My original title was: My ‘Top 3 and a Bit’ films for which food forms an integral part of the plot – more accurate, but not so catchy!

I decided to make my first post a list. I intend to make two lists each month of my favourite films on specific themes, in addition to commenting on the new films that I see. And I thought films about food would be a good start – that has to be easy, right?

So here I am a week on, having watched/rewatched a veritable smorgasbord of food-related films, trying to determine what ‘about food’ means. Because virtually none of my chosen films are about food: they are about love and family and loneliness and a host of other things. So my definition is films for which food is an integral part of the film.

Having managed that, now for my Top 7. Why seven? Well, everyone does five, or ten or twenty or fifty… I just wanted to be different. But actually, it was not that easy. First, I watched a lot more than seven really good films, and I found discounting some of them just too difficult to do. Also I wanted to recommend more than seven films because I want you to watch them – they are really, really good!

So, here are my Top 3 films for which food is an integral part of the plot together with a small group of films you really should watch just as soon as you possibly can!

(1)        The Taste of Things (The Pot-au-Feu)

In this 2023 French historical romantic drama, live-in cook Eugénie prepares the meals for gourmand Dodin Bouffant (and his friends) on his country estate in the late nineteenth century. Both middle-aged, they are also in a long-term romantic relationship, but maintain separate bedrooms: he has repeatedly proposed marriage, but she declines, preferring what they have. Then following a health scare, she agrees to marry him in what he refers to as ‘the autumn of their lives’. The simple joy they find in developing new recipes and preparations together makes this gentle ever-so-slow-burning film whatever is the film equivalent of unputdownable, and the fact that the lovers are played by Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel, themselves once a couple, adds a certain je ne sais quoi to the film. It is described on Rotten Tomatoes as “an exquisite seven-course love story for the soul” – I can’t beat that! Please be warned – you will probably cry.

(2)        The Lunchbox

This 2013 drama, written and directed by Ritesh Batra, tells the story of Ila, a young housewife, who is seeking to bring some romance back into her marriage by cooking delicious lunches for her wayward husband. However, after a mix-up in the complex lunch delivery system in Mumbai (the dabbawalas), Ila’s lunch is delivered in error to Saajan, a middle-aged accountant approaching retirement, rather than to her husband. Each day, the error is repeated. Ila and Saajan begin to correspond through little notes passed via the lunchbox and gradually develop a friendship, sharing events and stories from their own lives. Finally they arrange to meet, however he loses confidence, at the last moment: she is so young, and he is ready for retirement. This is a beautiful, sad story told through the care she puts into preparing the lunches and the tenderness he puts into his notes.

(3)        Eat Drink Man Woman

This 1994 comedy-drama directed by Ang Lee had somehow passed me by. I discovered it only when researching for this list, however I have now purchased the whole Father Knows Best trilogy on DVD, so I will be able to revisit it over and over again. The film follows the members of the Zhu family as they navigate the challenges of love, life and family whilst they undergo the transition from tradition to modernity in Taiwan. Every Sunday evening, semi-retired chef and widower Zhu prepares a sumptuous feast for his three daughters, a tradition which he had assumed would continue in perpetuity. But his daughters’ own personal lives intervene.

And the Honourable Mentions …

The following six films are those that came very, very close to making the top 3, but did not quite get there, listed in alphabetical order:

Babette’s Feast

This 1987 Danish drama film directed by Gabriel Axel is based on a short story by Karen Blixen, better known perhaps for Out of Africa. One day Babette Hersant, a French refugee, turns up at the home of two elderly and pious Protestant sisters in a remote Jutland village. She brings a recommendation as a housekeeper from an old suitor of one of the sisters. They cannot afford to employ her, but she volunteers to work for free and for fourteen years she serves them and the strange community over which they preside. Then Babette comes into some money and decides to show her appreciation to the sisters by paying for and preparing a ‘real French dinner’ on their deceased father’s hundredth birthday. However, the earthly pleasures Babette prepares clash with the harsh protestant values of the congregation.

Big Night

Big Night (1995) was co-directed by Campbell Scott and Stanley Tucci (who also co-wrote and stars in the film). The film follows two Italian immigrant brothers, Primo (the chef) and Secondo (the businessman), as they host an evening of free food at their restaurant in a last-ditch attempt to gain publicity and build up patronage before their bank loans fall due for repayment and foreclosure beckons. Primo serves up the finest feast I will never get to partake in however the brothers have been double-crossed by their friend and business competitor Pascal (played magnificently by Ian Holm), and things do not go according to plan. The final scene of this film is quite brilliant.

The Cakemaker

This is the debut film of Israeli writer/director Ofir Raul Graizer. Thomas, a young German baker, learning of the death of his Israeli male lover Oren, who he sees only periodically when he visits Germany on business, decides to travel to Israel as part of his grieving process. Here he discovers, and forges a relationship with, Oren’s widow and young son. Told with intelligence and restraint, the story is beautifully crafted, and the characters are wonderfully drawn.

Couscous (The Secret of the Grain)

A delightful film made in 2007 by Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche (perhaps better known for his Palm D’Or winning Blue is the Warmest Colour). Set in the French Mediterranean city of Sete, it tells the story of Slimane Beiji, the head of a Franco-Arabic family who, having lost his job at a local shipyard, sets out to leave a legacy for his large and disparate family by converting a dilapidated boat into a family restaurant which will specialise in his ex-wife’s ‘famous’ fish couscous.

Like Water for Chocolate

This 1992 romantic-drama film, directed by Alfonso Arau, is all about tradition and gender roles in a Mexican family. It takes as its starting point the not uncommon tradition which forbids the youngest daughter from marrying, so that she will be free to take care of her mother as she ages. However, this youngest daughter, Tita, makes the mistake of falling in love, and so begins a complex series of events, both comic and tragic, involving all the members of the de la Garza family. The film, which uses magic-realism to great effect, is wonderfully punctuated by Tita’s mouthwatering cooking.

Tampopo

This 1985 Japanese comedy film, written and directed by Juzo Itami, is a kind of love letter to the Japanese tradition of Ramen. A truck driver, Gorō, calls in at Tampopo’s roadside ramen noodle shop for his dinner. There is an altercation with another customer, and he steps in and helps Tampopo. He stays the night and next morning, as she gives him his breakfast, she asks him what he thinks of her Ramen. It is not good. The rest of the film is, effectively, the search for the perfect Ramen, with many side-nods to the importance of food in Japanese culture thrown in.

And so my Top 7 was stretched and shrunk and pulled this way and that, but finally became my definitive list. Except…

And the rest…

What about the films that were wonderful but couldn’t be included because although on the face of it food was going to be key, it turned out to be not quite key enough. A big round of applause please for Ang Lee’s The Wedding Banquet (1993) and My Favourite Cake (2024) co-directed by Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha. I heartily recommend both of these films.

And finally what else did I watch/rewatch in reaching my list? These films were also considered and were generally very enjoyable fodder, although fell just a little short of my à la carte selection:

• The Chef
• Chocolat
• The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover
• Eating Raoul
• Fried Green Tomatoes (at the Whistle Stop Café)
• The Green Butchers
• The Hundred-Foot Journey
• Mid-August Lunch
• My Dinner with Andre
• Ratatouille
• Soursweet

Just to say, I had a great week, still a bit hungry, but that is only to be expected. I now need a rest from food films; however I will be back in a fortnight with films about drink and drinking – it seems a sensible place to go.

I am sure I have missed films, so if you have anything you think I should watch or that may deserve a place in the “Top 3 and a Few More” please let me know. As I think you will probably have gathered, whatever you recommend I will endeavour to find and watch.