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Kim O’Donnel is a curious cook and eco-food enthusiast. She writes A Mighty Appetite, washingtonpost.com’s cooking blog, and hosts a weekly chat (Thursdays at 1pm eastern) at Culinate.

“I don’t see why you can’t go to a college in Philadelphia,” Eric Gaither says to his daughter, Erica, in the documentary, “Pressure Cooker.”

“Because I don’t want to,” she begins to argue.

“Because you want to fly,” he says.

“I don’t like flying like that,” she counters.

“No, I mean you want to fly out of the house,” explains Dad.

“Oh yeah.”

Flying out of the house – and out of her working class neighborhood in northeast Philadelphia – is the high school senior’s dream, and she’s counting on her stove top skills to make it come true. In fact, the name of her culinary school application essay is “Step One: Reach the Stove; Step Two: Reach the Stars.”

She and her classmates in the culinary arts program at Frankford High School are the subjects of the 2008 documentary now getting its big screen debut; the 99-minute film opened in New York May 27 and is scheduled to air on BET later this year.

PRESSURE COOKER: Movie Trailer – Click here for more home videos

Shot in reality-show style, “Pressure Cooker” trails Gaither and her classmates Tyree (a football star) and Fatoumata (an immigrant from Mali), who have put their trust in the hands of their culinary arts teacher, Mrs. Stephenson. Dispensing plenty of tough love, Stephenson prepares the students for a city-wide culinary competition organized by Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP), a New York nonprofit that provides culinary training and scholarships for students at more than 200 public high schools in six cities across the country, plus throughout Arizona.

C-CAP’s founder, Richard Grausman, who is featured in the film, is also the father of Jennifer Grausman, one of the film’s co-directors. (Co-director Mark Becker’s filmography includes “Lost Boys of Sudan” and “Romantico.”) In hindsight, I wonder if this relationship should have been disclosed, as the film feels a bit like a feel-good ad as it comes to an end.

With such likable characters, it is easy to get caught up in the excitement of competition day, when everything is at stake; however, the film fails to deliver a certain kind of dramatic tension (despite Stephenson’s emotional tirades) that keeps you wondering what will happen.

We become intimately acquainted with Erica, Tyree and Fatoumata, but sadly, we never really get to know their teacher (a firecracker if there ever was one) and the who-what-when-where-why behind the inspiring work that she does.

That said, “Pressure Cooker” does one thing really well: It shows how cooking can make you fly.