THE FOUR FOOD-RELATED MOVIES THAT I AM
DEEPLY, DEEPLY CONNECTED TO
As an entertainment buff, I love watching movies. Being a gal of many interests, it goes without saying that I have an innumerable amount of favorites for equally as many reasons.
These favorites are the films that just give me all the feels. And I mean ALL. THE. FEELS. The kind that you can’t stop thinking about and/or immediately want to start over and watch again. Because it has somehow struck a chord with you and has become more to you than you ever could have guessed.
On the road to becoming an avid foodie and home chef, it’s not surprising that I discovered a small contingent of culinary-related films that spoke to me on an a very personal level, and in many ways have shaped my views about cooking and eating food. These are my top films as they currently stand (though in no particular order).
JULIE & JULIA was my first introduction to Julia Child. Naturally, it was because of this film that I chose to read Julia’s memoir, My Life in France, the novel used as a reference for the film. Julie & Julia tells the cross-decade tale of Julia Child in 1950s France and that of 21st Century New Yorker Julie Powell, who challenged herself to cook her way through Julia’s cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, over the course of a year.
While I, and many others, aren’t particularly fond of Julie’s portions of the film or her book (though I haven’t read her book), I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t semi-intrigued by the concept of Julie’s story. Although Julia Child’s massive cookbook is a bit too ambitious for my tastes at the moment, cooking every recipe from a single cookbook, from start to finish, would be quite an interesting experience. Let me add that to my bucket list.
It his, however, Meryl Streep’s rendition of Julia Child that is perfect beyond words. When you compare Meryl and Stanley Tucci to the real Julia and Paul Child, dare I say it was perfectly cast. Without going too much into detail about my adoration for Julia Child and her life's work – let me save that for my review of her book – so much of Julia’s life and career gives hope to us that may not have conventionally found our calling in life. The way she got into cooking mirrors my own in many ways, as does her love for food and cooking. It’s really hard not to love Julia Child (and Meryl Streep) after watching this one.
EAT PRAY LOVE – also a book and film I’ve talked about before – is another that really shaped my views of food, as well as gave me extreme wanderlust. Fresh from a divorce, Elizabeth Gilbert (Julia Roberts) decides to take a year-long sabbatical to Italy, India, and Bali to rediscover herself and rekindle every sort of spark in her life. While I was just as moved by her spiritual time spent at an ashram in India, and her love for love and inner peace renewed in Bali, it was Liz’s time spent in Italy, restoring the pleasure found in eating food that hit closest to home. For more of my thoughts on Eat Pray Love, read here.
A list, no matter how small, would not be complete without an Disney/Pixar animation. RATATOUILLE, while of course a far-fetched fantasy of a rat with a love for food and penchant for cooking, who then employs a human named Linguini to help can cook incognito in a restaurant, is still one of absolute inspiration regardless. While the spirit of famed Chef Gusteau constantly reassures Remy (the rat) that “Anyone can cook!” (and the film further sprinkled throughout with many other similar statements of encouragement), Ratatouille is not only a favorite foodie film, but one of my top ten Disney cartoons.
CHEF is my most recent discovery and probably the most important. And I was actual quite surprised at how much I was affected by it. Written by, directed by, and starring Jon Favreau in the title role, the film begins with head chef Carl Casper quitting his job at a restaurant in California in order to pursue more creative ventures and reclaim his artistic freedom. In efforts to also bring his estranged family back together and spend more time with his son Percy, Carl returns to his roots by traveling to Miami with his ex-wife and Percy, and ends up purchasing a food truck in the process. There, he also rediscovers his love for Cuban food. The majority of the film then consists of Carl, Percy, and Martin (a co-worker of Carl’s from the restaurant in California) driving the food truck back to Los Angeles. Through places like New Orleans and Austin, Texas, using local ingredients to create daily specials in whichever city they preside, Carl’s journey shows what great things can come from doing exactly what you love.
When I first saw Chef, I was struggling with my own pursuits in life. I was uninspired in my current employment – in fact, I was very much between jobs at the time – and I internally grappled with how I should move forward. I didn’t want to hate what I was doing anymore; I didn’t believe that a person’s life should be spent just going through the motions for the sake of a paycheck. After spending months at home, reacquainting myself with the kitchen and sparking an intense new love for food and cooking, it was upon watching Chef that I realized I wanted to explore this vocation further. And it is quite possibly one of the top decisions I have ever made. Not just because I get to work with food on a regular basis, and get to constantly learn new things from a variety of different people... But because my heart is truly in it and that zest for what I'm doing is very much there.
