TODAY I want to share with you some of my favorite movies about food.
“Big Night”
One of my favorites is about two Italian brothers trying to break Italian cuisine into an ignorant America.
The Italian owner/maitre’ d of an Italian restaurant serves risotto to an American customer. “Is this what I ordered?” she asks, puzzled. The owner explains, “Yes it’s a special recipe that my brother and I brought from Italy...It’s Italian arborio rice And it has shrimp and scallop.” She still doesn’t understand: “I just don’t see anything that looks like a shrimp or a scallop.”
In an effort to get what she thinks is her money’s worth, she asks, “But I get a side of spaghetti with this, right?” To which the owner replies, “Well no... You see, risotto is rice. So it’s starch. And it really doesn’t go well with pasta.” The lady insists. He goes into the kitchen to ask his brother, the cook, to make the spaghetti.
The brother is skeptical. “For whom?” The owner admits, “For the lady with the risotto.” The cook is aghast. “How can she want [spaghetti]? They both are starch! Maybe I should make a mashed potato for the other side! ... ”
Angry, the brother wants to confront the spaghetti lady. “She’s a criminal. I want to talk to her.” Then seeing her face, he backs off. “No, she’s a philistine. I’m not gonna talk to her. She won’t understand anyway.”
And so goes this peek into how two brothers tried to make their Italian restaurant financially viable in an America that did not understand Italian food.
The movie is “Big Night,” and it is funny yet endearing because of the Italian cook who will not compromise. At the barbers, he lets out his angst. “Do you know what goes on in that restaurant? Rape! Rape! The rape of cuisine!”
Nevertheless he prepares for The Big Night, when a friend promises to bring a jazz artist to dine at the restaurant as guest of honor. The artist is a no show but those who came to dinner have the best meal of their lives and have a taste of timpano, “a secret recipe that they brought from their home town.”
“Babette’s Feast”
Another movie, “Babette’s Feast,” shows a similar banquet, this time exhibiting the best of French cuisine. The cook here is more calm. She is a refugee from the war who finds herself stranded in Denmark, in the home of a pastor’s children who have never had real French cooking in their lives. For the banquette, Babette comes back from France with a turtle and live quail. The conservative guests have a meeting to determine whether partaking of Babette’s feast should be considered a sin. They compromise by agreeing to partake of it but not to utter a word about the meal. The only guest who comments is a worldly general who describes it to be at par with the best in Paris.
“Tampopo”
The best of Japanese cuisine is explored in the movie “Tampopo.” It begins with a commentary on ramen. “First, observe the whole bowl. Appreciate its gestalt. Savor the aromas... jewels of fat glittering on the surface... shinachiku roots shining... seaweed slowly sinking ... spring onions floating...”
But most interesting is the kinky scene where lovers enjoy their playtime with food. An especially memorable scene is the Tampopo kiss where the man and woman pass on an egg yolk from his mouth to hers and back without breaking the yellow yolk. It’s a really artsy film and not for the humorless nor the faint of heart.
“Eat Drink Man Woman”
A little less controversial is a movie about a great Chinese chef: Ang Lee’s “Eat Drink Man Woman.” Here the treat lies not so much on the lines uttered but on the visuals of the chef cooking at the beginning of the film, and later, when he is called back to work to salvage a dinner for the general’s daughter in which he serves “Joy Luck Dragon Phoenix.”
The most touching scene is when he is shown giving his neighbor’s daughter – behind the mother’s back – her lunch pack. Her classmates love the food so much that they start giving their orders to her for the old man to cook.
“Chocolat”
Finally, for dessert, you must watch “Chocolat.” It’s about a woman breaking conservative boundaries with her chocolate. They are so good that the villagers go to confession after experiencing it.
It’s also such pleasure hearing the villagers describe the chocolate:
Luc Clairmont: [at the confessional] Each time I tell myself it’s the last time, but then I get a whiff of her hot chocolate...
Madame Audel: ...Seashells. Chocolate seashells, so small, so plain, so "innocent." I thought, oh, just one little taste, it can’t do any harm. But it turned out they were filled with rich, sinful...
Yvette Marceau: ...And it melts, God forgive me, it melts ever so slowly on your tongue, and tortures you with pleasure.
Of course, there’s also “Ratatouille.” And how can you not love Meryl Streep in “Julie and Julia”? But you’ve already seen those... •
Published in Philippine Daily Inquirer August 30, 2010,
“Big Night”
One of my favorites is about two Italian brothers trying to break Italian cuisine into an ignorant America.
The Italian owner/maitre’ d of an Italian restaurant serves risotto to an American customer. “Is this what I ordered?” she asks, puzzled. The owner explains, “Yes it’s a special recipe that my brother and I brought from Italy...It’s Italian arborio rice And it has shrimp and scallop.” She still doesn’t understand: “I just don’t see anything that looks like a shrimp or a scallop.”
In an effort to get what she thinks is her money’s worth, she asks, “But I get a side of spaghetti with this, right?” To which the owner replies, “Well no... You see, risotto is rice. So it’s starch. And it really doesn’t go well with pasta.” The lady insists. He goes into the kitchen to ask his brother, the cook, to make the spaghetti.
The brother is skeptical. “For whom?” The owner admits, “For the lady with the risotto.” The cook is aghast. “How can she want [spaghetti]? They both are starch! Maybe I should make a mashed potato for the other side! ... ”
Angry, the brother wants to confront the spaghetti lady. “She’s a criminal. I want to talk to her.” Then seeing her face, he backs off. “No, she’s a philistine. I’m not gonna talk to her. She won’t understand anyway.”
And so goes this peek into how two brothers tried to make their Italian restaurant financially viable in an America that did not understand Italian food.
The movie is “Big Night,” and it is funny yet endearing because of the Italian cook who will not compromise. At the barbers, he lets out his angst. “Do you know what goes on in that restaurant? Rape! Rape! The rape of cuisine!”
Nevertheless he prepares for The Big Night, when a friend promises to bring a jazz artist to dine at the restaurant as guest of honor. The artist is a no show but those who came to dinner have the best meal of their lives and have a taste of timpano, “a secret recipe that they brought from their home town.”
“Babette’s Feast”
Another movie, “Babette’s Feast,” shows a similar banquet, this time exhibiting the best of French cuisine. The cook here is more calm. She is a refugee from the war who finds herself stranded in Denmark, in the home of a pastor’s children who have never had real French cooking in their lives. For the banquette, Babette comes back from France with a turtle and live quail. The conservative guests have a meeting to determine whether partaking of Babette’s feast should be considered a sin. They compromise by agreeing to partake of it but not to utter a word about the meal. The only guest who comments is a worldly general who describes it to be at par with the best in Paris.
“Tampopo”
The best of Japanese cuisine is explored in the movie “Tampopo.” It begins with a commentary on ramen. “First, observe the whole bowl. Appreciate its gestalt. Savor the aromas... jewels of fat glittering on the surface... shinachiku roots shining... seaweed slowly sinking ... spring onions floating...”
But most interesting is the kinky scene where lovers enjoy their playtime with food. An especially memorable scene is the Tampopo kiss where the man and woman pass on an egg yolk from his mouth to hers and back without breaking the yellow yolk. It’s a really artsy film and not for the humorless nor the faint of heart.
“Eat Drink Man Woman”
A little less controversial is a movie about a great Chinese chef: Ang Lee’s “Eat Drink Man Woman.” Here the treat lies not so much on the lines uttered but on the visuals of the chef cooking at the beginning of the film, and later, when he is called back to work to salvage a dinner for the general’s daughter in which he serves “Joy Luck Dragon Phoenix.”
The most touching scene is when he is shown giving his neighbor’s daughter – behind the mother’s back – her lunch pack. Her classmates love the food so much that they start giving their orders to her for the old man to cook.
“Chocolat”
Finally, for dessert, you must watch “Chocolat.” It’s about a woman breaking conservative boundaries with her chocolate. They are so good that the villagers go to confession after experiencing it.
It’s also such pleasure hearing the villagers describe the chocolate:
Luc Clairmont: [at the confessional] Each time I tell myself it’s the last time, but then I get a whiff of her hot chocolate...
Madame Audel: ...Seashells. Chocolate seashells, so small, so plain, so "innocent." I thought, oh, just one little taste, it can’t do any harm. But it turned out they were filled with rich, sinful...
Yvette Marceau: ...And it melts, God forgive me, it melts ever so slowly on your tongue, and tortures you with pleasure.
Of course, there’s also “Ratatouille.” And how can you not love Meryl Streep in “Julie and Julia”? But you’ve already seen those... •
Published in Philippine Daily Inquirer August 30, 2010,
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