nail the feel of a high-stakes kitchen; not many people have been in that scenario before, so I wanted this feeling to be so authentic that they would experience it vicariously,” he said.

When I watched this at the festival, I still recall the ‘ssss’ noise the audience made in response to the wince-worthy moment of Buddy accidentally cutting his finger with a knife. That’s what I enjoy most about film festivals: You get to experience the excitement of cinema together.

Who says the road to your dreams is easy? Passion is an electric feeling that keeps us going. We are going to face battles, people we don’t want to work with, and encounter areas in the job that don’t appeal to us. That’s all part of the learning experience.

“The theme of ‘Trumpet’ is to continue going; you’re crazy if you stop. The product may never be there, but if you keep going, the worst thing you’ll ever be is consistent,” Courtamanche said. “Passion and reflection are what make us human.”

Courtamanche won the ‘New Hampshire Filmmaker of the Year’ for his film and has debuted “Trumpet Gumbo” in several other theaters. For those interested, here is the link to view the movie.