Top 5 Foodie Films for a Rainy Day

As Sydney settles in to its soggiest autumn in two decades, has there ever been a better time to stay
in with a movie? There’s only one thing better than a great film on a rainy day – a great film that’s
about food! Here is a list of movies so mouth-watering you may even feel compelled to get off the
couch and cook something.

1. Julie and Julia (2009)

Paris, New York, food AND Meryl Streep. This film is so damn good that I would watch it in slow-
mo just to make it last longer. One particular scene which had me drooling into my popcorn
involved the most decadent bruschetta I have ever seen. Tomato and basil and olive oil and
fried bread... oh my. This bruschetta haunted my dreams until finally I took to the kitchen to
perform my own bruschetta ballet as in the film.

Get off the couch and cook factor 10/10

2. The Scent of Green Papaya (1993)

This sensuous film centres around Mui – a young servant girl in Vietnam. Mui is beautiful and
inquisitive and she brings the focus of the film onto the tiniest details, from little ants in the
garden to the process of making Green Papaya Salad for her wealthy masters. As with all great
cooks, she makes it look easy. Now I just need to find one of those little machetes and a papaya
tree.

Hop on a plane to Vietnam factor 9/10

3. Ratatouille (2007)

Vermin and food are an unlikely combination, but by the end of the film you’ll be as warm and
mushy as a boiled zucchini, and ready to hug the next rodent who crosses your path. Remy is no
ordinary rat. He can cook like a Michelin starred chef! The message of the film is that ‘anyone
can cook’ and I guarantee that any shy cooks out there will be inspired by this little chef.

Call the exterminator factor 0/10

4. Eat Drink Man Woman (1994)

Directed by Ang Lee (of Brokeback Mountain) this Taiwanese film is like ‘Iron Chef’ but with a
plot. Food often accompanies family, and never more so than in this film where the head of the
family is also a head chef. Every Sunday night Chef Chu treats his wife and three daughters to a
home cooked meal of epic proportions, and us, the lucky viewers get to watch him make it. The
camera work is superb and captures every precise and elegant move of this culinary genius.

Newfound respect for local Chinese takeaway factor 9.5/10

5. Waitress (2007)

Anyone who sees cooking as therapy will relate to this offbeat comedy. Keri Russel plays Jenna
Hunterson – a small town diner waitress in a bad marriage whose life can’t really get any
worse... until she gets pregnant. With every twist and turn of the plot she invents a new pie.
From ‘I-hate-my-husband-pie’ to ‘pregnant-self-pitying-loser-pie’ (flambé of course). Despite the
depressing names, the pies look really delicious even to a savoury-tooth like me.

Feel better about your life factor 9/10

Honourable Mention: Annie Hall (1977)

This Woody Allen classic is not so much about cooking, but it does have one of the best cooking
scenes of all time. Woody Allen and Diane Keaton’s Annie Hall leap absurdly around a kitchen
floor strewn with live lobsters as they try to get the crustaceans into a pot. As one crawls behind
the fridge Allen jokes “maybe if I put a little dish of butter sauce here with a nutcracker, it will
run out the other side?” Classic!

By Lena Hattom

Photo: Flickr