A film for cooks
'The Taste of Things' captures all the pleasure of garden and kitchen. Plus 'Zaytina' reviewed, a funny view of America and a killer recipe for shrimp and grits.
Happy Friday, cinema-loving cook!
I’m not usually one for foodie movies, but my friend An-My recommended ‘The Taste of Things,’ the French-language film directed by Trán Anh Hùng, and wow — what a beautiful film!
If you keep up on such things, you’ve probably read about it, and maybe you’ve seen it (it was released two months ago). Set in the Loire Valley in 1855, it was filmed at a château. Juliette Binoche plays a talented cook, Eugénie, who has worked for Dodin (Benoît Magimel), a gourmet, for 20 years. It’s an ode to beautiful products from the garden, to the passage of the seasons and to cooking (and eating) with pleasure, and with utmost care and attention. (Side note, not mentioned in the film: 1855 is the year the great wines of Bordeaux were classified.)
Binoche, who cooks in real life, is superb in the role, and the food is magnificent. Things like quenelles de brochet, a seafood vol au vent, pot au feu, ortolans, a perfect omelette. Baked Alaska!
What I didn’t know when I was watching it was that Pierre Gagnaire was the film’s Gastronomic Director (that’s what I get for not reading reviews); he also appeared in a tiny role. There’s a wonderful interview with director Hùng that I found toward the end of the film’s press release. Once you see the film, I highly recommend reading the interview, as he talks about the difficulty of filming the cooking sequences, how he worked with Gagnaire and more.