Bon Appétit!

There is a delicious movie out there called Chef by the ever more vital director Jon Favreau. The movie is much more than just another comedy. It’s one of those increasingly rare movies that really has a heart to it. The plot is simple enough, a chef in search of his creative independence who, in the process of finding it, also discovers the significance of his relationships. But it is told with gusto and vitality.

Favreau is showing that he is a multi-faceted director with quite an interesting voice all his own. He is the director behind two of the Iron Man movies (in which he also plays the part of Happy Hogan), as well as the director of two younger children’s films that have quite a following: Zathura: A Space Adventure, and the delightful comedy on its way to becoming a Christmas classic Elf. His is an enticing voice, always youthful and humorous, but, as he shows in this movie more than in the previous ones he’s directed, a voice that connects with the everyday person and is capable of communicating depth of feeling very well.

Jon Favreau and Emjay Anthony in Chef

The movie, though, will probably also remain in your mind for the amazing and scrumptiously well photographed food it presents. During the movie one only wishes that instead of popcorn and a diet soda, we held a Cubano and a cerveza! Thus Chef joins some very fascinating films that make food a central character to the film, a key element of the plot and constitute a friendly reminder that food can and should be a celebration, a part of life and connections; something of an art and also something of a passion.

Two other films come to mind that fold food into the story in this way: Babette’s Feast and Eat, Drink, Man, Woman. There certainly are others, including Julie and Julia, Mostly Martha (remade in the US as No Reservations), Big Night, Chocolat, Ratatouille, Like Water for Chocolate, but none as majestic and well-made as the two I want to write about.

Babette's Feast

Babette’s Feast was made in 1987 by Danish director Gabriel Axel. It is the story of a small and very austere protestant community in Denmark of the 19^th century, where Babette, a Catholic and a foreigner, is taken in as a servant by two sisters that have devoted all their lives to caring for their father. Babette comes upon some good fortune and decides to prepare a dinner for members of the church, who are re-awakened to a world of pleasures, friendship and connections through food.

Eat, Drink, Man, Woman

Yin shi nan nu or Eat, Drink, Man, Woman in English, comes from a vastly different culture and deals with very different time period and subject matter. This film was made in 1994 by the now very famous Taiwanese director Ang Lee, who has gone on to win many awards for his great films, like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain, The Ice Storm, The Life of Pi and others. This one is a little more like Chef in that it deals with a senior chef in a famous Taiwanese restaurant, a widower who lives with his three grown daughters. It is through the elaborate Sunday dinners that he cooks for his girls that he feels he can connect to them and hopes he can hold on to them, only to have to face the changes that come with a new generation and young women at a moment when they are blossoming.

All three films are beautifully shot and the food presented in them is truly mouthwatering.  But what connects the three is that they present unambitious yet complex plots about real and profound relations (none of them romantic, really) in which food takes on the special role that it has in many cultures and families.

It is easy to forget that our relationships, like good food, take time, passion and a loving hand to cultivate, more so in this our fast-food world of social-media-deep acquaintances. Thank heavens for these beautiful, unambitious yet deliciously good films that remind us what life and living is really all about!