The 7 Best Movies About Restaurants

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

With the holiday season fast approaching, there’s no better time to gather with friends and family for a festive dinner. But if you’d rather stay in, why not enjoy a similar experience through a great movie or TV show centered around the world of food?

Rosa and I recently watched The Final Table on Netflix – not once, but twice – and we highly recommend it. This captivating competition show delves into the artistry and creativity of cooking on a global scale. Another excellent choice is the Emmy Award-winning series The Bear on Disney Plus. This comedy-drama follows a renowned chef who takes over his late brother’s sandwich shop in Chicago. It’s a gripping and highly entertaining portrayal of the intense, often stressful world of restaurant life.

When it comes to food-centric entertainment, these two TV productions are must-sees. But what about movies? For the occasion of Christmas 2024, I’ve curated an exclusive menu featuring seven of the finest films about food, restaurants, and fine dining. Just be sure to have some delicious snacks and drinks on hand while you watch these!

07. Burnt (2015)

On the Menu
– Summer vegetables on a bed of ricotta
– Smoked mackerel with duck egg
– Potato truffle velouté
– And many other beautiful looking dishes…

The Movie
Adam Jones (Bradley Cooper), a once-renowned head chef, is determined to reclaim his place in the culinary world after a self-imposed exile. Battling the ghosts of his past – fueled by booze and drugs – he heads to London to restart his career. There, he joins the restaurant of an old friend, Tony (Daniel Brühl), who has a not-so-secret crush on him. Adam’s ultimate goal? To earn the coveted three Michelin stars. To achieve this, Adam recruits former colleagues – some of whom he must make amends with – and hires the talented sous-chef Helene (Sienna Miller). The setup is engaging, but Adam is acting like such a gorilla-asshole that you almost don’t care what happens anymore. But then the filmmakers pull the right move at the right moment, and the characters become more relatable again. The film has a great cast, with Daniel Brühl portraying an especially likable character. Despite the somewhat flawed screenplay, the story gradually pulls you in, leaving you invested in the outcome of this engaging character study featuring delicious looking cuisine.

06. The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014)

On the Menu
– Saag Aloo
– Murgh Masala With Cashews
– Cardamom-infused Pigeon With Truffles
– Boeuf Bourguignon
– Veal With the Five French Mother Sauces: Béchamel, Espagnole, Hollandaise, Tomato, and Velouté

The Movie
Produced by Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey, directed by Lasse Hallström and based on the best-selling novel by Richard C. Morais, The Hundred-Foot Journey is a real feel-good movie with a lead role for the unlikely combination of French and Indian cuisine (subtlety versus teemingness). An Indian family starts a restaurant in the French village of St. Antonin across the street from the prestigious restaurant Le Saule Pleureur run by the competitive restaurateur Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren). Immediately a fierce battle breaks out between the two parties, but Madame Mallory discovers that her competitor’s son Hassan is a brilliant chef. And since she wants a second Michelin Star, the sworn culinary adversaries might find some unity after all in their love of food. Like the diverse cuisine on display, Hallström has made a very rich film filled with many ingredients like beauty, love, passion, grief, ambition, talent and culture.

05. Chef (2014)

On the Menu
– An overcharged caviar egg
– Chocolate lava cake with the core not quite molten
– Grilled cheese sandwich
– Cubanos (Real Cuban sandwiches)
– Yuca Fries
– Tostones
– BBQ brisket sliders
– Medianoches
– Platanos
– Cerveza

The Movie
In this delightful food-centric film, directed by and starring Jon Favreau, a successful chef makes a bold decision to quit his job after clashing with his boss over creative freedom. He decides to buy a food truck and embarks on a culinary tour through the Miami area with his son. Thanks to his stellar cooking of classic Cuban dishes and his son’s knack for social media, their venture quickly becomes a smashing success. Chef is a true feel-good movie that’s as visually appealing as it is heartwarming. The characters are constantly eating all these mouthwatering dishes. It makes you wanna cook and eat yourself, and this is precisely what makes a movie like this so enjoyable. The impressive supporting cast adds even more flavor, featuring performances from Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Dustin Hoffman, John Leguizamo, Bobby Cannavale, Sofía Vergara, and Oliver Platt.

04. Dinner Rush (2000)

On the Menu
– Lobster & fried spaghetti with champagne vanilla sauce, garnished with salmon caviar and chives
– Snapper carpaccio with blood orange sauce (for the critics)
– Pumpkin risotto with chestnuts (also for the critics)

The Movie
Dinner Rush successfully fuses the mob movie and the restaurant film. A Tribeca restaurant owner and bookmaker (Danny Aiello) is squeezed out by two mobsters from Queens. They already killed his partner and on this particular night, they’re coming over to try to make a deal with him. There is a lot more going on. His son Udo is a talented chef who wants to take over the business. Their other cook Duncan has gambling debts and is two-timing with Udo’s girlfriend. There is also a food critic, a waitress with aspirations, a detective with his wife, and a power blackout… How this night will turn out is hard to tell, but something is gonna go down, that is certain. Very enjoyable movie, obviously made by a cast and crew with a lot of passion for this movie and Italian cuisine. You can almost taste it by looking at the screen.

03. Boiling Point (2021)

On the Menu
– Duck With Soy, Lamb, Krab, Oysters, Salmon, Liver, Mackerel, Brill, Risotto
– Château Marie
– Steak and Chips (off the menu)

The Movie
A health & safety downgrade, a rascist customer, a horrible food critic, an allergy fuck-up, an annoying ex-colleage, lazy staff members, drugs, debts, booze, and more. Boiling Point gives us a tension-drenched evening in a busy restaurant made in one, single, 90 minute shot. It is an amazing accomplishment, because nowhere does it feel inauthentic. Stephen Graham is superb als chef Andy, but all the supporting players are excellent as well. Due to the first Covid-19-lockdown, they could only make four takes and used the third one for the final movie. If you want a completely realistic sense of what it is like to work in an overcrowded restaurant on the busiest night of the year, then this is the one to check out. Followed by a television series with the same title and concept.

02. The Founder (2016)

On the Menu
Delicious:
– Hamburgers (grilled for exactly the right length, two pickles, mustard, ketchup)
– French fries
– Soda
– Milkshakes (with and without milk)

The Movie
The Founder tells the fascinating origin story of the world’s largest hamburger chain. Ray Kroc (Michael Keaton) is a relentless and ambitious milkshake mixer salesman who stumbles upon a hidden gem in 1954: an innovative family-run restaurant offering a revolutionary fast-food experience and the best burgers he’s ever tasted. Sensing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Kroc strikes a deal with the McDonald brothers to franchise their concept. Initially, the partnership flourishes, but tensions arise as Kroc’s cutthroat ambition clashes with the brothers’ principles. Determined to succeed at all costs, Kroc makes bold and ruthless business moves that ultimately transform McDonald’s into a global empire. The Founder is a standout business origin story, anchored by a terrific performance from Michael Keaton. The film has many memorable moments, but the ending for me stands out in which one of the McDonalds brothers asks Kroc why he didn’t just steal the concept but went for the franchise formula instead. “It’s the name”, he says. “That glorious name McDonalds. It sounds like America. Would you ever eat at a place called Kroc’s?” Indeed.

01. The Menu (2022)

On the Menu
– Raw local oyster in a mignonette emulsion with lemon caviar and an oyster leaf.
– Amuse-bouche: Cucumber melon, milk snow and charred lace.
– First Course: ‘The Island’. Various plants from Hawthorn Island and fresh raw scallops. Served on a rock.
– Second Course: ‘No bread’. Just savory accompaniments.
– Third Course: ‘Memory’. House-smoked Bresse chicken thigh Al Pastor and tortillas made with heirloom masa.
– Fourth Course: ‘The Mess’. Pressure cooked vegetables, roasted filet, potato confit, beef jus, bone marrow.
– Palate Cleanser: Wild bergamot and red clover tea.
– Sixth Course: ‘Man’s Folly’. Dungeness crab, fermented yogurt whey, dried sea lettuce, umeboshi, kelp.
– Supplementary Course: A cheeseburger, crinkle cut fries.
– Dessert Dish: ‘S’mores’. Marshmallow, chocolate, Graham cracker, customers, staff, restaurant.

The Movie
The renowned chef Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) has twelve special guests over at his exclusive restaurant on Hawthorn Island for a unique tasting experience. The price tag is 1250 dollars a person, but for that they will get a night full of culinary surprises and more. If you don’t know what is going to happen yet, go see this movie. The elite is about to learn a few lessons and it’s very nourishing. The Menu is a beautiful work of art. The cast with Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult, the screenplay, the direction by Mark Mylod (Succession) and the art direction are as exquisite as the dishes served. Like Slowik is obsessed with his craft, so were the makers of this thriller in getting every little detail right. As a viewer, you become a part of the experience that Slowik has prepared and it’s an extremely memorable dining experience that is worth every penny. Bon appetit.

Mind Book #2 – The Spread Mind

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Read also: Mind Book #1 – Being You

In The Spread Mind: Why Consciousness and the World Are One (2018), philosopher, psychologist, and AI expert Riccardo Manzotti offers a bold new perspective on the problem of consciousness. Rejecting the notion that experience arises from neural activity – the default view in contemporary science – Manzotti argues that experience and reality are fundamentally identical. While this might evoke comparisons to biocentrism, the Spread Mind is a distinct theory.

Biocentrism posits that consciousness actively creates the world. In contrast, the Spread Mind asserts that consciousness is physical yet external to the body. It is neither a property of the brain nor the body; rather, it is identical to the objects in the surrounding environment. So when you are looking at an object, let’s say an apple, that apple is not in space and time but where you experience it. Also, the apple is identical to your experience of it.

At first glance, this might again seem like a biocentric perspective, as both theories reject the idea of an apple existing independently in the outside world, waiting to be experienced. However, the distinction lies in where the apple resides: in biocentrism, the apple exists within the mind, whereas in the Spread Mind theory, the apple is the mind. The object is causal, active, relative, temporally-defined, and of course spread.

What we label ‘an object’, Manzotti asserts, is a physical occurrence that repeats itself whenever we put our bodies in the proper circumstances. As a result, even though we believe the same object perdures, what perdures is not the object but a set of circumstances that are favorable to the occurrence of a series of identical objects.

Relocating experience in the world – and therefore ‘spreading’ consciousness in spacetime – can pay back in terms of simplicity, states Manzotti. And he’s right. Up to now, the reduction of experience to neurons and their whereabouts, the usual candidates for the physical underpinnings of consciousness, has not been satisfactory for explaining the conscious mind, since experience and the brain do not resemble each other in the least. In his theory, consciousness will no longer be an unexpected addition to the physical world because appearance and reality are the same thing.

To explain why his theory is better, he uses the simple case of Emily experiencing a red apple. The common perception is that she reproduces the apple inside her brain. But is that really the best solution? Manzotti’s view: ‘The brain is pinkish-gray, gooey, and bloody. The red apple is red, round, and applish. Which entity is more similar to Emily’s experience of the red apple?’ (P. 9)

The theory of the Spread Mind asserts that phenomenal and physical properties are the same. We perceive the world as it is because we are the world we perceive. The properties of our experience are the properties of the physical world we live in. According to the Spread Mind theory, the mind is a set of objects. Manzotti describes the body as a causal object that ‘causes’ all the other objects to be part of the set. This is again close to biocentrism, where it is consciousness itself that is the causal entity that ‘collapses’ the objects it observes, including the body and brain of that conscious observer.

However biocentrism is a modern version of idealism and the Spread Mind posits itself as a form of physicalism. The difference with the standard form of physicalism is that it doesn’t state that conscious experience arises from matter, but that experiences of matter are the matter, and are therefore physical.

My thoughts about this book
I admire Riccardo Manzotti greatly for making a leap in thinking and going beyond the default view. Rather than following the – in my opinion – dead end street of materialism, he takes a highly original standpoint and locates consciousness outside the body. You are one with the objects you perceive. You are the collection of objects you are currently perceiving. Your body – also an object – is the cause of the other objects you experience to be ‘there’.

However, the spread mind fails to capture the essence of what a mind is in my opinion. My mind is not the trash can I just saw. Rather, it is the integrated collection of thoughts, feelings, memories and perceptions that make up that ‘me’ feeling. The trash can appears in my mind, but it is not the same as my mind. Once identity is the same as the objects we observe, this means that if I am drinking a glass of beer in a bar, I am that glass of beer, the bar and even the waitress that is currently serving me.

Manzotti also writes some things that seem contradictory. For example, he writes that in his physical theory, ‘realism is safe’. But according to his theory, objects are only present in relation to the body, and that would violate realism which assumes that an external reality is always present also in the absence of an observer or body.

In conclusion, it was a great and original move by Manzotti to take the mind out of the brain, but biocentrism is better equipped to explain the totality of mental experiences and their relation to the workings of the universe.

You can read more about biocentrism and consciousness on my platform:
http://free-consciousness.com

Mind Book #1 – Being You

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Anil Seth is one of the world’s leading neuroscientists who is working on the ‘problem’ of consciousness. His ideas are discussed in the book Being You (2022). His working theory is that our conscious experiences of the world and the self are forms of brain-based prediction – ‘controlled hallucinations’ – that arise with, through, and because of our living bodies. We are conscious, beast machines, Seth believes.

The widely held assumption in science is that the brain is responsible for creating our conscious experiences. Philosopher David Chalmers, who introduced the term ‘the hard problem of consciousness’, wrote: ‘It is widely agreed that experience arises from a physical basis, but we have no good explanation of why and how it so arises.’

Why is there so much agreement about the physical nature of consciousness if it is totally unclear and unexplainable how something physical can cause a mental state? The opposite approach – consciousness producing physical states – is almost never considered in science.

Seth is honest in stating that his view is philosophical and not a proven scientific fact. He writes: ‘My preferred philosophical position, and the default position of many neuroscientists, is physicalism or materialism. This is the idea that the universe is made of physical stuff, and that conscious states are either identical to, or somehow emerge from particular arrangements of this physical stuff.’ He does not elaborate on why he favors this philosophy. Although he briefly acknowledges alternatives such as dualism and idealism, he does not engage in a detailed discussion of why materialism should be considered a preferable default, particularly over idealism – the view that the mind creates reality.

Seth’s theory is summarized in this following statement: ‘The experience of being you emerges from the way the brain predicts and controls the internal state of the body. The essence of selfhood is neither a rational mind nor an immaterial soul. It is a deeply embodied biological process. a process that underpins the simple feeling of being alive that is the basis for all our experiences of self, indeed for any conscious experience at all. Being you is literally about your body’ (P. 6/7).

Seth bypasses the hard problem of consciousness – solving the problem of why consciousness should arise from material interaction in brains – by introducing ‘the real problem of consciousness’. The real problem, he writes, accepts that conscious experiences exist and focuses primarily on their phenomenological properties. What is it like to be something? His task is then to explain, predict and control what happens in the brain leading to a certain experience. What happens in the brain that makes you see red rather than blue? What happens when you experience a jealous feeling?

What sets Seth’s theory apart is his view of the brain as a prediction machine. According to him, everything we see, hear, and feel is simply the brain’s best guess about the causes of its sensory inputs. Essentially, all our perceptions are hallucinations, and when these hallucinations align across individuals, we call it reality. Through examples of various visual illusions, Seth demonstrates that perception is a generative, creative act.

However, I struggle to see why materialism is necessary in this framework. Imagine you’re at the zoo and see a black and furry shape – your brain’s best guess about the most probable cause for this sensory input is that it’s a gorilla, so the perception of a gorilla is created. Why must this perceived gorilla correspond to a physical, material gorilla in the external world? In my view, the creation in the mind of the gorilla is the gorilla.

My thoughts about this book
Neuroscientists like Anil Seth have come a long way in explaining how the brain modulates conscious experiences, but they have one major conceptual leap to make, namely that the brain does not create conscious experiences, but merely puts restraints on it. Reality is not created by the brain, but by the mind itself: the brain and body are part of this controlled hallucination as well. Brains and neurons are not really ‘there’, but they are what consciousness looks like to observers from the outside. Why ‘they’ (the materialists) find this one so hard I can only speculate about. Perhaps it is that once you acknowledge that you are part of a larger consciousness, that means that you are truly immortal and forever part of nature. And this can be a frightening idea, I guess.

You can read more about my (very distinct) ideas about consciousness on my platform:
http://free-consciousness.com

Duel

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Director: Steven Spielberg
Written by: Richard Matheson
Cast: Dennis Weaver, Jacqueline Scott, Eddie Firestone

Year / Country: 1971, USA
Running Time: 90 mins.

A business commuter, played by Dennis Weaver, leaves his home in the morning unsuspecting that this will be a day from hell. He is targeted by an enormous, menacing truck for termination and he doesn’t know why. The duel of the title refers to the showdown between him and the unknown truck driver on the desert highways that lasts the entire movie.

Duel is Steven Spielberg’s masterful debut that captures the peril of an ordinary man thrust into extraordinary circumstances. Duel immediately establishes his cinematic genius. Originally made for television, the movie transcends its medium with exceptional production quality, boasting sharp editing, stunning cinematography, and masterful pacing. Spielberg demonstrates an innate ability to generate tension, crafting nail-biting action scenes that foreshadow the brilliance he would later bring to iconic films like Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park.

The running time could have been cut with ten minutes to make it perfect, but overall, he manages to maintain tension throughout its running time. The film also features clever visual metaphors, such as subtle nods to themes of impotence and primal survival instincts. The main character David Mann comments that it takes nothing to be back inside the jungle again. And that is precisely what happens to him. Instinct takes over and man becomes a force for survival. In Duel, Spielberg proves he is a director of extraordinary promise, blending tension, action, and deeper thematic layers into an unforgettable cinematic experience.

Rating:

Biography: Steven Spielberg (1946, Cincinnati, Ohio), is one of the most influential and celebrated filmmakers in cinema history. A pioneer of modern blockbuster filmmaking, Spielberg’s career spans over five decades, encompassing a wide range of genres and iconic films. Spielberg’s breakthrough came in 1975 with Jaws, a suspenseful thriller that became the first modern blockbuster. He followed this success with a string of iconic films, including Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and Jurassic Park (1993). Spielberg’s versatility as a director is evident in his more serious works, such as Schindler’s List (1993), which earned him his first Academy Award for Best Director, and Saving Private Ryan (1998), which won him a second. These films cemented his reputation as a master of both spectacle and substance.

Filmography (a selection): Amblin’ (1968, short), Duel (1971, TV-Movie), The Sugarland Express (1974), Jaws (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), The Color Purple (1985), Empire of the Sun (1987), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), Jurassic Park (1993), Schindler’s List (1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Minority Report (2002), War of the Worlds (2005), Lincoln (2012), Ready Player One (2018)