There is nothing more universally loved than a good meal. Food is almost an obsession, and for good reason. Cuisine, and its infinite variety, is so powerful that it unites people, divides them, provokes passionate debates, and incites lifelong arguments about what is good or bad in a particular dish. So integral is food to culture that some dishes can be essential to regional or continental identity. Because food is so culturally inextricably linked, to movies like Ratatouille.
From the culturally indestructible spaghetti kiss scene of Lady in the Tramp to the culturally indeterminate grab the cannoli scene of The Godfather or almost any episode of “The Sopranos” where you’re more likely to find James Gandolfini eating Italian than you are a mob hit. The French Dispatch even has a fun vignette about the personal chef of a police force.
Babette’s Feast
 | Babette’s Feast | |
| Genre Drama | Runtime 1 Hour 43 Minutes | |
| Director Gabriel Axel | 7.8/10 | |
| Cast Stéphane Audran, Bodil Kjer, Birgitte Federspiel | ||
There is nothing more universally loved than a good meal. Food is almost an obsession, and for good reason. Cuisine, and its infinite variety, is so powerful that it unites people, divides them, provokes passionate debates, and incites lifelong arguments about what is good or bad in a particular dish. So integral is food to culture that some dishes can be essential to regional or continental identity.
Because food is so culturally inextricably linked, it’s no wonder that food is so ubiquitous in so many movies. From the culturally indestructible spaghetti kiss scene of Lady in the Tramp to the culturally indeterminate grab the cannoli scene of The Godfather or almost any episode of “The Sopranos” where you’re more likely to find James Gandolfini eating Italian than you are a mob hit.
A Bug’s Life
 | Big Night | |
| Genre Drama, Comedy | Runtime 161 minutes | |
| Rated R / 18+ | 8.4/10 | |
| Cast Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Al Pacino, Kurt Russell | ||
Juzo Itami’s “Tampopo”, which is often referred to as a “ramen western”, is a unique and often humorous film about a widow noodle shop proprietor who seeks to revitalize her restaurant after encountering a male truck driver who is not impressed with her cuisine.
The film is a wild ride, with allegorical and sometimes interrelated vignettes on food and the world around it. It is an unparalleled experience due to Itami’s commitment to his vision, as it is often bizarre, heartwarming, tragic, and comedic. If the intention is to surprise, or even shock, it is met with great success, particularly at first viewing.
Big Night
 | Big Night | |
| Genre Drama, Comedy | Runtime 161 minutes | |
| Rated R / 18+ | 8.4/10 | |
| Cast Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Al Pacino, Kurt Russell | ||
In many films, Italian restaurants play an important part, but Big Night is one of the rare comedies that takes place almost exclusively in one. It stars Stanley Tucci as entrepreneur Secondo and Tony Shalhoub as his chef brother, Primo, as they plan a lavish dinner for jazz singer, Louis Prima (who is invited to dine with them as a special guest).
Secondo is a pragmatist, knowing that a restaurant is only profitable if no one is eating at it. Primo, on the other hand, is a traditionalist who despises any American diner who complains about the nonconformity of his risotto. At the end of the evening, Primo serves his magnum opus, timbale, which is a multi-layered baked pasta dish that looks a lot like a giant cake of noodles and meat and eggs
Chef
 | Chef | |
| Genre Drama, Comedy | Runtime 161 minutes | |
| Rated R / 18+ | 8.4/10 | |
| Cast Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Al Pacino, Kurt Russell | ||
At the beginning of Chef, a 2014 dramatic comedy directed by Jon Favreau about a chef trying to find a way to creatively express himself after leaving the stifling world of the commercial restaurant industry, Carl (played by Favreau) goes on a long-winded diatribe about the countless hours of work that goes into his creativity and the unfairness of a critical review (directed by Oliver Pratt).
It is a scene played for comedic effect, as Casper, in his enthusiasm, is unaware of the consequences of his unedited ramblings, but it is also a moment of tender sensitivity that applies to chefs and creators of all kinds. Casper is simply too invested in his craft to allow someone’s published criticism to be dismissed as irrelevant.
Eat, Drink, Man, Woman
 | Eat, Drink, Man, Woman | |
| Genre Drama, Comedy | Runtime 161 minutes | |
| Rated R / 18+ | 8.4/10 | |
| Cast Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Al Pacino, Kurt Russell | ||
Few films can rival Ang Lee’s 1994 comedy-drama “Eat, Drink and Man, Woman” when it comes to its scenes of cooking. This is the concluding film in Lee’s trilogy of thematically linked films and follows the story of the Zhu family (of which Sihung Lung is one of the most renowned chefs in Taipei) as they struggle to adapt to the rapidly changing modernizing culture of Taiwan.
As the three daughters of Zhiqiu (Zhu) attempt to comprehend their lives in terms of love, job, tradition and family, Zhiqiu’s intricate meals remain a constant presence in the film, providing the family with intimate moments of familial conversation essential to the characters’ comprehension of themselves and each other.
Jiro Dreams of Sushi
 | Jiro Dreams of Sushi | |
| Genre Drama, Comedy | Runtime 161 minutes | |
| Rated R / 18+ | 8.4/10 | |
| Cast Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Al Pacino, Kurt Russell | ||
The Japanese sushi chef, Jiro Ono (played by Yayoi Fukumoto), is one of the most famous chefs in the world, and the film follows him as he continues to do what made him famous in the first place: making sushi.
For Jiro, there’s nothing else in the world except his sushi, and he exists solely to make it, and nothing else but perfect, and that’s what he does every day at his three-million-dollar, ten-seat, Tokyo subway station. The film tells us that that’s the kind of sushi worth traveling for, the kind of sushi that, presented to you in stark, minimalist, Philip Glass-sculptured images as beautiful as the sushi, you can’t but wonder what it would taste like.
Tampopo
 | Tampopo | |
| Genre Drama, Comedy | Runtime 161 minutes | |
| Rated R / 18+ | 8.4/10 | |
| Cast Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Al Pacino, Kurt Russell | ||
Juzo Itami’s “Tampopo” is an original, often funny movie about a widow noodle shop owner trying to get her restaurant back up and running after she meets a handsome truck driver who isn’t impressed with her food.
It’s a wild ride, with lots of allegorical and sometimes connected vignettes about food and the world around us. It’s a movie that’s as weird as it is sweet, as tragic as it is funny, and if it’s meant to surprise, it does. It’s hard to tell what it is, especially when you first see it.
Wrapping it up!
Nothing says “I love you” like a delicious meal. It’s almost like eating is an obsession – and it’s not hard to see why. The cuisine is so big and varied that it can bring people together, divide them, cause heated arguments, and make you question what’s good or bad about a dish. So much so that some dishes are so important to the culture that they can be a part of a region or country. That’s why food is so integral to culture – it’s no surprise that it’s all over the movies.
