My Favorite Foodie Flicks

I love foodie movies and these are some of my favorites that I would recommend. These movies are not only delicious but are top notch films, with great acting, plots, and directing. It's very hard to choose my absolute favorite but it might be What's Cookin. This is not only a foodie flick but it's funny, touching, cute, and never boring. It's about 4 ethnic families cooking and eating their Thanksgiving dinners, Vietnamese, African American, Jewish, and Hispanic. The situations are comical and the food is incredible, I wanted to cook everything in the movie when I saw this flick. The music is fantastic too.

My second foodie movie pick might be Big Night, about two Italian immigrant brothers with high hopes of starting their own authentic Italian restaurant. They risk everything to make this dream come true, but there are many setbacks. This movie is hysterically funny at times, and the food is sumptuous Italian dishes that you can almost taste with your eyes. The plot is very original, the acting exceptional.

Next on the foodie list is the highly acclaimed Eat Drink Man Woman, a compelling story of a father and his three daughters living in Taipei. It's in Cantonese, Chinese with subtitles and it runs 2 hours. Despite the length, the movie is interesting throughout and there's enough plot to last. I guarantee you've never see Chinese/Cantonese food like this and your mouth will water, you may rush out and buy a Cantonese cookbook. This film is as much about food as it is about a family and the generation gap between the father and daughters. There is a lot of irony-such as the father is an expert chef who owned his own famed restaurant but he lost his sense of taste. This doesn't stop him though, he keeps cooking based on his intuition. There is some humor in the movie so it doesn't take itself too seriously. If you love food and experiencing other cultures, this movie is for you.

For an intellectual foodie film, Babette's Feast can't be beat. The food is a little weird for me, the movie being set during the french revolution, but it still has that passion for food that I like in a foodie flick. The story is essentially about religious piety and up tightness versus passion and freedom. The cook is Babette who is running away fro the revolution and ends up at the home of two religious sisters who have never married and have zero life experience. The villagers are also puritan and Babette's food may change that-you'll have to see the movie to find out.

If you like a foodie movie that is just as much a drama, Mostly Martha is just that. The story about an uptight woman chef who has to take in her niece and learn to be human. Of course there's a love interest to add to the drama. The food is nice, but is not as showcased as in the other films above. The movie is German with subtitles.

Make sure you don't watch these movies without a snack. I recommend taco chips for What's Cookin, Pasta for Big Night, Wanton soup for Eat Drink Man Woman, fruit for Babette's Feast and whatever you want for Mostly Martha. Of course none of these are authentic foods for these movies but they do the trick.