Gary Nadeau's short PIzza Verdi (2011) is not exactly a foodie film, but it hinges on a pizza delivery as a way to explore race and stereotypes. It reminded me a lot of the experimental playwright Young Jean Lee's work, particularly The Shipment. Worth watching (Young Jean Lee, too).

Not a foodie film, but a terrific food related scene from one of my all time favorite movies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BThrE07aaSk

Peter Falk, Rest in Peace.

there is a documentary coming to facets multimedia for 2 weeks, about 9 michelin star chefs. see below for information.it starts this friday night. i havent seen it yet. it's called 'THREE STARS' justjoan

http://www.facets.org/pages/cinemathequ ... estars.php

Reading Gabriel Axel, Director of Babette's Feast dies at 95 obit. They referenced films influenced by his movie:

The film’s success coincided with, and helped propel, a broadening popular interest in haute cuisine. In the next decade there would be a proliferation of cookbooks, television shows and movies catering to epicurean tastes — including “Like Water for Chocolate” (1992), “Belle Époque” (1992), “The Wedding Banquet” (1993), “Eat Drink Man Woman” (1994) and “Big Night” (1996).

Of this list, “Belle Époque” (1992) was not recognized nor on the original list of 125 foodie films. There may be some food and banquet scenes worth observing, though this was not obvious in the trailer (no dinner scenes) or segment (Russian spoken over Spanish):





Anyone familiar with this movie? It did receive in 1993 an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Regards,

Netflix has the film Haute Cuisine streaming now and it's a real pleasure. The tale of Danièle Mazet-Delpeuch (in the film given the name Hortense Laborie) who cooked for Francois Mitterand when he was president. Mazet-Delpeuch is still cooking - there's a nice review of a recent meal she did in Australia here with photos of her and the classic meal she served as her first dinner for the president: http://www.notquitenigella.com/2013/03/27/haute-cuisine-daniele-mazet-delpeuch/.

Tralier here: http://www.imdb.com/rg/s/4/title/tt2094 ... 2038146585

Jon Faureau wrote, directed and stars in Chef and he shares the screen with John Leguizamo, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson, Sofia Vergara, young Emjay Anthony and others, but the soundtrack is the star of the show followed closely by the food.

In Chef, frustrated Carl Casper leaves his restaurant job, starts up a food truck and embarks on a cross-country adventure. During his trip, he returns to his true passions of food and family.

Even if you’re munching on popcorn, you’ll be craving a toasted Cuban sandwich or a grilled cheese after this movie.
Stay through the credits to see an interesting scene where Food Truck Chef Roy Choi shares cooking tips with Faureau. I love how he explains in all seriousness that Faureau has to focus on the grilled cheese as if there is nothing else in the world that matters.

This is the first film I’ve seen since Mostly Martha in 2001 that made me want to get the music ASAP. Here are a few of the songs in the film:
I Like It Like That – Pete Rodriguez
Lucky Man – Courtney John
Que Se Sepa – Roberto Roena
Tired of Being Alone –Al Green
Bustin’ Loose – Rebirth Brass Band
Sexual Healing – The Hot 8 Brass Band (fun version, never heard a horn rendition of my favorite song)
When My Train Pulls In (Live in Austin) – Gary Clark Jr. (never heard this one before, but loved the performance)
Oye Como Va (Live at el Jefe) – Perico Hernandez
La Quimbumbia (Live at el Jefe) – Perico Hernandez

If you are into culinary related movies, A Hundred Foot Journey would be a good movie to see.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2980648/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2

I'm eager to see Hundred-Foot Journey.

Here's one I just heard about: a documentary about Cecilia Chang called Soul of a Banquet.

Another movie débuts this week:

The Chef
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2883512/

It actually came out more than a month ago and is still playing in limited release around town. I think there are daily afternoon showings at the Century Theater in Evanston.

It's a pretty good film, although it tends to oversimplify the process of owning, restoring, and operating a high quality food truck. Still, it's a nice story of a father and his young son bonding while on a culinary roadtrip from Florida to LA.

I highly recommend it.

Buddy

Does "Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" count as a "culinary movie"?

Just wondering.

BuddyRoadhouse wrote:It actually came out more than a month ago and is still playing in limited release around town. I think there are daily afternoon showings at the Century Theater in Evanston.

It's a pretty good film, although it tends to oversimplify the process of owning, restoring, and operating a high quality food truck. Still, it's a nice story of a father and his young son bonding while on a culinary roadtrip from Florida to LA.

I highly recommend it.

Buddy

Oversimplify as in finding a broken-down, filthy truck one morning and fully cleaning, installing new equipment, painting AND getting permits (and presumably passing all inspections) to sell food by the next morning?

I think The Trip to Italy qualifies, and it's very funny. (As funny as The Trip? Maybe not, but funny enough to justify itself, certainly.) Still playing at Landmark Century. Saw it with a near-capacity audience (gratifying!) on Labor Day.

spinynorman99 wrote:

BuddyRoadhouse wrote:It actually came out more than a month ago and is still playing in limited release around town. I think there are daily afternoon showings at the Century Theater in Evanston.

It's a pretty good film, although it tends to oversimplify the process of owning, restoring, and operating a high quality food truck. Still, it's a nice story of a father and his young son bonding while on a culinary roadtrip from Florida to LA.

I highly recommend it.

Buddy

Oversimplify as in finding a broken-down, filthy truck one morning and fully cleaning, installing new equipment, painting AND getting permits (and presumably passing all inspections) to sell food by the next morning?

Yup, that's the one. But you know what? It ain't a a documentary, it's a fictional narrative about bonding and connections between a father and son, utilizing his passion for food as a catalyst. With that in mind, I'm prepared to forgive the filmmaker certain inaccuracies.

If we were to condemn every film that succumbs to historical or logical inconsistencies for the sake of story, our "100 Greatest Films" lists would change dramatically. I mean c'mon; who names their sled "Rosebud"? Seriously?

Buddy

BuddyRoadhouse wrote:

spinynorman99 wrote:

BuddyRoadhouse wrote:It actually came out more than a month ago and is still playing in limited release around town. I think there are daily afternoon showings at the Century Theater in Evanston.

It's a pretty good film, although it tends to oversimplify the process of owning, restoring, and operating a high quality food truck. Still, it's a nice story of a father and his young son bonding while on a culinary roadtrip from Florida to LA.

I highly recommend it.

Buddy

Oversimplify as in finding a broken-down, filthy truck one morning and fully cleaning, installing new equipment, painting AND getting permits (and presumably passing all inspections) to sell food by the next morning?

Yup, that's the one. But you know what? It ain't a a documentary, it's a fictional narrative about bonding and connections between a father and son, utilizing his passion for food as a catalyst. With that in mind, I'm prepared to forgive the filmmaker certain inaccuracies.

If we were to condemn every film that succumbs to historical or logical inconsistencies for the sake of story, our "100 Greatest Films" lists would change dramatically. I mean c'mon; who names their sled "Rosebud"? Seriously?

Buddy

I suspended my disbelief through the whole "spiffing up the dilapidated food truck" scene, even to the point where they marinated and roasted the pork and had sandwiches ready for the workers in apparently less time than it takes to cook a Hot Pocket. I even bought the "I know a guy" who can custom paint an entire food truck overnight.

However, when they got going the next morning ready to sell sandwiches, I was thinking "what about the inspections?" "where are there permits?" and "poof" he reaches into the dashboard when the cop confronts him and says "I have the permit right here."

I can accept some filmic compression of time, and that the permits were pulled for Miami... but when he gets to Nawlins, Austin... when did he get those permits?

Loved the film, though.

I am not particularly interested in seeing a movie where we watch a food truck owner stand around waiting for inspectors and going to stand in line at the Department of Health for a permit.

I really liked Chef, despite all pollyanna-ish tone of the movie, just because it was pretty neat to see Jon Favreau show off his semi-decent knife skills that he learned for the movie. He obviously cares about food, and that's what was the best part of the film.

'zackly.

Buddy

It's "Chef"'s own fault that some viewers are paying attention to whether or not the truck has really been rehabbed that quickly and whether the Chef has the right permits. The guy who sells him the truck is his wife's nutty ex-husband. And one of the first things that happens after the truck is set up is that a cop arrives and is going to shut them down, because they don't have the right permit. It's only logical for a viewer to think, "Ah, this is a set-up for something that's going to happen later," and to expect that somewhere on their road trip, this too-good-to-be-true truck offered by the crazy ex will break down, or that the permit problem will re-appear. But no problems ever arise, and everything goes swimmingly. So, don't blame the viewers, blame the screenwriter who should have taken out a few pages.

Other than that, though, I enjoyed seeing all those sandwiches being made. Sorry there wasn't more detail on the New Orleans stop, as there was in Texas.

Man, if you think the food permit stuff in Chef (which I liked) was unrealistic, how about a paunchy high strung chef being married to Sofia Vergara and having Scarlett Johanson as his girlfriend.

Jonah wrote:Man, if you think the food permit stuff in Chef (which I liked) was unrealistic, how about a paunchy high strung chef being married to Sofia Vergara and having Scarlett Johanson as his girlfriend.

Point taken. But I don't think I could sit through a movie with a possibly more realistic Courtney Love in either role.

chitrader wrote:I am not particularly interested in seeing a movie where we watch a food truck owner stand around waiting for inspectors and going to stand in line at the Department of Health for a permit.

I really liked Chef, despite all pollyanna-ish tone of the movie, just because it was pretty neat to see Jon Favreau show off his semi-decent knife skills that he learned for the movie. He obviously cares about food, and that's what was the best part of the film.

I liked the movie a lot.

As for the inconsistencies, he cleaned up the truck and installed the equipment and fed the workers for free in the UNPAINTED truck. Then it cut to the scene where he had the truck painted and permit received. Having past experiences with the city of St. Louis, I would hate to see all the time it would take to get a permit.

If you noticed the outtakes at the end of the movie, you would see Jon Favreau getting instructions from a chef on how to prepare a grilled cheese sandwich.

And it was a thing of beauty.

Buddy

Hi- I just looked it up, and The Chef is only appearing at three theaters in the Chicago area. It is at the one in North Riverside Mall, at the Karaoke theater on Roosevelt, and at the River East theater at Illinois. Apparently it is no longer at the Century in Evanston. If it was I would be tempted to go see it. It is coming out on DVD on 9/30 though. I don't know if it will be available through redbox though. Hope this helps, Nancy

NFriday wrote:the Karaoke theater on Roosevelt,

Oh wow ... can this possibly be what it sounds like? People speak movie dialog while the soundtrack plays behind them?

"Of all the gin joints, in all the towns ..."

Hi- I am sorry I got the name of the theater wrong. It is the Kerasotes theater on Roosevelt, and when I googled The Chef movie, I got a lot more theaters that are showing it including two in Skokie, and so maybe I will get to see it.

Not to be a jerk or nuthin', but it's just called "Chef", not "The Chef". That may have affected your search results.

Also, they've already done Karaoke Theater...ever been to a showing of "Rocky Horror Picture Show"?

Buddy

BuddyRoadhouse wrote:Not to be a jerk or nuthin', but it's just called "Chef", not "The Chef". That may have affected your search results.

Also, they've already done Karaoke Theater...ever been to a showing of "Rocky Horror Picture Show"?

Buddy

Or the sing along Sound of Music?

Just watched "Chef". Made me embarrassed of my LTH handle. Got a yuck out of the corn starch gag, but generally have a short attention span for feel good sentimentality.

And definitely, this:

Jonah wrote:Man, if you think the food permit stuff in Chef (which I liked) was unrealistic, how about a paunchy high strung chef being married to Sofia Vergara and having Scarlett Johanson as his girlfriend.

ALSO, in what world is there a millionaire food critic?

Ha! Good to hear there's another curmudgeon ( )out there. I like the mindless "feel good" flick genre more often than not but Chef just bugged me start to finish. Smug and silly. Not my thing.