10 Delicious and delightful foodie films to devour
BY James Oliver
12th Feb 2024 Film & TV
3 min read
With The Taste of Things the latest film to depict a cinematic
love of gastronomy, here are some more examples of foodie films that will please
your palate
You don't go to the cinema for fine dining, at least not
unless you count sticky popcorn, fizzy pop and undercooked hot-dogs as haute
cuisine.
But the films shown on the big screen are more discerning:
the new film The Taste of Things is only the latest entry in the long
history of cinematic gastronomy, with Juliette Binoche giving the kitchen a
proper workout.
To whet your appetite for it, here's a tasting menu of other
foodie films, a veritable banquet of mouth-watering movies. Just make sure
you've had a bite to eat before watching them, though because they could be
torture on an empty stomach...
Ratatouille
There are many films about chefs but they're rarely as
joyful as this Pixar masterpiece, a film that delights in food as few others.
Because it's animation, it can take liberties that live
action films can't—the brains behind this culinary extravaganza is a, er, rat.
In real life, stringent food hygiene rules exist to keep these notoriously
dirty animals away from professional kitchens, and a good thing too: their lack
of opposable thumbs would prevent them even from holding a saucepan, let alone
cooking with it.
Julie and Julia
No one did more for the American palette than Julia Child,
introducing millions to French cookery through her pioneering TV show. Her work
later inspired Julie Powell, who blogged about her efforts to cook her way
through Child's recipes. This film tells the story of them both, with Amy Adams
as Powell and Meryl Street as Child. It's very good, but what we really want is
a film about our Delia.
The Godfather/Goodfellas
Now, fair enough, the Mafia are more famous for organised
crime than for cooking but, as these films show, "wise guys" are expected to
know their way around an oven. Both films are full of helpful tips—how to do
the catering during a mob war, for instance, or the best way to prepare food in
prison: the stuff Home Economics teachers too often forget.
Babette's Feast
An ode to the sensual power of food, Babette's Feast plays
out in an austere 19th century Danish village where a French refugee
lives in exile. As it happens, she's a dab hand in the kitchen and, when she
receives an unexpected windfall, she lays on a slap-up feed, treating her
friends to the best meal they'll ever have; one they'll remember forever.
Big Night
Now a foodie icon thanks to his TV show about Italian food,
Stanley Tucci has long been a gourmet. Big Night, which he directed, is set in
an Italian restaurant on the verge of collapse, but the food is almost as
important as the drama. He delights in showing off the menu, never more so than
the timpano, the glorious drum-shaped pasta dish that is the house
speciality.
La Grain Et Le Mulet
Also known as “Couscous”, which gives the game away; it's
partly about the immigrant experience in France and partly about North African
cooking; it thinks nothing of pausing for long periods to show couscous being
prepared. This is done with such love that you want to reach into the screen
and help yourself.
The Lunchbox
No delivery service is perfect and The Lunchbox is
about when things go wrong—a woman discovers that the titular receptacle (known
as a dabba) she prepares for her husband is being delivered to someone
else, someone who appreciates it more than her hubby, and who writes charming
notes in return. A charming love story for the Deliveroo generation, The
Lunchbox is much more appetising than a “meal deal”.
The Truffle Hunters
Truffles are the ultimate in posh nosh, as this documentary
about the truffle economy shows. At the top are those who eat them, at vast
expense; at the bottom, the men who go into damp woods in northern Italy to
find the elusive fungi, a rare skill that few possess. And between them, the
various middle-men that jack the price up at every turn.
Tampopo
This film doesn't seem to have been funded by the Restaurant
Association of Japan but, honestly, they could ask for no better advertisement:
if you're not craving ramen by the end of it then something's gone badly wrong.
As simple and straightforward as the noodle-based dishes it champions, and
every bit as moreish.
The Menu
Spare a thought for the poor high-end chef; training for
years, building a reputation—and destined to cater for wealthy philistines who
don't appreciate your art. One of these disgruntled restaurateurs is
Julian Slowik, played by Ralph Fiennes; he's the proprietor of an elite,
island-based restaurant who—well, that would be telling, but it's grimly
amusing to those of us with more basic tastes. Put it this way, his guests will
wish they'd stuck to the cheeseburger.
Banner photo: The Menu (Searchlight Pictures)
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