Culinary Inspiration From Your Streaming Services
Get a taste for great movies about food this week
It’s week three and if your home looks anything like Moviegoer Manor, you’re staring at your cupboards and wondering if putting Old Bay on cereal will give you a fun new flavor profile to sample.
Quarantine living is stressful. Stores are running low on flour because more and more people are choosing to bake their blues away. This week, the Moviegoer wants to offer quarantined culinary artists some inspiration with six great films about the joys of food.
Prime
Bottle Shock
Sommelier Steven Spurrier (Alan Rickman) is an Englishman trying to make his mark on the Paris wine scene. Though he loves wine, the Parisians view him as an interloper and his shop is failing.
But Spurrier has an idea: American vineyards are gaining ground and Spurrier wants to put them to the test. He proposes a blind tasting in Paris, six American wines against six French wines, the winning country gets to claim they make the greatest wines in the world.
First, though, Spurrier must travel to America and select the wines. As he tours California vineyards, Spurrier is struck with the quality of the wine in the states. Will his publicity stunt get him the respect of the Parisians, or will it open up the world to new vintages?
Based on the real Judgement of Paris, a 1976 blind taste testing that pitted American upstarts against powerful Paris vintners, Bottle Shock is a hilarious and fun look at how the California wine industry earned their place on the world map. Featuring great performances by Rickman, Chris Pine, and Bill Pullman, this is a film with a lot of heart.
Good Comedy * PG-13 * 110 mins.
Kanopy
Tortilla Soup
After the death of his wife, Chef Martin Naranjo (Héctor Elizondo) lost his ability to taste and smell. Though he can’t cook in his restaurant anymore, Martin still makes elaborate family meals that he expects his three adult daughters to attend every week. The girls love their father, but also need a bit of a break from his overbearing nature, so they begin to plot to set him up with someone.
While the daughters scheme, Martin befriends a lonely little girl and begins making her extravagant lunches to take to school. Will feeding this child help Martin rekindle his love of cooking?
A remake of Eat, Drink, Man, Woman, an Asian film, Tortilla Soup translates the cooking and the heartfelt storytelling to a new culture beautifully. The scenes of Martin preparing exquisite dinners for his family are absolutely mouthwatering. Director Maria Ripoll shows the tremendous amount of care and heart that goes into making a meal for your family, as well as the absolutely delicious results.
Good Dramedy * PG-13 * 102 mins.
Hulu
Jiro Dreams of Sushi
Do you know how long you have to massage an octopus before you can use it for sushi? The 85-year-old sushi master Jiro Ono does.
A legend for his exemplary sushi rolls, Jiro’s small restaurant in the basement of a Tokyo office building draws foodies from around the world. Devoted to traditional practices and uncompromising quality, Jiro is training the next generation of master sushi chefs as he serves rolls to the public.
A documentary about one of the most famous restaurants in all of Japan, Jiro Dreams of Sushi gives you a glimpse of the hard work and art that goes into making just one piece of sushi. Director David Gelb captures the beauty of the process – from trips to the fish market to the intense labor of preparation to the art of assembling a perfect bite for the customer.
Great Documentary * PG * 81 mins.
Netflix
Salt Fat Acid Heat
Have you ever wondered what makes certain meals so good and others just…blah? Chef Samin Nosrat takes the mystery out of cooking in the sumptuous docu-series Salt Fat Acid Heat. Nosrat helps you understand that great food is a combination of four basic elements: salt, fat, acid and heat.
Nosrat travels the globe to explore cuisines and how they choose to combine these basic elements. Each nation chooses to combine these tastes in different ways, and Nosrat teaches you how to bring out bold flavor in your next dish. You’ll learn how fat makes Italian dishes lush, how salt brings out sharp subtle notes in Japanese cuisine, how acidic citrus ingredients brings out the bright flavors of traditional Mexican cooking, and how America and the Middle East use spice to add depth of flavor.
If your in-home cooking has seemed bland during the quarantine, Salt Fat Acid Heat will inspire you to embrace taste and flavor.
Great Docu-series * NR * 240 mins.
Like Water for Chocolate
Literally born on the kitchen table, Tita (Lumi Cavazos) learns early how important food is to a family. Taken under the wing of the family’s cook, Tita is so passionate about cooking that she infuses every dish she makes with her emotions. Her joys and sorrows all find their way into her meals, inspiring raptures and grief in all who taste them.
But when Tita falls in love, her happy life is thrown into turmoil. As the youngest daughter in her traditional family, Tita is told she can never marry, as it is her duty to care for her domineering mother until she dies.
A beautiful sensual story of love and food, Like Water for Chocolate is both heart wrenching and mouth-watering. Director Alfonso Arau creates a sweeping love story with mesmerizing performances and glorious cinematography.
Great Drama * R * 105 mins.