Thursday, April 3, 2008

You Can't Eat That in the Theater...

I, like 96% of all food bloggers, love Top Chef. And since I’m a big movie geek as well, last night’s episode was awesome. The cheftestants had to build a course around their favorite movie. While some were well thought out (Willy Wonka and A Christmas Story were my two favorite dishes), some utterly failed, either at picking a movie that would help them in any way or in making a dish that represented the film.

Of course, as soon as Padma announced the challenge, I turned to my roommate and asked what film he would choose. This led us off onto a whole discussion of which foods tie in to which movies and what we would make for this challenge. Here’s what we came up with. I realize that we took it all more literally than the cheftestants did, but hey, no one has to actually eat this stuff.

Indiana Jones – A dish involving snake meat. We didn’t go too far with this because we got sidetracked with dessert – monkey brains! Peeled fruit (like grapefruit) in a sorbet or ice cream, served in a hollowed-out coconut. Oh, and “bad dates” somewhere on that dish too…

Big Night – Big ‘50s red sauce flavors - risotto, timpano, and a whole roast pig. Or simply a perfectly cooked omelette, like the one in the last scene of the film – so evocative of the brothers’ relationship.

Wicker Man – I’d go with something involving apples and bacon, but my roommate wanted to build the apples into the shape of a person (and then light it on fire!).

Lord of the Rings – Rabbit with a hard “lembas”-style bread.

Donnie Darko – Pizza with the toppings split right down the middle – red tomato sauce and pepperoni on one half, blue potato slices on the other half. (This would work for any politically-themed movie, but I love the family’s political talk over pizza in this movie).

Sadly, I couldn’t come up with anything for some of my favorite movies – Empire Records (peanut M&Ms, cupcakes, rock music, and pot brownies?), Mulholland Drive (espresso… and loathing of loved ones?), The Commitments (beer and cigarettes?), or Zoolander (water?).

What would you make?

1 comment:

  1. Zoolander - my friend of a friend Aaron likes to say when he sees a very skinny woman (and he works for Loreal, so he's seen his share): "Water and a tic tac please - and two plates. We're sharing."

    Remember that show "Dinner and a Movie" on TBS, when they would show a movie and make a themed dish and then toward the end it would get awkward because you couldn't tell if the show hosts hated each other or if they were having lots of sex during commercial breaks? I liked that show. This post made me think of it and how much a show/party like that is needed.

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