Food movies are a genre that inspires nostalgia, desire, and hunger (both metaphorically and literally). There is an unspoken sensuality in many of the films we are talking about today, as they are deeply sensual and emphasize the concept of cooking as “language. “of love. ” But it’s not just about sophisticated eroticism, there’s also a deep human connection that’s in evidence: parents and children reconnecting, sibling rivalries, friendship dynamics put to the test, and an enduring friendship.
Another of those joys is the realism of life in the service industry, which some films highlight. This is a facet that adds a layer of authenticity to the discussions.
Today, we’re rating our 20 favorite food videos. For this effort, we hired food and film critic extraordinaire Vince Mancini to upload his well-seasoned two hundred. By discussing a lot about the text, we’ve put together a wonderful list of food-centric videos that you want to see 100%. FYI, we have not included any documentaries. These videos seem to deserve their own list.
Let’s have a cinematic feast!
EDITOR’S NOTE: Since those guys have absolutely excluded Spanglish, I’ll leave here the standout sandwich that was the centerpiece of Sandler’s first major dramatic role:
The cast of Broken Lizard is the epitome of mid-August comedy, and this film is arguably its highlight (after Super Troopers, of course). The concept is simple: a team of evildoers, losers, and other savage people in the service industry. (front and back of the house) they gather for an evening shift at a seafood restaurant owned by a self-absorbed former boxing champion. That alone is enough to generate comedy. Add to that the vibe between the Broken Lizard crew (they’re firing on all cylinders here) and a row of killer supporting actors (Cobie Smulders kills it here) and you’ve got an amazing picture!
At the end of the day, it’s simply a fun adventure in a place to eat with ridiculous jokes that far outweigh any truth about running in a place to eat. But there’s this foundation of authenticity that’s helping the film get a little closer to the essence throughout. . Plus, it’s fun. Not every single food movie has to be a life-or-death tome about lost love.
Ratatouille is an apparent selection, but an apparent selection is an apparent selection because it is good. Of course, there’s the pivotal scene in which Rémy prepares the pretentious critic Anton Ego a life-changing ratatouille (think they chose a vegetarian dish because the protagonist is a furry little animal?), which is a brilliant representation of how food is consumed. sending cans through sensory reminiscence (a veritable Proust madeleine in the age of the internet) and a perfect piece of gastronomic.
That grand climax aside, the entire film is a fair and strangely nuanced portrait of the restaurant industry. He manages to understand why the protagonist chooses food as his raison d’être, a satire of white-tablecloth restaurants and celebrity chef culture. and a depiction of the cooking boys’ club culture in the same film, which also appeals to young people (I have a two-year-old, I can say that definitively now). It’s kind of like Kitchen Confidential for five-year-olds. . They’ve made it so simple that, on the contrary, you don’t get enough credit for what you’ve gotten.
(And yes, Anton Ego would have arguably turned back in time the public’s trust in critics, but the component that he’s simply a frustrated romantic at the center is entirely true. )
You could also call it “America, the Movie. “A valid white man, Ray Kroc, takes other people’s hard paints and claims them for himself, and then (literally) takes the land they are on, as well as the land that each of his restaurants will one day be on, and claims that for himself as well. All of this, of course, brings wonderful benefits to Kroc.
Who knew that a movie about the guy who stripped the McDonald brothers of their ideas, innovations, and fast food could simply be a parable about Manifest Destiny at its core?Yet, here we are. And that’s what makes it such a smart watch. Even in the food business, Americans’ preference for “greatness” will trample on dreamers and innovators. What a disappointment!
This will make your next Sausage McMuffin a little bittersweet when you think about all that the McDonald brothers have lost. But still. . . a very good watch. -ZJ
Pig is a straightforward selection because it’s a very clever (or at least weird and winning) movie and a movie that’s as directly about food as any other movie out there. Nicolas Cage plays a mushroom picker living in a forest in the Pacific Northwest, searching for the most valuable mushrooms with his puppy. As it turns out, he’s a once-acclaimed chef who left the company when he learned that the arrogant restaurant industry was focusing on all the wrong things. In a crucial scene, he makes another chef understand that his whole life has been a lie by cooking him a pigeon in butter.
When it comes to pornography, this moment is the pinnacle. —MV
This movie is a hidden gem. It’s also a wonderful airplane watch for a long flight; It’s not a waste in terms of quality. The film’s premise centers on a sweltering classic French restaurateur, played lovingly by Helen Mirren, who opens up to new flavors and dining strategies when a Southern Asian family opens a restaurant across the street. The key is that the son of the restaurant’s new owner is a chef prodigy (Manish Dayal) armed with a caring demeanor and a box full of amazing spices that he knows how to use.
The component is that the movie has one of the tortilla-making scenes of any movie (it’s much larger than last year’s The Bear scene). The good looks of creating a popular dish and at the same time taking it to a new level is magnificently summed up through Mirren. and the mutual respect of Dayal and the food they create aspect after aspect in the kitchen. -ZJ
Chef is a film that Jon Favreau wrote, directed, and stars in. It tells the story of a bored chef who discovers his rhythm by launching a food truck that prepares Cuban sandwiches. It’s gentle and airy with a wonderful cast (Scarlett Johansson, Dustin Hoffman, John Leguizamo, Bobthrough Cannavale), albeit a bit broad and painted with numbers, with the plot of 20 teenagers deemed necessary for those who “go viral. “(“Oh my God, I’ve gone viral!”)
But there’s one scene at the beginning of the film that’s natural food porn: Favreau’s character comes home from a late-night restaurant and prepares a batch of pasta aglio e olio. Favreau makes it impressive (thanks to his culinary mentor, Roy Choi), and it’s such an undeniable dish, which everyone deserves to know, that it makes you want to watch the movie without being drawn to the dish.
If you don’t forget anything else from the movie, don’t forget this scene. And that’s what food is meant to do, right?— MV
Yes, I choose a mid-month service industry movie. This time we have Ryan Reynolds in Van Wilder mode as the loser with a cast of mid-August stars who had yet to triumph (Anna Faris, Luis Guzman, Justin Long, Rob Benedict and Dane Cook in his best role to date). The history is also undeniable here. A rookie gets an assignment in Shenanagins (thanks to the Super Troopers!) and has the craziest first day of his new military career. The film is much darker than The Slammin’ Salmon as it adopts a dead man. final tone that tormented so many Americans in their early twenties just after 9/11.
In hindsight, it was hard to grasp the meaning of anything in those years, and this film captures that vibe perfectly.
It may not be strictly a “food movie,” but it’s one of the most productive videos of all time and the food scenes are some of the most memorable. Who among us hasn’t tried to cut garlic so thin that it “liquefies” in a little olive oil?It’s a waste of time if you’re not in jail, but it’s still a fun little experiment. Don’t waste too much time stirring the sauce or threaten to be arrested by the federal government.
This German-Italian film is a classic. The plot is simple. A Michelin-starred chef (Martina Gedeck) working in Hamburg inherits her sister’s son after a fatal car accident, and Chef Martha will have to change her perfectionist behavior at the end of the film. Martha’s loving, glowing descriptions of food to her therapist as she seeks to adjust to a niece who refuses to eat, an affront to someone who loves food so much.
Enter Mario (Sergio Castellitto), who arrives in Hamburg as Martha’s new sous-chef. Mario is the dream magical chef of German cinema, who makes an undeniable but amazing pasta, so clever that it even makes Martha’s food-hating niece fall in love with it effortlessly. , life-changing words of wisdom. If all this sounds familiar, the movie remade in the United States with Catherine Zeta-Jones as Sin Reservas, and some other remake made in Spain under the name Chef’s Special.
You know the story is when remakes abound. -ZJ
Big Night is a pretty smart movie and definitely about food. It stars Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub as two Italian brothers from New Jersey who fall out with a rival Italian restaurant. Like a culinary edition of a sibling comedy that boils. In a race to throw the most productive party the campus has ever seen, Primo and Secondo (named after the classes!) will have to plan an epic dinner to introduce the city to authentic Italian food.
The centerpiece of the dinner is, as anyone who has noticed it remembers, “the tympanum,” a giant cornucopia of pasta cooked in a giant drum made of dough. While other videos on this list include dishes that everyone tries because they look delicious and simple, Big Night’s timbale is one that no one tries because it seems so difficult. But each and every cook in the house thinks “. . . someday. ” — MV
No list would be complete without Tampopo. This is a movie for foodies. There’s a long scene where it’s just a matter of looking and stroking ramen before eating, for God’s sake. As pretentious as it sounds, Juzo Itami (the film’s director and director) has a clever sense of setting each and every moment of deep introspection with comical real-world reactions to how we prepare ridiculous and ritualized food.
In short, this movie is about how to make the best bowl of ramen. There are few greater efforts than this. -ZJ
Phantom Thread is a film about a wayward fashion designer named Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis), who appears in the film turning his nose in front of a basket of delicious cakes while extravagantly declaring, “I told you so, no more. “cool things for breakfast!”
Online scripts will tell you it says “heavy,” but they’re misleading. Look at the movie, it definitely says “snodgy. “
Regardless, the flagship series comes to Alma, played by Vicky Krieps, who lovingly prepares Reynolds an incredibly sexy wild mushroom omelette, which she uses to poison him. Not many managers can simply carry out an act of poisoning a spouse who feels affectionate and hungry, yet that’s the magic of Paul Thomas Anderson.
It’s a harvest for a reason. The songs, “Pure Imagination” and “Candy Man,” have American standards. Gene Wilder’s portrayal is unique as a slightly psychotic (slave owner?) type of chocolate. History is so ingrained in our cultural consciousness that we keep remaking. this novel by Roald Dahl, although we achieved perfection with this one in the 1970s.
This is absurd, it takes time to get to the factory and revels in the torture and death of children. All of this makes it one of the best art paintings. -ZJ
The videos for “The Trip” are television shows in the United Kingdom that are edited into feature films for the U. S. market. I’d never noticed the entire series in English, but all of the videos for “The Trip” feature Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan traveling through sunny vacation spots in Europe for five-star food for dinner while making impressions. The videos are made up of about 60% comedy and 40% food, in a way that almost looks like dinner on a food video list.
But if they themselves can write a movie that allows them to have a wonderful vacation dining on delicious food, I can definitely use that to fill my list. I’m almost as hungry for food as I’m jealous of Coogan/Brydon for making them. —MV
This movie has the most productive balance between comedy, foodie porn, and FOMO in. . . My wife (shut up, Vince) is from the north of England and I’ve spent much of my life there. And look, there are glorious places and corners hidden in a very rural and post-industrial component of the country. So, this movie (a TV series in the UK) pulls off the most productive magic trick in the series. – makes a very rural and depressed part of the UK sparkle with wonderful food and amazing (albeit foggy) views.
Anyone can make Italy, Spain, and Greece look smart with prospects and food (as the next installments in “The Trip” franchise turn out to be, the Trip-iverse, if you will). But giving the north of England that an apparition is a real feast for the senses and, in fact, impressive. Also, “Ma-cocaine”!-ZJ
Do you remember the one in Italy? The one from Spain is like that, but with less pasta and more ham. About the same number of impressions. There’s also Journey to Greece, which is also a wonderful food movie, but I don’t just put it here as an example. editorial moderation. — MV
We had to see this front coming. The menu captured the spirit of the national era between 2022 and 2023 in a way that videos rarely do. Plus (spoiler alert), this cheeseburger is legit. Other than that, it’s a film that balances influencer culture, fine dining, wealth, and service/sex painting in a deeply resonant way. Ralph Fiennes, Nicholas Hoult and Anya-Taylor Joy give the best performances as the chef, his partner and the no-nonsense sex painter they gravitate to in a secluded eatery restaurant from a five-star chef with a veritable cult following.
Tension!The food!Tyler’s!It’s entertaining and one of the wonderful food videos of the 21st century.
Sitting awkwardly next to Thank You for Smoking, Juno, Young Adult, and Up In the Air in Jason Reitman’s first filmography, Labor Day is a gripping romance about an escaped convict and a lonely single mother, starring Josh Brolin and Kate Winslet. As I wrote in my original review, it looks like Reitman tried to draw inspiration from the formula of Nicolas Sparks’ film and does a pretty clever job.
Ah, but why is it a food movie?Well, aside from Brolin’s character being shown to Winslet with a delicious batch of cookies she learned in prison, there’s the ending, which I described as follows:
“The sexual tension reaches a sticky crescendo when Prison Brolin Biscuits teaches Lady Nightgown how to make peach pie in the most sensual way possible. “
Yes, essentially I think the Ghost ceramic scene was implemented in every cake. I tried this whole list of not overusing the word “sexy,” but Labor Day finally forced me. I don’t know if I sought them out to fuck each other or cake. — MV
I’m going to place Babette’s Banquet in this place. Then I saw The Taste of Things and had to remove that crop from the list. The taste of things is very French but has that quiet sumptuousness that is. . . well, transcendent. The food scenes are perhaps the most productive I’ve ever seen. You can feel it on screen (Trần Anh Hùng’s mise-en-scène is a natural visual splendour with soft tones). I swear I can almost smell the food Juliette Binochet prepares. It’s so immersive and inviting from the most sensitive to the bottom.
The film revolves around the cook Eugénie (Binochet) and her husband and employer Dodin (Benoît Magimel). Their love language is food as they prepare menus and cook together in the kitchen of Dodin’s estate. It’s magical. Then the tragedy takes the film to a point that I can’t spoil here, but that gives much more intensity to the story and reasons to enjoy the food of the film. . . you just have to locate it and take a look at it. –ZJ
Wine as food? What the inclusion of this film in this list presupposes is that yes, it is.
On the other hand, Alexander Payne’s vintage about a suffering San Diego traveling to Santa Barbara County for a wine-loving bachelor party stands out as one of the most productive wine videos ever made (with the added bonus that it’s not Napa!It’s true, they make wine in other places too!), and also for helping to turn Paul Giamatti into a protagonist.
True, they don’t show a lot of food for a movie set, at most, in restaurants and meals (they didn’t drink wine alone regularly), but it’s the central scene that’s most applicable to foodies. Miles learns that his ex- His wife is having a child with another man and takes his valuable bottle of 61 Cheval Blanc to a burger joint to drink from a Styrofoam cup. Of course, it’s a scene meant to make Miles’ emotional state explicit, but I think it shows that as well. The most arrogant foodies are usually the biggest pigs.
Yes, I love half-shell oysters straight out of the ocean, but you know I’ll also eat gas station nachos under the right circumstances. —MV