Silverbrow on Food

Ratatouille

Films about food are an unusual but rich niche.  Very few have had enormous commercial success, although there are some exceptions such as Babette's Feast or Chocolat.  Supposedly, Big Night is a fantastic example of food-porn although I've yet to see it and if we want to get down and dirty, there is always La Grande Bouffe.

It now looks like food is getting the Pixar treatment with Ratatouille, the story of an American rat living in Paris, with a yearning for top nosh.  I wonder if the inspiration might have been Orson Welles' Down and Out in Paris and London?

We have got at least a year to wait until we see any more than the trailer, but that at least is promising.

Hat-tip: Il Forno

Shooting stars

I've been mulling over my Urasawa post and have decided that my rating system for restaurants doesn't have any value.  How can I rate Kalendar alongside Urasawa?  Many would argue that it is similarly misleading to put Pétrus up there with Urasawa, and I would agree with them, if only because of the profound effect Urasawa has had on me, whereas Pétrus was a fantastic meal but was in no way transcendental.

It should be fairly obvious from the tone of the post whether I like a restaurant or not.  It should be similarly clear what type of restaurant I'm talking about, whether it's a quick Tuesday night local or, a shprawntzy fur coat no knickers footballer's wives establishment or, a gastronomic delight.  Most importantly, it should be clear whether it is the type of place I'd want to eat at again, why I'd want to eat there and the type of food I'd hope to be eating.

I am going to keep my stars up there for existing posts because I think it would be confusing to remove them.  I hope that in future posts, I can make the comparative merits of restaurants clear in the text, without resorting to starry shorthand.