Serious Eats
Ratatouille Makes It to the Op-Ed Page
How big is Ratatouille? So big that in the New York Times, Frank Bruni weighs in on the front page of the Week in Review on how Ratatouille signals the arrival of culinary discernment as a positive attribute and legitimate cultural aspiration. According to Bruni, "It establishes the toque as the new tiara and affirms the triumph of food snobs and fetishists, its special effects (the colorful fireworks that go off when a character bites into something wonderful) validating the idea of eating as enlightenment, of vegetable stew as revelation."
I don't think Bruni has it quite right. Food snobs and fetishists are not lionized in Ratatouille, inclusive and passionate discernment is, which is what I hope we practice at Serious Eats.