Aside from being the key to our survival, food is also one of the simplest pleasures in life. A good meal can instantly brighten someone’s day, even just by watching someone else make or eat it. That’s why mukbang and cooking videos are wildly popular. You can enjoy all the best food in the world without the risk of gaining weight!
Cinema understands this too. With movie magic, food and the process of making it becomes more glorious, inviting audiences to experience culinary wonders from all corners of the Earth. Here we’ve compiled a list of 10 movies with the most mouthwatering culinary scenes. Warning: may cause sudden uncontrollable cravings!
Ratatouille (2007)
The Pixar masterpiece may be animated, but it’s no less adept at depicting delectable dishes with stunning accuracy. Ratatouille tells the story of a Parisian rat with an implausible dream of becoming a chef. He then befriends a helpless young kitchen worker and through an unusual alliance, slowly inches toward his dream to cook for the famous Gusteau’s. Of course everyone remembers the famous French dish ratatouille that became the movie’s signature. But the film’s also chock-full of other no-less-delightful French cooking scenes.
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The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014)
After a riot destroys their restaurant, an Indian family immigrates to Europe to start over. Their journey takes them to a small town in France, where a failing brake leads them to an abandoned property that they will soon turn into the family’s Indian eatery. The problem? Within a hundred feet, there’s already a popular Michelin-star French restaurant. Cue an intense cook-off between culinaries of the East and West.
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Big Night (1996)
This little known gem from 1996 revolves around two Italian immigrant brothers who run a restaurant in the Jersey Shore. The movie depicts the brothers’ struggle to keep their Italian eatery afloat despite pressure to make everything Americanized and mounting financial problems. If you love Italian food in all its unabashed decadence, this is one you need to check out!
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Chocolat (2000)
Here’s one for the dessert lovers: an entire movie about chocolate! Chocolat follows a French woman who opens a chocolaterie in a tiny village where she and her daughter just moved to. Although facing rejections at first, her warmth and her tasty creations slowly melt the townsfolks’ hearts. To make things sweeter, a young Johnny Depp plays the heroine’s love interest.
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No Reservations (2007)
Uptight genius chefs are popular subjects in foodie films. No Reservations brings that archetype into the romcom genre, casting Oscar-winner Catherine Zeta-Jones as an uptight genius chef who must suddenly raise her young niece following her sister’s death. To make matters worse, she’s forced to work with a new chef whose spontaneity directly contradicts her perfectionist way. Though a so-so romcom, the film captures the inner workings of a high-end restaurant pretty well.
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Burnt (2015)
In Burnt, an Oscar caliber actor plays yet another uptight genius chef. Bradley Cooper plays a brilliant but problematic chef who’s attempting a comeback after drugs and bad behaviors wreck his once stellar career. He begins working at an upscale London establishment, where arrays of ingenious cuisines will be presented before your eyes for most of the 100-minute duration.
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Marie Antoinette (2006)
“Let them eat cake!” said the infamous Queen of France. This zany historical comedy-drama is like sugar cakes drenched in pastel colored frostings, figuratively and literally. In many scenes, Marie Antoinette can be seen indulging in fancy schmancy pastries that will definitely get you sugar high.
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Eat Pray Love (2009)
The movie takes the first word in its title seriously. In it, Julia Roberts plays a woman who goes on a yearlong trip to, well, eat, pray, and love. For “eat”, she visits Italy and experiences the joyous way Italians treat their food. While the food here is presented in the simplest way, it’s the appreciative attitude toward it that leaves you with such a delightful feeling.
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Julie & Julia (2009)
Baking, frying, fish-deboning, braising… the movie has everything a foodie will love. Julie & Julia is a quasi-biopic about the famous TV chef Julia Child and Julie, her admirer who decides to blog about her experience cooking everything in Julia’s cookbook for a year. Naturally, a film about two women who really love to cook involves a bevy of tantalizing scenes in the kitchen.
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Chef (2014)
A grilled cheese sandwich has never looked so sexy before Chef. Jon Favreau plays a grumpy chef who, after getting canceled on Twitter, decides to start afresh by entering the food truck scene. He takes the new business and his son on a tour around America, exploring local delicacies everywhere they go. Whereas most movies on this list depict upscale dishes, Chef stands out with its array of comfort food and the clear reverence the filmmaker has for the people who made them.
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