Frederick Wiseman’s “Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros” is a four-hour documentary about a legendary French restaurant, Le Bois sans Feuilles, in the bucolic Loire countryside. I wasn’t bored for a moment. To call it “immersive” is an understatement.

Foodie shows have been so overexposed on television that the effect of this film comes as something of a shock: For once, we are experiencing the culinary arts through the eyes of a master observer.

For almost six decades, and 44 documentaries, Wiseman has looked into the workings of institutions – high schools, juvenile courts, zoos, metropolitan hospitals, ballet companies, welfare offices, city halls, and much else. In practically every instance, what unfolds has the depth and amplitude of a major novel. He dispenses with narration, interviews, and scored music on the soundtrack. Events are presented without any editorializing or overt intervention. Wiseman’s vision in “Menus-Plaisirs” accumulates before our eyes, and it has a kind of purity. It’s as if we were looking at even the most commonplace things afresh.

The famed Troisgros restaurant was founded in 1930 and for four generations has been owned and operated by the family, earning a three-star Michelin rating for the past 55 years. Although the family runs several other establishments, the film’s primary focus is on Le Bois sans Feuilles. Its engagingly huffy maestro, Michel Troisgros, is preparing to hand over the reins to César, his eldest son and head chef. Almost imperceptibly at first, “Menus-Plaisirs” – which translates into English as “small pleasures” – becomes a family saga. The torch, rather ruefully, is being passed.

The daily operation of the restaurant for lunch and dinner is only part of the picture. But what an operation it is, as the crew prepares the menu for the day. They notate in advance the preferences and allergies of the guests, most of whom seem to be captivated by the soft splendor of the occasion. (One of the diners jokingly says, “My only allergy is to the bill.”)

The nouvelle cuisine recipes are tested and altered and worried over until perfection is achieved. Kidneys, passion fruit, rack of lamb, rhubarb, perch, frog legs, crawfish, snails, and lots more are examined with the kind of granular scrutiny one might expect from a high-stakes chemistry experiment. As Wiseman has said in interviews about the making of the film, which he also edited, the effect “was like being in the studio of great artists.”