Movies About Food

Oh gee. I am usually not this obsessive about food, you know.

Seriously. I am a Plain Jane when it comes to food. I don’t like to fuss with food, and I don’t like lots of “stuff” on my food, like butter, dressings, etc. Give me a section of broiled salmon, some broccoli, and a kale salad, and I’m happy as anything. Or even a handful of chickpeas with feta cheese and olives– mmm that’s good.

But for some reason, I’ve been watching a bunch of “food” movies, and am waiting to see a few more. For the next few posts, I’ll talk about the ones I liked. Or maybe even the ones I didn’t like…. the first:

Julie & Julia

This is a cute movie. It’s about a blogger, so of course I was interested. It’s also about Julia Child, the person single-handedly responsible for the TV in the kitchen, eh? I remember my mother watching all of Child’s TV programs.

In this movie, Julie, a disenchanted New Yorker, unfulfilled with her job, decides to cook through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking cookbook. And she decides to do it in a year. And she decides to blog about it. Very cute. The movie is about the life of Julia Child during the time she wrote her cookbook (late 50s) and about modern-day Julie’s excursions into “servantless American cooking.” I tell you, I would gladly leave the cooking to a servant, yes I would!

The movie was cute, fast-paced, and of course, I loved all the smarmy blogging mentions. But it never ceases to amaze me how “big” something can become by something so…. everyday. Blogging is democratic, and I suppose that’s why it’s sneered upon. No online degree necessary, just start pounding the keys! But there are millions, maybe even billions, of blogs today; and some blogs discuss really, really meaningful things. How can one girl’s cooking exploits rise up to such stardom so quickly? I mean, Julie just *cooked.* She didn’t save orphans or rescue dying people from a fire… no, all you have to do is cook and blog about it in a sarcastic manner, and whammo, the New York Times is pounding at your door.

I don’t like French foods very much… too fatty and too buttery. Like I said, I’m a Plain Jane gal. So the recipes didn’t excite me as much as they might excite a French aficionado. I did find it fascinating to see how recipes (and ingredients) have changed in the last 60 years. A calf foot?! Aspic?! Pastry-lined roast? I marvel that cooking this way and blogging about it got such attention so as to generate a book and movie. I mean, we don’t even eat this way anymore… how could this even be popular? I guess it’s a testament more to the power of blogging than cooking, in a way. The recipes did nothing for me, but the story itself is entertaining. I especially liked the scenes with Julia Child at the cooking school. But someone please tell me how everyone in this movie remained so stinking skinny after eating these recipes twice a day or more for a year?!

I cannot eat this way. I actually have some old Better Homes & Gardens cookbooks from the late 50s, and I cannot use them. The recipes are just too fatty, too starchy, and loaded with carbohydrates and meat. Our way of cooking and eating has really changed, I think. It hasn’t necessarily all changed for the better (look at the glut of junk we have available today– Pepsi, Doritos, Roll-Ups, CocoPuffs, ick), but we have a much greater variety of fruits and vegetables in our stores. I do, however, wish we had more open markets, like they do in Europe and the Middle East. I’m not fond of American cooking: it caters to the CAFOs, the beef and corn industry, and is loaded with corn syrup as sweetener. But I’ll have more about that with my next move review.

Here’s a trailer I found for Julie & Julia. You can see how well the movie is put together. The cast is very, very good. The editing is tight, and the movie keeps your interest throug to the end, even though you know what the end will be. Meryl Streep is funny in this movie. I think she overdoes the real Julia Child a little… the real Julia seemed a little more laid back on TV, as I recall. But Streep captures Child’s vocal inflections very well. And holy cow, I had no idea she was so tall!

Bon apetit!