The 20 best food scenes in film, from Pulp Fiction to Spinal Tap

The best films capture all our senses. It’s no surprise, then, that food has had a rich, long history on the silver screen.

Food is used as a tool for the filmmaker to communicate with the audience – it can uncover new sides of a character, depending on what they choose to indulge in, or it can signal romance or a deep sense of friendship, since cooking a meal is an act of love when done right. And, sometimes, it can be used simply to make us salivate – there’s no denying that a well-shot plate of food, or the sight of freshly baked bread, can evoke the sense of delicious smells wafting into the cinema, instantly elevating the appetite.

In Ratatouille, it was food that transported the cynical food critic back to the comforts of his childhood, while it helped a grown-up Peter Pan in Hook reconnect with his sense of imagination. In The Help, it was a weapon of revenge, while in Babette’s Feast, it was a gift to show solidarity. Lady and the Tramp and Pulp Fiction both used food as flirtation, while Julia Roberts’s character in Eat Pray Love had a flirtation with food itself. In Marie Antoinette, it was the choice of food that helped denote decadence, while in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, it was a sign of boundless ingenuity. Spinal Tap used food as the trigger for a true rock star diva moment. In Julie & Julia and Chocolat, meanwhile, food brought peace and satisfaction both to those who prepared it and those who consumed it.

Here are some of the very best uses of food onscreen.

Lady and the Tramp

Who would have guessed that one of the most romantic scenes in cinema would involve two dogs eating scraps in an alleyway? And, yet, the iconic spaghetti kiss from Disney’s 1955 animated film – soundtracked by Sonny Burke and Peggy Lee’s “Bella Notte” – has been oft-imitated but never surpassed. And, as Tramp proves, there’s no greater act of chivalry than offering your date the last meatball…

Babette’s Feast

Gabriel Axel’s Oscar-winning 1987 Danish film is a visual treat for any self-confessed gourmand. The story sees two pious Protestant sisters offer refuge to a French woman fleeing the political tumult in Paris after the collapse of the Second Empire in 1871. They agree to hire her as a housekeeper, discovering later that she’s the former chef of one of Paris’s best restaurants. When she wins the lottery, she uses the funds to whip up an unforgettable meal for her kindly hosts.

Hook

All the very best chefs know that a dash of pure imagination is key to creating a true culinary wonder. It’s a lesson well-taught in Steven Spielberg’s 1991 classic, Hook, when a grown-up Peter Pan (Robin Williams) looks on in disbelief as the Lost Boys tuck into what appears to be nothing at all. It’s only when he truly believes that he can see the brightly colour feast laid out before him. And what childish feast would be complete without an old-fashioned food fight?

Steel Magnolias

While there’s been a growing fad of ambitious, unusually themed cakes – you need only look at the success of the TLC reality series Cake Boss – there are few cinematic cakes that stick in the memory like Jackson (Dylan McDermott)’s groom cake from 1989 comedy-drama Steel Magnolias. The armadillo-shaped creation offered a unique spin on the American South tradition of having another cake separate to the main wedding cake. And did we mention that it’s red velvet on the inside?

Breakfast at Tiffany’s

(Keystone Features/Getty Images)

Sure, the 1961 film’s title may be a little misleading. In fact, Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) only has breakfast outside of Tiffany’s, popping out of a cab in the early morning light to peer into the jewellery shop window, while enjoying a pastry and some coffee in a paper cup. Decades later, the moment still remains the peak of glamour, so who cares if it’s all a little white lie?

The Godfather

It’s a classic scene that proves to be surprisingly instructional. Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 film has a full-blown recipe tucked within its elegant drama, as Vito Corleone’s close associate, Peter Clemenza (Richard Castellano), offers his version of the perfect pasta sauce. As he explains: “You start out with a little bit of oil. Then you fry some garlic. Then you throw in some tomatoes, tomato paste, you fry it; you make sure it doesn't stick. You get it to a boil; you shove in all your sausage and your meatballs. Add a little bit of wine, and a little bit of sugar – that's my trick."

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

Although the entire 1971 musical is a sugary delight, it is hardest to resist the temptation of Willy Wonka’s Fizzy Lifting Drinks, a soda described as so bubbly that it lifts anyone who drinks it right off the ground. It’s no wonder that it was the one stop on the tour that ended up tempting the pure-hearted Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum) and his grandfather (Jack Albertson). Now, the real question is: does it come in different flavours?

Eat Pray Love

Julia Roberts enjoys a slice of pizza in Eat Pray Love, 2010 (Rex Features)

For anyone who considers pizza to be the true love of their life, Ryan Murphy’s 2010 romcom is a perfect cinematic match. It’s hard not to relate to the moment Liz Gilbert (Julia Roberts) bites into a piece of authentic Italian pizza, during the Naples stop on her global adventure of self-discovery, and declares: “I’m in love. I’m in a relationship with my pizza.”

Beauty and the Beast

Although we might not be convinced that the grey stuff on the dinner table in Disney’s 1991 animation is delicious, the “dinner and show” approach to Lumiere (Jerry Orbach)’s hospitality is something we could certainly get used to. Belle (Paige O'Hara) is presented with a whole cavalcade of sumptuous dishes, including beef ragout, cheese souffle, pie and pudding "en flambe". And there’s a sage piece of advice to go with it all, too: “If you're stressed, it's fine dining we suggest!” Indeed.

Marie Antoinette

Let them eat cake: Kirsten Dunst as Marie Antoinette in a film adaptation (Columbia Pictures)

When it came to director Sofia Coppola conjuring the ultimate image of decadence for her 2006 biopic on the French queen, there was no more perfect treat than Ladurée’s famous macaroons. Delicate and pastel-toned, the meringue-based confection has long been the speciality of the French bakery, first established in 1862. A new flavour was even created in honour of the film; the Marie Antoinette offers a combination of rose and anise.

The Hundred-Foot Journey

Food is often regarded as one of the best ways to understand a culture, and 2014’s The Hundred-Foot Journey is wonderful for showing the efforts the talented, self-taught novice Hassan (Manish Dayal) goes to in order to comprehend that. During a picnic he reveals he has mastered the five “mother sauces” of French cuisine, and the delicate tasting process that follows demonstrates just how important food is to France.

Goodfellas

“In prison, dinner was always a big thing.” So much so that the Wise Guys ate better than most people on the outside. Bobby Darin’s “Beyond the Sea” plays in the background as the gangsters prepare their meal: garlic sliced so thin with a razor blade that it would “liquefy in the pan with just a little oil”, meatballs in a tomato sauce that’s “a little too oniony”, steak cooked medium-rare, iced lobsters, prosciutto, salami, cheese, red wine and good Scotch. Maybe crime does pay after all.

Chocolat

There are few pleasures in life more fulfilling than that of cooking for others. In the 2000 film Chocolat – based on the book by Joanne Harris – a slow-motion scene where dinner party guests tuck into the feast created by expert chocolatier Vianne Rocher (Juliette Binoche) is full of warmth and laughter.

Pulp Fiction

Vincent Vega (John Travolta) takes his boss’s wife Mia (Uma Thurman) out to Jack Rabbit Slim’s for a burger, where she decides she wants the “five dollar shake”. “You don’t put bourbon in it or nothing?” a bewildered Vincent asks the waiter. When it arrives, Mia takes a long sip: “Yummy”. “I gotta know what a five dollar shake tastes like,” Vincent says. He takes a sip. Then another. “Goddamn that’s a pretty f***ing good milkshake.”

Julie & Julia

A still from Julie & Julia (Rex)

Nora Ephron’s 2009 feature film based on the intertwining stories of chef Julia Child and Julie Powell, the blogger who rose to fame after documenting her pledge to cook all 524 recipes in Child’s cookbook, is all about the joy one can find in food. It is some of the earlier scenes that capture this best, like when Julia (Meryl Streep) and her husband Paul (Stanley Tucci) arrive in Paris and stop at a French restaurant, where Julia is served a sizzling platter of sole. It looked so mouth-watering in the final edit that Ephron “wanted to call up Martin Scorsese and say, ‘you’ve never shot a fish like that before’”.

Ratatouille

Fearsome critic Anton Ego takes a bite of ratatouille and is transported back to his childhood, where it was a favourite comfort food, in the best scene from Pixar’s wonderful animated 2007 film. The detail is superb, from the process of Remy the rat preparing the dish to the moment Ego’s pen falls to the ground as he remembers the power of a favourite meal in evoking memories we thought were lost.

Spinal Tap

“I don’t want this, I want large bread… but I can rise above it, I’m a professional.” The miniature bread catastrophe is a beautiful parody on every self-absorbed rock star to have kicked off over something as ludicrous as the food they’re served backstage.

The Help

After all the trauma she has been through – at the hands of her abusive husband and a racist ex-employer – Minny (Octavia Spencer) arrives at her employer Celia Foote to find a beautiful dinner cooked for her as a thank you for everything she has done for Celia and her husband. You see the care that has gone into it as Celia lays everything out on the table, from a “mile-high meringue” to the fried chicken Minny taught her how to make. “That table of food gave Minny the strength she needed,” the narration explains. “She took her babies out from under Leroy and never went back.”

Five Easy Pieces

Bobby Dupea (Jack Nicholson) tries to reason with a waitress in Five Easy Pieces (Columbia Pictures)

Robert Dupea (Jack Nicholson) just wants some toast to go with his omelette, but the waitress is stubbornly sticking to the diner’s “no substitutions” rule. “I’ll make it as easy for you as I can,” goes the famous order. “I’d like an omelette, plain, and a chicken salad sandwich on wheat toast. No mayonnaise, no butter, no lettuce… and hold the chicken.”

Big Night

It was a scene that helped propel a revolution in American dining. Il Timpano, a dish inspired by the notoriously tricky-to-make Italian meal, is the star of a moment in 1996 film Big Night where chef brothers Primo (Tony Shalhoub) and Secondo (Stanley Tucci) prepare it as the centrepiece for a feast attended by their rival, Pascal. “Goddammit, I should kill you,” Pascal screams, throwing his fork down after tasting Il Timpano. “This is so f***ing good, I should kill you.”

Hungry to make your own movie? Then check out this year’s Nespresso Talents contest. The unique competition asks filmmakers to tell a story through the format of vertical video on the theme of ‘We are what we eat’. To find out more*, visit Nespresso.com/Talents

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