The rigor and schedule of professional cooking don’t allow for many movie nights, but that’s not to say chefs don’t find inspiration on the big screen. When we asked a handful of food-world figures about the films that make them want to cook or eat or both, they spoke about narratives that remind them of the joy of a leisurely meal, food’s ability to comfort and what drove them to cook in the first place. Here, 11 chefs discuss the food films, old and new, that still excite them.
Ruth Rogers, 76, chef and owner of the River Café, London: “La Grande Bouffe” (1973)
I saw this film when I was living in Paris, in 1973. We were there because Richard [the architect Richard Rogers, Ruth’s late husband] was building the Pompidou Center. The movie was quite controversial when it came out. It’s about a group of friends who decide they’re going to eat themselves to death. They get together and start to binge. These four men just absolutely love to eat; it’s their great thing in life. My husband and I loved this movie, so we decided to judge people on whether or not the film made them hungry or disgusted. We, of course, were hungry. Years later, I was having lunch with Francis Ford Coppola, and he told me it was his favorite food movie too.
Charlie Mitchell, 32, chef of Saga, New York City: “Good Burger” (1997)
I watched “Good Burger” again this year. I’m from Detroit but I live in New York City, and when I’m homesick I usually get nostalgic for food, music or films. I must’ve been in elementary school the first time I saw it, probably on VHS. I always connected with the character [Ed (played by Kel Mitchell), a cashier at the burger restaurant where the film is set]. He’s in his own world, and he creates this sauce that everyone loves. I felt like I was the only person in my friend group and community who was interested in food at a young age: Everyone was loving Dragon Ball Z and I enjoyed cooking dinner for my mom or cooking with my grandmother on the weekend. So “Good Burger” was about connecting with that character who was in his own world having so much fun cooking.
Silver Iocovozzi, 35, chef and co-owner of Neng Jr.’s, Asheville, N.C.: “Simply Irresistible” (1999)
Sarah Michelle Gellar [plays Amanda Shelton, a young woman who] inherits her mother’s restaurant in New York City but can’t cook. Then she puts on her mother’s earrings, and she suddenly possesses her mother’s abilities. Every dish she makes afterward, whatever feeling she has while cooking, the customer experiences. If she’s having an emotional day, everyone starts to cry. People cry in my restaurant sometimes. There’s so much life in the restaurant from building it to working in it every day. The first year was such hard work, and I lost my dad six months into it. I had to work through that grief. When you open a restaurant, you get possessed by this kind of energy and romance that fuels you. In that first year, I thought about “Simply Irresistible” a lot. It’s really corny, but it’s also cool to see her superpowers come through the food.
Nancy Silverton, 70, chef and co-owner of the Mozza Restaurant Group, various locations: “Midnight Diner” (2009-19)
It’s a series, not a film, that features a tiny restaurant in an alley in Tokyo, where the hours of operation are midnight to seven in the morning. A chef created the restaurant just for people who have nowhere to go during those hours. He makes anything anyone requests as long as he has the ingredients, and he always does. It’s all simple, nostalgic food. One day, either in this life or next, that’s the restaurant I would love to have. He’s able to fulfill anyone’s desire, and their request always come from the reason that they need to be comforted. One request is for octo-weenies, little frankfurters cut up to look like octopuses. It’s all sorts of dishes but they’re clearly the matzo ball soups of Tokyo, or of these people’s upbringings. I just fell in love with it.
Jeremy Fox, 49, chef and co-owner of Rustic Canyon and Birdie G’s, Los Angeles: “Big Night” (1996)
I saw the movie [about two brothers, played by Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub, who own an Italian restaurant on the Jersey Shore] in the theater when it came out in 1996. My dad had already planted the seed for me to think about culinary school, and I was on the fence. After watching the film, I applied to Johnson & Wales [University] within a few days, because I could see how food affected people. They’re laughing, singing, crying — just because of food. I think I’ve tried to emulate the people in the movie throughout my career. And then my most recent restaurant, Birdie G’s, which is big and loud, is kind of like the one down the street in the film that all the people are going to, much to the chagrin of the brothers, who are cooking authentic Italian food.
Daniela Soto-Innes, 34, chef of Rubra, Punta de Mita, Mexico: “The Taste of Things” (2023)
There’s this beauty in the film of making the product shine without doing too much to it that reminds me that what I do is beautiful. My style of cooking has always been less chemical and more raw. We go to the market, we grab a fish and we cook it with minimum intervention. In the film [about the romance between a chef (played by Juliette Binoche) and her employer (Benoît Magimel), who is also an avid cook, on a French countryside estate in 1889] the two leads work beautifully together; there’s more of a familial ambience in the kitchen. It’s about the dance with the ingredients and the patience of the cooks.
Missy Robbins, 54, chef and owner of Lilia and Misi, New York City: “The Taste of Things” (2023)
A sous chef of mine told me to watch this film. I don’t generally like period pieces, but the first twenty minutes contain probably the best cooking scenes I’ve ever seen. The kitchen setup is just gorgeous. The food is styled so beautifully, and the chefs’ cooking is elegant and sensual. The characters are cooking in a home, but with the qualities of a restaurant. The pans they’re using, the ingredients they’re using — it’s really inspiring, so much so that I was ready to rent a house somewhere [in the countryside] and never come home.
Daisy Ryan, 39, chef and co-owner of Bell’s, Los Alamos, Calif.: “The Birdcage” (1996)
The film is about two gay men [played by Robin Williams and Nathan Lane] who live in Miami Beach and whose son [Dan Futterman] is marrying a girl [Calista Flockhart] from a very conservative family. There’s this scene where the son is coming home, and one of the men wants to make dinner for him. It always makes me think of when I was living in New York and I used to visit my mom — that feeling of wanting to create time together. You never even see the man make dinner. He’s in the bakery picking up a cake; he’s planning to make pork chops. It’s more the idea that he’s spending all day preparing this meal. Especially when you cook for a living, cooking isn’t always a relaxed task. When you get to be at home and actually enjoy the process, it’s lovely.
Matthew Kammerer, 36, chef of Harbor House, Elk, Calif.: “Jiro Dreams of Sushi” (2011)
When I started cooking, if I wasn’t working in the kitchen, I was at home reading about food or watching anything I could find. I was totally obsessed. When the documentary came out, I felt a connection to that dedication. This master [Jiro Ono, a Tokyo-based sushi chef who began cooking when he was 9] has dedicated his whole life to something. I think a lot about chef Jiro riding his bike to the market at the crack of dawn. There’s humility in that, but there’s also craftsmanship. Craftsmanship can be the way you hold your knife, or the way you source your products. From my restaurant to the Pacific Ocean, there are 270 odd steps down the cliffs: We’ll get seawater, keep the crab and abalone alive in it and then cook them in it. Five-gallon buckets of water aren’t light, but I think the dedication shows up in the meal.
Pim Techamuanvivit, 53, chef of Nari and Kin Khao, San Francisco, and Nahm, Bangkok, Thailand: “The Lunchbox” (2013)
There’s this scene in the movie [which follows Ila, a housewife in Mumbai, India, who carefully prepares lunches for her emotionally absent husband] between Ila [played by Nimrat Kaur] and her upstairs neighbor, whom she just calls Auntie. They have this shouting relationship, through the window of Ila’s kitchen (we never see Auntie). They talk while Ila cooks, and at one point, Auntie lowers her a little basket of chilies to add in. Ila sniffs for spice, then adds them. It reminds me of this very intuitive cooking that women — Asian women, or any women who cook in the home — learn from their moms and their aunties. It’s so touching. It reminds me of when I started learning how to cook the kind of Thai food I grew up with and I would call home to ask about a dish.
Santiago Lastra, 35, chef and co-owner of Kol and Fonda, London: “Whiplash” (2014)
I really feel connected to “Whiplash.” It’s not about food — it’s a story about a drum player [played by Miles Teller]. And he needs to get better; he’s in school and he needs to practice. As a young chef, I watched the movie all the time for inspiration. When it came out, it was before I worked at Noma Mexico [in 2016-17] and I was traveling the world cooking. I was flying so much I’d sometimes do five different events in five countries in as many days. “Whiplash” was the only movie I had on my computer, and I’d put it on every time I had a long flight. The only food in the movie is pizza, but the musician’s craft is similar to a chef’s craft. Cooking in a restaurant is so stressful that while I love films about food, I couldn’t watch them all the time. I could watch “Whiplash.”
These interviews have been edited and condensed.
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