My Favorite Cooking Movies

Did I mention that I’m a bit of a movie buff? I love movies because of the stories they tell and the emotions they evoke. I’ve found several over the years that also connect with my love of food. I listed a few below, along with the dishes they inspired me to make. Another thing I love, popcorn. I’ve spent years trying to come up with the perfect recipe for making it at home. So, here’s my secret recipe and why it works. Below it is a list of a few of my favorite movies that are about, or are a celebration of food, cooking, friendships and love.

Perfect Popcorn

I can’t stress enough how important having the right pot is, for making good popcorn. I have a large, 8Qt, stainless pot that is dedicated to making popcorn. I use very high heat and vegetable oil. The oil will season and darken the bottom of the pot, trapping the flavor of the popcorn. Using it for making other dishes will do two things. It will release the popcorn flavor into any other dish you might cook. It will also release the flavors, trapped from the other dishes you cook in it, into the popcorn. I haven’t found a method to clean the pot enough, after every popping, so those flavors don’t transfer. I don’t know about you, but I make popcorn way too often to scrub a pot that much, and I’m not crazy about “chicken noodle soup” flavored popcorn. I’d much rather have a dedicated pot.

Ingredients

1/3 C – Canola Oil

½ C – Butter

1 C – Orville Redenbachers Popcorn

Popcorn Salt

Making The Magic

Put the oil in the pot and turn up to high heat. Put the popcorn in the oil and swirl the pot around so all the kernels are covered with the oil. Cover the pot and wait. Once the popcorn is popping, monitor its progress. As the popping progresses, remove the lid only when the popping corn doesn’t jump out of the pot. I have a glass lid on my pot, so it’s easy to see this. Doing so releases the steam and helps keep the popped kernels dry and crunchy. When the popping slows to almost no popping, turn the heat off and remove from the burner, unless you’re using a gas or induction cooktop. Electric burners stay hot and will burn your popcorn if you leave it on the hot cooktop. There is nothing that tastes worse than burned popcorn!

Melt your butter. I do this in a microwave, 45 seconds, power level 8. Cover the dish with a paper towel so it doesn’t splatter the inside of your microwave.

Sprinkle with salt to your taste, put the lid back on and shake the pot to help distribute the salt. You’ll need to develop your own technique for doing this. I can’t tell you how many times I ended up throwing popcorn across the kitchen while experimenting.

Pour your popcorn into serving bowls. Pour the melted butter over each serving.

I love this popcorn, with or without the butter.

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Enjoy the movie!

Big Night – Stanley Tucci, Tony Shalhoub, Isabella Rossellini, Minnie Driver, Ian Holm and a whole bunch more in this stellar cast. The story swirls around one big night of a magical meal prepared for friends, neighbors, family and fame. Just watching this movie will make you feel full and inspire you to want have some folks over and make an evening of it. This movie inspired me to make my first “Timpano”. I’ll share that recipe in the future. I recently learned this film is semi-autobiographical about Stanley Tucci and he is a real lover of food, cooks frequently, and has written several cookbooks.

Julie and Julia – Amy Adams, Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci, and an outstanding supporting cast. This is a true story about a young woman looking for a meaningful purpose. In the search she discovers her passion for cooking, writing and sharing her experiences by cooking every recipe in Julia Child’s famous and renowned cookbook, Mastering The Art Of French Cooking. She began blogging about it every day for a year, inspiring thousands to rediscover and fall in love with Julia Child once again. I was inspired to make my first Boeuf Bourguignon by this movie. It’s an amazing dish and one I love going to when I want a rich and flavorful dish. It also inspired me to start writing my own blog.

Chef – Jon Favreau, Scarlett Johansson, John Leguizamo, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Downey Jr and others help tell the story of this journey of a well-trained, well experienced Chef who realizes he’s lost his creativity and passion for what he does. Making a life changing decision he takes his skill back to the basics, buys a dilapidated food truck, and cooks his way across the United States. On the way he rediscovers his love of food, family and friends.

The 100-Foot Journey – Helen Mirren, Om Puri, Manish Dayal, Charlotte Le Bon find that food in any culture becomes a common ground when we break bread together, open ourselves to change and care about one another. The clash between fine French Cuisine and traditional Indian cooking leads to discovery, acceptance and people from multiple cultures coming together through food.

Ratatouille – I love this animated film. This is a clash between condescending food gourmets, appropriately snooty and highbrow, and those without formal training, but with a palate trained by eating foods they love. The scene in the movie that inspired me to make the dish, after which the movie is named, is near the end. A highly snooty, self-important and condescending food critic, voiced by Peter O’Toole and appropriately named Anton Ego, visits a restaurant to critique the food. It’s obvious he is accustomed to criticizing even the slightest mistake and revels in the fact that his written opinion can destroy careers and close restaurants. You can sense the impending disaster. He is then served a simple dish, Ratatouille. The look that spreads across his face, the way he describes the exquisite sensations he feels, the memories that come flooding back and the flavors exploding in his mouth bring me to tears every time. I made this dish for the first time, for a wonderful couple we have been friends with for many years. I saw the same delight on Ashley’s face when she took the first bite. What an incredible feeling it is to share something you love with someone who appreciates it as much as you do. Making and sharing food with people you love, and sharing those memories, last a lifetime.

Soul Food – Vanessa Williams, Vivica Fox, Nia Long, Michael Beach and an outstanding supporting cast learn how family tensions and resentments can tear us apart when left to simmer. No pun intended. When the one person who has been holding the family together in peace is no longer there to salve the wounds, they discover the one place where they can all come together and deal with those hidden inflicted pains. At the table, over a meal they all love. Food is for the soul. Just think, every time we make a dish that has been passed down, we are remembering them. They are alive through our memories and the joy we find in that food. The “Day of the Dead” holiday in Mexico is an expression of that same beautiful sentiment. I’ve always kept pictures of family members on my walls, but after watching the animated movie Coco, I stop and look at them more often. I know they’re all still with me.

Movies are in my blood. They’re part of who I am!