With her high-end restaurant struggling to draw diners, a brilliant chef schemes to lure away the talented protégée of her former lover and mentor who opened his own restaurant across the street, a savvy business move but a ploy which spells one thing... war.
BLAZE tells the story of three insanely talented, driven chefs who share a tangled, messy past and the lengths each will go to in order to come out ahead of the others, no matter the consequences. In the posh, mostly white enclave of Lincoln Park on Chicago’s Near North side, two high-end restaurants sit directly across the street from each other. One is Le Rêve, where RUBY WELLS (27, Black), a blazingly talented young chef works in the pressure cooker of a kitchen under exacting celebrity chef GRAHAM MADISON (60). Despite the notorious brutality of his regime, aspiring chefs would kill to work in his restaurant where discerning diners wait months for a table. Across the street from Le Rêve is Trodaire, a beautiful, edgy restaurant owned by a chef every bit Graham’s equal, KATHERINE O’REILLY (55). Once Graham’s protégé, the two fell in love and Katherine became pregnant. But when the pregnancy ended without a child, their troubled relationship went up in flames, and a fierce rivalry was forged. It’s not much of a rivalry lately though – Trodaire is struggling. Nursing a drink after another disappointing night, a desperate Katherine spies something across the street which could be the answer to all her problems – Ruby in a knock-down, drag out argument with Graham. Katherine takes her shot, following a furious Ruby to a bar where she tries to seduce Ruby into defecting to her kitchen, eager to use Ruby’s star wattage to burnish Trodaire’s waning shine. The fact that Ruby’s defection would send Graham reeling? Well, that's just icing on the cake. Katherine’s timing is excellent - in addition to feeling stifled in Graham’s kitchen, Ruby is also deeply grieving the recent loss of her parents, two pillars of the community in the exclusive, historic, and historically Black, neighborhood of Kenwood on Chicago’s South Side. She really could use a change. Still, Ruby declines Katherine’s invitation at first – after all, Graham is family to her, a dear friend of her parents dating back to their college days, and a father figure now that her own is gone. Ultimately though, Ruby agrees to the move, under one crucial condition – that she be Katherine’s equal at Trodaire, her co-chef de cuisine. Katherine eventually accepts Ruby’s demands, and they get to work… But one person isn’t happy about the union: staring daggers from across the street at two women he’s deeply loved but who have, in his eyes, aligned against him in an unforgivable act of betrayal, Graham declares war.
Deborah Puette is a queer, L.A. based creator working across film, television, and the American theater who credits her success as an emerging screenwriter and director to her twenty-five years as an award-winning actor.
Puette’s debut feature as writer and co-director, CASH FOR GOLD, is from her very first full-length script. Puette also stars in the film. CASH FOR GOLD won the Audience Award at the prestigious Burbank International Film Festival before being released on VOD in February of 2025.
The Alliance of Women Film Journalists raves, “Deborah Puette makes an auspicious directorial debut with CASH FOR GOLD…there’s no denying the power of [her] storytelling…[it] will leave you looking forward to whatever Puette does next.” The Chicago Reader calls it “a courageous repudiation of the cruel path this country has committed itself to,” while Film Threat praises the film as “a brick house-built drama,” highlighting its authentic depiction of life's challenges, and top critic Nell Minnow from RogerEbert.com says “it is the compassion the film has for its characters that is the film’s true grace.”
CASH FOR GOLD is now available on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, and other VOD platforms courtesy of Freestyle Digital Media.
Since then, Puette wrote, directed, and produced SUCH A PRETTY GIRL, a short film based on her semi-autobiographical TV pilot, PLAY LIKE A GIRL (Finalist, 2021 Writers Lab underwritten by Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, and Oprah Winfrey). The film was Executive Produced by Robina Riccitiello (DÍDI, MUTT). The short film also serves as a proof-of-concept for her second feature which is currently in development with and will be produced by Rachel Stander’s company, A Season of Rain.
In the television space, Puette has written several pilots, the most recent of which, BLAZE, has been recognized by the GLAAD x Blacklist, Warner Brothers Writers Workshop, the NBC Writers Program, and was the recipient of Roadmap Writers Jump Start Grand Prize.
As an actor, Puette has recurred and guest starred on shows across virtually every network and streamer and has played lead and supporting roles in features for Disney, Miramax, and many independent production companies.
On stage, she's carried lead roles in over 30 plays and 100 workshops and her work has been nominated for every major theater acting award in both Chicago and Los Angeles. She’s the recipient of Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson Award, Best Actress; L.A. Weekly Award, Best Actress; Los Angeles Critics Circle Award, Best Solo Performance; and, as a producer, the Ovation Award for Best Production.
GLAAD x Blacklist 2022
WB Writers Workshop 2022 - Finalist
Roadmap Writers Jump Start Competition 2021 - Grand Prize
