PrintIf 'Ratatouille' Had Been 'Mulligatawny'
Before we begin the feature presentation here, we'd like to introduce the author of this post. Deb Perelman, whose work you may already know from Smitten Kitchen, will be joining us weekly to write about current trends in the food world. Say hi in the comments. And now, on with the show. —The Serious Eats Team
Ratatouille, Babette's Feast, Chocolat and now No Reservations. Sense a theme? French cooking, French feasts, French chocolate, French restaurants—if an alien landed in the Twin Cinemas in your town, it would think we ate nothing but crepes, bonbons, and rustic Provençal fare.
A raging Francophile myself, I'd be the last to complain, and yet in my own kitchen pot-au-feus and consommés are constantly pushed aside in favor of Indian dals, Vietnamese pork and noodle salads, Russian dumplings, and Moroccan couscous.
And it's got me wondering: Why don't the most romantic gastroflicks have chopstick-crossed lovers or eyes meeting across overstuffed banh mi thit?
This is not to underestimate the widespread culinary impact of French cooking. The influence of French cuisine and its classic technique spread far beyond its borders and countrymen; it's tangled in the way we chop our vegetables and the way we deglaze our pans. By most accounts, the French invented our modern dining out experience.
But it is not to overestimate it, either, and few have been more adept at pointing out American cultural biases against non-French food than Ruth Reichl. During her six-year tenure as New York Times restaurant critic, Reichl infuriated hoards of people, in- and outside of the Gray Lady, as she bestowed multiple stars and high praise once reserved for Le Cirque and Lutèce to sushi bars and visually nondescript outer-borough Asian joints.
"The city was filled with people who did not think that Shanghai dumpling parlors, Korean barbecue places, and sushi bars merited serious consideration," she wrote of culinary biases in her book Garlic and Sapphires
Ten years later, the highest grossing food-focused films are still, in heart and gullet, French. And my question is, does a culinary bias evidence itself in a preference for films which focus in on French cuisine? Would people have fallen as hard for Remy if his signature dish had been mulligatawny?
Top-Grossing Food Films
- Ratatouille: $179.9M and counting
- No Reservations: If an $11.7 million opening weekend is any indicator, it should be edging into second place before its run is through
- Chocolat: $71.3 million
- Like Water for Chocolate: $21.7 million
- Big Night: $11.9 million
- Eat Drink Man Woman: $7.2 million
Source: IMDB.com
About the author: Deb Perelman writes about and photographs food incessantly in her tiny Smitten Kitchen, on the slightly less-tiny island of Manhattan.
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8 Comments:
That's funny, I just made plans to see No Reservations tonight (If that'd any indicator of continued gross movie income!) I definitely noticed a French cuisine theme in the movies lately - is it a conspiracy?! :)
Hillary
Chew on That
Chew on That at 3:25PM on 08/07/07
Don't forget that No Reservations is a re-make of the German film, Bella Martha (American title: Mostly Martha) and that the sous-chef in that one seduces her through Italian food. If we look beyond just the French food as high culture paradigm and place it in the context of European and then global cuisine, the question of hierarchy becomes more interesting. The French themselves were able to impose the idea of their language, their culture (art, literature, fashion, film, etc.), and their food as superior to others and most of the rest of us were convinced! Ironically, it's their own philosophical innovations of post-modernism (and within that deconstruction) that give us the tools to bring them down. Why should we place one cuisine on a higher rung of the ladder than another? Finally though, the questions of quality, public health, sustainability and local economy are at the forefront, but once again, the French and Italians are way ahead of us on that one.
ceres at 3:45PM on 08/07/07
I follow your blog daily & appreciate your writing, photos, humor and sound advice! Welcome to the SE team!
JEP at 4:59PM on 08/07/07
Hi Deb -- I love your blog and it's nice to see you writing for Serious Eats.
Lydia at 6:13PM on 08/07/07
Welcome, Deb. We are thrilled to have you contributing to Serious Eats. I noticed you didn't pass judgement on No Reservations as a movie. I saw it ten days ago and thought it was pretty awful. I didn't believe Catherine Zeta Jones as a serious chef for a second. I was bitterly disappointed because I loved Mostly Martha. I'm going to have to order the Mostly Martha DVD to get the bad taste of No Reservations out of my mouth.
Ed Levine at 7:25PM on 08/07/07
Ah! But you cannot forget Tampopo if you want to talk about great food films! *glee*
Xtreambar at 11:31PM on 08/07/07
Ya. Love Tampopo! I had a Chinese friend in college who had a Tampopo and noodle soup party - we watched the movie and then ate Ramen. It was such a great idea because the movie makes you starved for a good bowl of noodles.
Mischiefdish at 12:27PM on 08/08/07
...has no one seen Udon? It's got this whole goonies feel to it, but it's kind of like the nerds from train man branched off and went on a bender.
Overworked Barista at 11:50PM on 08/09/07