I have been subjective in choosing these movies to put on the following culinary list, but I have to confess that it wasn’t very hard. There isn’t much to choose from, and a search on Google is perplexing. Anyway, here are my all-time examples of what I define a cooking movie. I have to warn you that sometimes, to justify an idea, I inadvertently resorted to spoilers. I hope they’re not major, so you can still enjoy separately, every movie after you read this post. In choosing the movies, I was looking after the ones who praise the culinary art and where one can find a nice recipe or two, even if it is just an omelet, a spice mix or a soup. There are many culinary documentaries instead, and I added two of them to my list.
1. Chef 2014
Chef is a favorite cooking movie, no matter how unfunny are three characters: Chef Casper, played by Jon Favreau, his kid, played by Emjay Anthony and Molly, the waitress/mistress, played by Scarlett Johansson. As a contrast, very funny are Sofia Vergara, John Leguizamo, and Oliver Platt, so the spirits are balanced. Favreau, who also directed and produced it, threw in a few more celebs, just for the flavor: Robert Downey Jr., Dustin Hoffman, Bobby Cannavale, Jose C. Hernandez (Abuelito), Gary Clark Jr., and not the least, Roy Choi, the chef who is also the movie co-producer and made the menu. The main attraction is the Cubano sandwich, especially the Mojo Pork Cubano prepared by Leguizamo before father and son came back from shopping. Only in the movie one makes that dish so quickly, otherwise, it takes minimum 12 hours to leave the meat in brine, and another minimum two hours to marinade it. I wouldn’t add that cheap fast food mustard to it because it doesn’t harmonize with pickles, but maybe junk food lovers can add some ketchup as well… What do I know? I also felt attracted by the taco truck and the whole sandwich business idea.
Jon Favreau and John Leguizamo in Chef
[source of all pictures: imdb.com]
I remember watching Martha Stewart and Rachael Ray not being shy to dirty their hands when cooking. Here, I found gross the scene when Casper molded the oily spaghetti with bared hands when serving them to his mistress… All in all, the movie is a 10.
2. Julie & Julia 2009
This cooking movie is about blogging, about writing and fulfilling a challenge besides cooking with passion at home. Julie Powell has a cat, a husband and feels surrounded by a repugnant reality. Here, she is played by a congenial Amy Adams, tightly supported by Chris Messina. Written and directed by the acclaimed Nora Ephron, it also shows in parallel, Julia Child‘s culinary adventures. Believe me, I didn’t get it. Meryl Streep made a funny Mrs. Child. Unfortunately, in real life, both female characters were very unsalted. Julie Powell wrote another book after this one, where we find out that she became a butcher and had several affairs. We are fortunate because nobody made a movie after it.
Julie & Julia 2009
Both Amy Adams and Meryl Streep showed their American roots by making a zero effort in properly pronouncing “Boeuf Bourguignon” during the whole movie.
3. Jiro Dreams of Sushi 2011
Jiro Dreams of Sushi couldn’t be absent in this list. This is a documentary and one of my favorites as it comes. Jiro Ono is a sushi master, probably the most famous in the world. He has two sons: Takashi and Yoshikazu. He is an artist of sushi; at 85, he accomplished perfection. Japan declared him a national treasure. In this story, you learn the types of sushi, the order, the amount of the ingredients. The restaurant is in Ginza, Tokyo, and Jiro has been awarded three Michelin stars. His younger son left the family premises to open a mirror sushi restaurant in Roppongi Hills, also in Tokyo. He was awarded two Michelin stars. Yoshikazu, the elder, has to take care of the Ginza restaurant, still under Jiro’s firm rule.
Jiro Ono with one of his sons in another cooking movie
4. Haute Cuisine 2012
We are in France again, this time following the President’s private chef, a lady named Hortense. At the Elysée, there already is a mob led by a MOF (Meilleur Ouvrier de France), who cooks for the whole personnel. After some friction, Hortense is favorited by Mitterand because she cooked his childhood dishes. A lot of truffles there. The film is made very professional, the gal took the reins without much preparation. She was loved by everyone excepting the MOF and the finance manager who was looking for reasons to demise Hortense under foolish expenses pretexts.
Haute Cuisine – 2012- Poster
There were tensions in the vast kitchen because without the precisely ordered food by Hortense, the dishes don’t taste perfect. She is not Rachael Ray, she doesn’t cook on a budget, from scratch, she is François Mitterand‘s personal chef.
Do you know how to distinguish a MOF? They always wear a special collar with the French flag’s colors, blue, white, and red.
5. Eat Drink Man Woman 1994
This is one of my favorite Ang Lee‘s movies. It is about how a nice Taiwanese family, a father with three daughters, copes after the loss of the mother. Father is a professional cook, one renown in the whole of China. Daughters are all in different stages of their careers. The small one is still a student, the middle one is on the way to be corporately promoted, and the eldest is a teacher. The girls have a thing in common: they know how and they love to cook. The movie begins with the father busily preparing a feast. We learn that this is absolutely normal in the house, the feast is only the Sunday dinner when all of them can be together. It became routine. All the characters have different stories and the plot is gradually intensified through the glorious end. Ang Lee’s movies are never boring, and this one is no exception even if it seems to be on the “light” side. You are invited to admire the food’s richness.
Eat Drink Man Woman – 1994
6. Le Chef 2012
Le Chef (The Chef) is indeed a French movie about Alexandre Lagarde, a three Michelin stars chef in searching for a new menu in order to keep all of them for the restaurant’s kitchen he directs. Armed with a Leonine ego, he pisses off the management, which took him on the brink of being fired, and his classic kitchen transformed into a molecular kitchen. It’s a sort of comedy, funny as much as it could, not everyone is Louis De Funes in France.
Jean Reno in Le Chef 2012
With help from Jacky, a fan, an amateur specialist and bibliographer, who dreams of becoming a great chef himself, and a chef lady of whom Alexandre is infatuated, he succeeds to “save” the stars. A lot of good, tasty, gourmet food on show here. Alexandre is played by Jean Reno, a living Leo.
7. The Hundred-Foot Journey 2014
Scenic location, enthralling Indian and French dishes, racism, evolution, challenge. These are this Lasse Halström movie’s keywords.
The Hundred-Foot Journey 2014
An Indian refugee family settles down in rural France where they open a restaurant with ethnic food. Unfortunately, the restaurant is located quite across the street from an already renown restaurant. Here the main competition is between the character played by Om Puri and Madame, played by Hellen Mirren. At the lesser levels, there is also a competition between Hassan (the American born Manish Dayal) and Marguerite (neutrally played by Charlotte Le Bon). Hassan is infatuated with Marguerite, but she envies his talent. Both aspire now to become sous-chefs in Madame’s restaurant. The music is fantastic, which is normal, being composed by A.R. Rahman. The movie is produced by Steven Spielberg and Oprah.
8. Big Night 1996
Big Night is about how a restaurant in America can go broke for selling good food. Two Italian immigrant brothers named like in an Arab model, Primo, and Secundo, are both talented cooks. They open a restaurant in a good neighborhood, and they start to offer the famous traditional Italian food, but in those times America, some clients proved that they don’t know how to appreciate a good dish. Like in some parts of the world, (small and maybe insignificant parts as it comes), one eats everything with bread, even pizza or spaghetti, here, in the brothers’ restaurant, some clients ordered meatball spaghetti with mash potatoes and Primo refuses to serve in these conditions. In this rhythm, they go broke. A restaurateur friend of Secundo promises he’ll help by announcing in media and the whole neighborhood that a certain Italian musician will sing for the restaurant’s clients in a designated night. A lot of people will come, they will appreciate the food and the business will thrive, therefore, the movie was called Big Night.
Tony Shalhoub and Stanley Tucci in Big Night
Primo is played by Tony Shalhoub and Secundo by Stanley Tucci. Maybe you know, maybe not, but Tucci cooks like a chef in real life too.
9. Tampopo 1985
Tampopo is the second Japanese food film on this list. It’s funny and quirky with a subtle sense of humor, a “Ramen Western”. The art of making ramen, the struggle, the details, the ritual, are all mixed in a hilarious series of sketches by director Juzo Itami. If your eyes are alert, you’ll recognize a young Ken Watanabe as a modern cowboy riding a tanker truck with his boss and friend.
The bunch in Tampopo – The future famous Ken Watanabe is in the middle
This movie is really special. It doesn’t please everybody, as it is expected, someone writing for The New York Times doesn’t get it. Ramen has spirit, one has to prepare the ramen soup with its heart. I like the title “Sensei”. In Tampopo, which means “dandelion”, appear two of them. One is the master of a vast estate, and the other is the governor of erudite homeless people looking like samurais in misery.
10. Babette’s Feast 1987
This is considered one of the most famous cooking movies by a lot of critics. I haven’t watched it until recently, two or two and a half years ago at most. I don’t remember now my reserves, maybe because it seemed dull as a plot, I still can’t touch it. It’s about a French cook who is wasting herself somewhere in a very dull ambiance somewhere in a xenophobic bigoted Scandinavian village.
Babette’s Feast – 1987
11. Spinning Plates 2012
Spinning Plates is a documentary about three different classes of eating out. The makers try to tell the public that every kind of food has its own fans if properly shown on the location. One doesn’t expect to eat cryogenic avocado mousse in an Arizona taco shack, or tortillas with Mexican chorizo filling in a Colorado steak house.
Grant Achatz in one cooking movie
One of the main characters is Grant Achatz, a molecular gastronomy pioneer. A CIA alumnus (like Anthony Bourdain), he managed to achieve the position of sous chef at Thomas Keller’s “The French Laundry”, in California before launching his own three Michelin stars “Alinea” in Chicago.
The second restaurant is an American symbol, the historical “Breitbach’s” from Balltown, Iowa. A lot of cholesterol increase in your body after a visit there. No nonsense food, to assure that you are satiated up to your every corner.
The third is a shack named “La Cocina de Gabby”, serving Mexican food. I have a feeling that they needed the advertising. Unfortunately, not many people watched this rather superficial foodie movie.
12. Tortilla Soup 2001
Tortilla Soup is the American version of Eat Drink Man Woman, with Hector Elizondo in the role of the experienced chef and daughters’ father, maybe one of his bests. Ang Lee was offered the credits for the screenplay. I have enormously enjoyed the original, and this adaptation is just more in the Latino-American style, but no less entertaining. It’s closer to a comedy than to a drama. I don’t remember what tortilla soup is, but what I know is that you’ll see a lot of spicy Mexican stuff in this movie here. Raquel Welch also makes a colorful appearance.
TORTILLA SOUP, Jacqueline Obradors, Tamara Mello, Elisabeth Pena, 2001
Before ending this list I have to mention that it was much longer, but I have chosen my most representative favorites of the gastronomic genre. I have also watched a few documentaries, and these two were the closest to my heart, especially Jiro’s. I hope you’ll enjoy the list, but mostly I hope you already enjoyed the movies, and if there are still a few you haven’t watched yet, it will be your great pleasure to do that at your convenience.
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