Favorite Food-Related Movies and Television Shows

In our household, we love food…and we love watching television and movies, so when you combine the two, it's sure to be a winning combination.

I asked Kitchen Witch One what were here favorite food-related films and shows.  This is what she contributed: 

Here is the porridge connection with favorite movies  - Oliver! (1968).

“Please sir can I have some more.”

That darn gruel again. But the song will stay with me a lifetime "Food, Glorious Food".

Babette’s Feast (1987)

Chocolat  (2000)

Mostly Martha (2001). She would like to emphasize that it's the German version she adores. 

The Taste (2013)

These are some good choices. But I'm going to go a different route. 

Top Chef (2006) or Chopped (2007) or even Chopped Canada (2014) would have to be my favorite cooking competition shows.  I can watch reruns of Chopped repeatedly - I always forget who wins so it's no hardship.  

But my favorite food-related TV show would have to be My Lovely Sam Soon. Touted as the Korean equivalent of Bridget Jones' Diary, it's just amazing. Sam Soon is a pastry chef and there's a restaurant and it's great. Here's a trailer (which really does not do the show justice).  So if you have some hours to kill - watch it on Hulu. MY LOVELY SAM SOON TRAILER!

Food-related movies, besides what has already been listed, would have to be Romantics Anonymous (2010) and Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011). 

Romantics Anonymous is not a perfect movie - there's not enough chocolate-making for my tastes - but it's a light-hearted, quirky little thing and I enjoy it.  Jiro Dreams of Sushi really highlights the craft, in my opinion, and the drive to create the perfect bite. Also Jiro reminds me of a cute little turtle. 

Do you have a favorite food-related movie or television show? 

The Joy of Senses

Food can play with all your senses. Visually, smell, touch and even sound, this results in the appreciation of what we are about to eat. Nobody wants to eat a plate of grey goop. Memories are triggered and can be processed as positive or negative. Childhood memories like tasting Popeye candy cigarettes, or the last thing you ate before you got the flu.

When something is plated beautifully and smells great we then anticipate that the next sense of taste, will open up like a domino effect. Thou the opposite can also happen if you are presented something and it looks good but once you taste it either it is too salty or perhaps too fishy or down right nasty you are going to take note. But if you are starving and have not eaten in days I guess you will eat anything.

If you have never heard the sound of food be it frying in a pan or a sizzling platter arriving at your table of hot onions and fajitas next time, take note. This too plays into your senses. If I were to say the word Dill pickle you will start to salivate. (Well it works for some). The smell of fresh basil or other herbs like rosemary or thyme triggers also senses.

Our tongues have many sensory areas for bitter, sweet, sour and salty. We have a food industry now that offers blind tasting, wine tasting, cuppings of coffee, food sampling so there is no lack of exposure.

Our noses also play a key part in the overall process of eating. Many people like to smell their food to take in another sense. You have seen those people at the stores smelling their produce to pick the ripest fruit. Wine tasting also have people dipping their noses to get the bouquet of the grape. Then there is the dreaded smelling of spoiled milk ritual. (I will pass on this task). Limburger cheese, my father’s favorite -- Kitchen Witch Two take note this cheese is especially known for its pungent odor commonly compared to body odor. I think it smells like feet but who am I to say. Some people don’t like the smell of cabbage, or fried fish we all have different sensitivities to all senses. Some people won’t eat anything green and some won’t eat things because of their texture.

This is where I can say we are not created equal in this department it is all personal. When we are asked what we would like to eat for our favorite meal for a special celebration it shines a light on what kind of person we are because it in many ways reflects who you are. Spicy food, comfort foods or exotic foods.

Unless you have a medical condition there should be no boundaries for the adventures of trying different foods.

Bland diets and eating the same thing everyday is dull. Try something new you don’t need to travel the world to broaden your taste buds. Are you not curious to know about other foods in today’s society between online shopping and a wide variety of grocery stores you can expand your horizons just in your own kitchen. Go to the ethnic shops and explore what treasures they offer. Be it a new spice or a jar of their best selling condiment to go with grilled meat or even an exotic fruit you have never tasted before.

This allows you to open up so many doors to all the different cultures and gives you an understanding how and what other people eat in this wonderful complex world we live in. Like I said food brings people together and through this perhaps we can understand each other a bit more.

One third of the world population eats with their hands, many countries like Moroccans often eat with their hands and use bread as a utensil or couscous and with rice in other places like India and China. Even as small children we start out with finger foods. Heck, how many cocktail parties offer things on platters to grab with your fingers. God made them we might as well use them, but this opens up all other factors into how we eat food. Even my dear Jacques Pépin likes to eat his salad with his fingers. Use whatever you like, nourishment is the end result we seek and the sooner it gets to my belly the better.

Favorite Cookbooks

Often a cookbook can serve as a doorway into cooking.  A cookbook doesn't judge if you make a mistake and it can definitely withstand frantic and virulent cursing when a recipe is confusing or you notice that some component of a recipe needs to refrigerate for 24 hours and you were hoping to have it for dinner that night.

So a cookbook can be your friend on your culinary adventure -- and a good friend can be hard to find.

I asked my mother, Kitchen Witch One, what were her favorite cookbooks. Here is her list:

Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan
Joy of Cooking (1983) by Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker
Fast Food My Way by Jacques Pépin
The Australian Women’s Weekly The Barbecue Cookbook
Cooking for a Crowd  by Susan Wyler
La Varenne Pratique by Anne Willan
Delia Smith's Christmas by Delia Smith

Perfect Recipes for Having People Over  by Pam Anderson

This list seems quite short when you see how many cookbooks she owns.  From all those cookbooks, she only has this many favorites? Let me just say I'm not going to be rushing to carry all the boxes of cookbooks if my parents decide to move again. Books can bring so much joy but they can also be very heavy.


My list is comparatively shorter:

Well Fed and Well Fed 2 by Melissa Joulwan. I love these cookbooks. The second Paleo cookbook I ever bought was Well Fed and my mom kind of fell in love with it and the carnitas recipe (which always makes my life easier). This cookbook made me fall in love with cumin. I previously was of the opinion that cumin was very reminiscent of body odor - but no more -- well it still reminds me of B.O., but at least it's tasty B.O.  Well Fed 2 is worth its weight in goal solely for the variation of burgers, balls, and bangers. I love to eat new flavors - I get bored with the same things over and over again - but these meat recipes are so tasty (ALWAYS DOUBLE THE RECIPE) and easy.  It makes deciding what to eat for lunch super easy.

Nom Nom Paleo: Food for Humans by Michelle Tam and Henry Fong. One of my favorite blogs because of mushroom chips. I love this cookbook. I actually bought it for my mom for her birthday - What do you get the woman who has a lot of cookbooks? Another cookbook! But I've kind of been enjoying her gift more than she has…Am I a selfish daughter? Very possibly. But Big-O Bacon Burgers. Big-O Bacon Burgers. Big-O Bacon Burgers!!!

Do you have a favorite cookbook? Feel free to share in the comment section.

Introduction - Samantha's Food History

I live to eat. When I plan vacations, the main things that I worry about are: 

1. Where am I going to eat?
2. Where am I going to sleep? (This is also important).  

The success of vacations are measured by the quality of the food.  The visit to Seattle in the midst of an ice storm sounds like it has the potential to be the worst vacation ever, but then you factor in fried cheese curds, BBQ pork humbow,  and Pike Place Market, and it's one of the best vacations I've ever had. 

BBQ pork humbow at Pike Place Market

I remember the restaurants in the places where I used to live as child with a laser-like focus.  At five years old, I had already created a map in my head of the places where I liked to eat or could get food.  

So food has always been on my mind and it was easy to lose myself in the textures, flavors, and comfort that food could provide. Consequently for most of my life, my weight has also been an unpleasant reminder of my love of food. Diets were the equivalent of a gastronomic prison sentence. 

My mother has always been the cook in the house. My dad would occasionally pull out some Italian dish - fiddling around with ratios of tomato paste to bread crumbs in his Sicilian Spidini, but I think I would be more likely to win the lottery than see my dad cook like this again in my life (scrambled eggs don't count).  My mother is an intimidating culinary presence so trying to wrestle the "cook of the house" mantle away from her is a challenge. However, my mother is a pretty pitiful baker and so baking was a relatively safe way that I could cook and experiment without threatening her status or endangering her beloved kitchen.  I'm that crazy person who likes to make the most time-consuming recipes or bake things from scratch. This is another way that my mother and I differ.  

I would bake pies, cookies, bars from the Joy of Cooking,  croissants and bagel bombs from Momofuku Milk Bar's cookbook and then on January 16, 2012, I decided to start living life sans gluten.  This was a spontaneous decision (a true rarity for me), but I felt so much better the next day that I was sold.   Eating gluten-free provided me with an opportunity to cook more in my household. I bought some gluten-free and Paleo cookbooks,  but I don't think I'll ever be able to complete with the veritable wall of cookbooks that my mother owns (the background picture of this blog). 

Cooking more provided me the opportunity to relate more with my mother. We started going to grocery stores together, talking about food. She would reluctantly and at times brusquely answer my cooking questions - "Do you think this pot is big enough?" 

So while cooking has provided us this opportunity to bond, it has also fueled some of our greatest arguments. My mother and I are very different people - I like to measure and follow a recipe. She's a little more carefree and likes to "concoct" dishes.   

I've recently come to the realization that I am a carboholic. Eating gluten-free greatly reduced my intake of carbs because while there are some really great gluten-free products they don't always come close to the gluten-y goodness of pizza, bread, etc.  However in this new year, I have decided to eliminate grains all together and start living a more Paleo way of life.  

In the midst of rolling out meatballs, I brought up the idea of starting a blog with my mother to talk about our love of cooking, our memories of food (and eating),  and our relationship together.  This is the result.  :)

Introduction - Why Linda Loves Food

As long as I can remember the kitchen table was the heart of the house. Many hours were spent with family and friends discussing everything under the moon, I find that food always brings people together. Growing up on a farm makes you appreciate the cycle of food. You have to care for it and then you can enjoy all its glory. Yes, this includes slaughtering of animals and picking potato bugs and the hardships of farm life. Nothing beats getting off the school bus and running to the garden and stopping to get a snack. Fresh strawberries or sugar peas or even pulling up a carrot and brushing off the dirt and eating it right there and then. Climbing fruit trees and getting the right apple, pear or handful of cherries. Picking black currants, red currants, gooseberries, raspberries. Learning not to eat the leaves of rhubarb. Summers were busy working the fields. But I would not trade it for the world. Nothing like fresh tomatoes, cobs of corn and grilled meat to fill you up after a long day. Sometimes, we would enjoy engaging in impromptu eating contests. I think I always had that Buddha belly and will have it for life. I love to eat.

Then you factor in the trips into the city and with wide eyes a whole new world opens up. My first trip to a Woolworth’s and tasting fresh squeezed orange juice with a warm steaming hot dog. Let alone walking into my first IGA store and seeing all the stuff on the shelves. Playing with an easy bake oven and empty shoe boxes as food items just doesn’t cut it. But this was the making of a Foodie. There is one thing that I will tell you is an underlying thread through my life and still stay with me. It is Porridge. It might have all started with the children’s poem:

Pease porridge hot, pease porridge cold,

Pease porridge in the pot, nine days old;

Some like it hot, some like it cold,

Some like it in the pot nine days old. 

Well when I discovered Alphabets at the grocery store was the light at the end of the tunnel. I would never have to eat my mother’s porridge again - Rice Krispies and even Lucky Charms…. something other than my mother’s porridge. (*Mother is not the best of cooks) Nothing worst then hard cold porridge with a dot of butter in the middle. (Gag). You will see porridge has this effect on me .They say cooks skip a generation. We are trying to change that here. Trips to Grandmothers was always a treat we drank out of fancy tea cups and ate open face sandwiches and there was always a bowl of fresh fruit on the coffee table to snack on - grapes and apples and plums.

Sunday roasts were a mainstay, you never knew when unexpected company should show up in the afternoon; add a couple more potatoes and everybody eats. Life was carefree and wholesome growing up on the farm.

Then things changed and we moved to the Big City. Well what lay ahead was a gate way to many different foods I could not get enough of all the different cultures through schoolmates or fairs showcasing all the different foods. My first Taco was at the CNE Food Pavilion and just took off from there.

Eighth grade is when everything started to come together. Home economics. I made my first Lasagna, watched pressure cookers explode and all ethnic foods were appearing in front of me. Korean, Chinese, Mexican, Greek, Italian, French. Farmer’s Markets, Gourmet shops. Thank goodness I was doing sports. Buddha belly would explode. I have been known to eat two 12 inch submarine sandwiches in one sitting. (Oink). So Track and Field and The Girl Guides and various activities kept me in line. Three weeks in the Northern Ontario forests with the Girl Guides subsisting mainly on porridge will make one really eager for different food. Under a certain picnic table, under the gravel, is a lot of porridge(I know because I put it there. I know it is wasteful but porridge is nasty) though I do like Oatmeal cookies.

So years have come and gone and I had studied in the Hospitality Industry, but had decided to cook for family and friends instead of spending long hours in the back of a kitchen. So coming full circle I have a passion for food and love most things. I have a small list of dislikes but I can say I at least tried them once. Through my travels I have had many experiences in various markets and food courts and hope to share many stories.