From the inception of the motion picture, movie writers and directors have realized that people are fascinated with food. Early on they discovered that food in the title or food as subplot sold tickets.
Don’t believe us? The following are all Academy Award winners:
Breakfast at Tiffany’s, My Dinner with Andre, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Like Water for Chocolate, The Scent of Green Papaya, Dinner at Antoine’s, Fried Green Tomatoes and The Wedding Banquet. The list goes on and on.
Sometimes the food theme is not obvious from the title. Big Night, a very popular film released in 1997, traces the foibles, fancies and fantasies of two brothers who attempt to run an Italian restaurant in a New Jersey beach town in the 1950’s. Minnie Driver is a supporting actress and there’s lots of good jazz, but the real star of the film is the food. The brothers attempt to educate their customers about the intricacies of Italian cuisine and the director takes the audience into the kitchen and onto the loading docks to complete our education. The high point of the film is a multi-course feast, culminating in a timpani, a pasta creation which takes many hours and much expertise to produce. The director shot the timpani preparation in great detail, with every ingredient easily identified. After the film was released, many restaurants were holding Big Night theme dinners, recreating the feast and the ambiance. America had a renewed love for Italian cuisine. Some director realized that the Mediterranean Food Guide Pyramid pays off!
Some movie stars appear to be attracted to the food theme. You can almost trace their career via the cuisine with which they are featured. In one of her first movies, Mermaids (1995), Winona Ryder is a tormented teen, whose main tormentor is her mother, played by Cher. Among her idiosyncrasies, Cher serves all meals as if they are 1950’s style appetizers. Every meal, including breakfast, is a whirlwind of franks in a blankets, spinach dip and tuna roll ups. No wonder Winona was tormented. Her nutritional balance was probably way off!
Ms. Ryder went on to appear in a period piece, The Age of Innocence (1998). The movie was an adaptation of Edith Wharton’s famous novel about late nineteenth century New York aristocracy. This might not sound too interesting, but there’s a lot of social and political intrigue. For a foodie, though, the meals were the high point of the picture. Food historians were hired to ensure total accuracy for all the banquet scenes. There was quite a stir in the food world. How exciting to see Escoffier (known as the “king of all cuisine”) meals presented as they were over 100 years ago. Every detail was researched, down to the proper material for napkins and the appropriate fresh herbs and flowers for the centerpieces. Oh, and there were those other actors in the film, Daniel Day-Lewis and Michelle Pfeiffer.
One of Ms. Ryder’s recent films had her starring as Richard Gere’s fiancee. April in New York (1999) might have been a great love story, but the foodies went and saw it four or five times for the scenes shot in the kitchens and dining rooms of some of New York’s most popular restaurants. How cuisine! How thrilling!
Julia Roberts is another actress who realizes that shooting close to the food brings fame. One of her first movies, Mystic Pizza (1985), has her cooking and waitressing in a New England pizza parlor. In My Best Friend’s Wedding (1999), Ms. Roberts is a restaurant critic. The opening scene of this movie was shot at Charlie Trotter’s Chicago restaurant. Charlie Trotter is an award-winning chef who has received international fame for his restaurant and his food writing. Guaranteed that foodies rented the video and replayed the opening scene, of a $200 dinner being prepared, twenty or thirty times. And who can forget Julia in Pretty Woman? Champagne cocktails with strawberries with Richard Gere, eating snails in Beverly Hills — who could ask for anything more!
There’s intrigue and cuisine in, Who’s Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (1971) with Farrah Fawcett and Dom Deluise or more recently The Butcher’s Wife (1994) with Demi Moore as a mystic. Food has always prompted mystery. And assertiveness. In last years’ Woman on Top, Spanish star Penelope Cruz is a female chef with guy problems.
Young audiences have not been left out when it comes to food and the movies. The Three Stooges trained millions of small fry in the use of food and seltzer bottles as performance art. Shirley Temple tapped and sang her way to stardom with Animal Crackers in my Soup. O’ Curly Locks tapped and pouted her way to stardom while extolling the benefits of a hot meal. A proponent of balanced menus, Shirley sang about spinach (“You Gotta Eat Your Spinach, Baby”), seafood (“The Codfish Ball”) and occasional snacks (“On the Good Ship Lollipop”). And who can forget that poignant moment in the Lady and the Tramp when our two canine stars shared one strand of spaghetti?
Moviemakers understand that food is good for what ails you. In the original version of Sabrina (1952), Audrey Hepburn is sent to a culinary school in Paris to get over her infatuation with Humphrey Bogart. Watch the film and learn how to crack an egg, prepare a soufflé and carve a roast. Lost love and food service training in one film! In Soul Food (1997) an extended family comes together to prepare a Sunday meal and to talk over the family’s problems.
In Eat, Drink, Man, Woman (1994), a Taiwanese chef communicates with his daughters the only way he knows how, with food. The food scenes in this film are amazing; you’ll forget it’s subtitled.
Babette’s Feast (1987), is a Scandinavian movie, set on a bleak northern seacoast. The only color and light is in the last half-hour of the movie. Babette, formerly a famous chef, is shown procuring the ingredients for and preparing a great sea fest. Dim Sum (1990) is both the title of a movie and the name given to bite-size sweet and savory treats, serve as a sort of extended brunch. The movie follows the members of a transplanted Chinese family as they adapt to their new surroundings.
Laura Esquivel wrote Like Water for Chocolate, which became the 1990 best seller of the year in Mexico. A young woman is forbidden to marry the man she loves. She diverts her passion to the kitchen. Both the book and the movie are an ode to love and great cuisine. Watch out, this is definitely an “R” rated theme.
A bit tamer, but still spicy, is Chocolat (2000) a French—American film. Johnny Depp, Judi Dench and Juliette Binoche (who, by the way was “Sabrina” in a recent remake of the Audrey Hepburn film) use chocolate as a metaphor for defying authority. In the Japanese language film Tampopo (1987), the hero, named Goro is a master noodle maker. He takes on an assistant, Tampopo, and the two have lots of culinary and other types of adventures attempting to open the perfect noodle shop. Bring a handkerchief, this movie has a lot of slurping.
Want to get closer to the stars? You might want to check out their cookbooks. Paul Newman wrote “Newman’s own Cookbook” (1998 Simon and Schuster), donating all proceeds from the book to charity. Pearl Bailey wrote a cookbook in the 1950’s (“Cooking With Pearl”) as did Debbie Reynolds and Danny Thomas. There have been lots of cookbooks featuring a compilation of stars’ recipes over the years.
Food is great to think about, to experience, and to watch on the screen. You might think about taking a cookbook or nutrition text with you the next time you go to the movies or rent a video. And have a theme dinner at your property, featuring music, menu and costumes from a movie, or just show the movie while you serve dinner! Give everyone an opportunity to be a star!