CAKE DAD: femme food films

a list and some updates

Happy solar eclipse day! Just short of seven years ago I got to experience the totality of a solar eclipse in Oregon. It was quiet and intense and awe-inspiring. I hope you get a moment to feel the stillness of the eclipse today. I loved this essay by Annie Dillard on her viewing of a solar eclipse and it’s power. Thanks so much for subscribing! 

I will watch any movie with even the loosest chef/food plot line. I love how food is used in film to show emotion (Quentin Tarantino’s burgers! Nancy Meyer’s croissants! I drink your milkshake!). I’ve pulled a list of just a few of my favourite titles. Most of these films are about women (actually all of them). Women’s food stories are always so much more nuanced. Which makes sense, our relationship to food, both eating it and preparing it, is much more complex. Men’s food stories are just  some guy trying to get to the top or getting to the top and realizing they needed familia the whole time (Chef, Burnt)¹. I would rather watch Fast and the Furious for that. Although I will give a pass to Big Night because it has Tucci and Shalhoub (!). Anyways, onwards.

Waitress (2007)

Waitress is a perfect indie movie. I watched it for the first time as a teenager in my friend Julia’s living room. Julia has great taste and a very cool older sister so most of the culture I absorbed between 2007-2009 was in that living room. Jenna works at a diner and makes perfect pies in the deep south. She’s unhappy in her (very abusive!) marriage and finds herself having to navigate an unwanted pregnant. Waitress was written by and co-stars Adrienne Shelly whose own story has creepy echoes of the male power imbalances in waitress. 

Daisies (1966)

This movie isn’t as much of a food film as the others but it still has some of the best food scenes on film! It’s about girlies being girlies and was banned for being critical of authoritarianism, Soviet communism and patriarchy! Two women commit to spoiling themselves as the world is spoiled. Delicious, opulent gluttony. It’s available on youtube.

Babette’s Feast (1987)

Pious villagers give themselves over to absolute pleasure- one perfect meal cooked by a French refugee that the village took in years ago. The meal unites the community in that very human way that only a shared meal could. This film is so, so satisfying to watch. The food is perfect and everything is so well-paced. Very cozy. For the Criterion Channel girlypops.

Tampopo (1985)

This movie is so cinema. Tampopo is ramen western with food-centric vignettes scattered throughout. The film is beautiful, heartwarming and erotic and will make you very very hungry. I love all of the outfits from 80’s Tokyo. I love the Japanese interpretations of Western tropes. And I’m still thinking about that egg scene.

Woman on Top (2000)

This movie is mostly Penlope Cruz serving looks. And I am totally fine with that. It is not her fault that she slays so hard. In Woman on Top Cruz plays a cable tv food presenter that makes it mainstream. This is not a *good* film. But it is fun. Better than Burnt that’s for sure.

Simply Irresistible (1999)

I am obsessed with this movie. I used to watch this with my Mom all the time. One day I will release a video essay about it but you have until then to watch this absolute mess. Sarah Michelle Gellar plays a woman who inherited her mother’s restaurant and is driving it into the ground with her terrible food. Then she meets a whimsical old man/angel at the farmer’s market who gives her a magic crab (“Take my crab Amanda, your mother wants you to start living up to your potential”). In possession of the magic crab, Amanda is now able to infuse her food with her emotions. She tortures Amanda Peet and falls in love with a department store mogul. It’s all kind of Fred Astaire 1940s romantic comedy but totally misses the mark. Watch with your favourite Cancer sun.

I have like 3 more lists of food films in me! (Howl’s Moving Castle!) So let me know if you like this format. 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Cake orders for April are mostly full! Shoot me an email if you’d like to grab a spot.

I’ll be booking some more cake decorating classes for May! I’m also available for private bookings and events.

EATING 
Tachin, greek salad, still eating at least one meal of cheese a day.

READING
I had fun rereading a bunch of these essays from the golden age of overly personal essays from 2009-2015. Small Fires by Rebecca May Johnson, Eros the Bittersweet by Anne Carson and definitely not not rereading ACOTAR to heal a broken heart…

DRINKING
I am, unfortunately, back on the Diet Coke.

LISTENING
CBC podcast on the history of Pornhub (it’s good!). Law & Order theme because I have fallen hard and fast for a hyperfixation on all things Law and Order. Nothing sweeter than a new obsession.

1. Chef is fine. Cute even. It’s just fun to be a hater.