Food and Restaurant Movies + TV Series

A true modern classic. Unusually well written screenplay with an incredible ensemble cast. Makers of this movie have managed to show the cooking in exceptionally high quality and standard. For me this is a bit like "The Godfather in the kitchen". Truly undervalued urban cinematic masterpiece.

Ang Lee's unforgettable masterpiece, where food and human nature are used as a backbone in one of the best movies ever made. This is a must-see film! - NOTE: After you've seen this one, it will be well worth checking out the Hollywood remake of this film, called "Tortilla Soup" directed by Maria Ripoli.

The original, the best, and the mother of all Ramen -movies. This is the movie that started the demand for Japanese food -movies.

A really good film! Superb story with fantastic cast. Refreshing, original, fresh concept and wonderfully portrayed clashes of two very different cultures, which from the outlook don't seem to have nothing in common, except for the fact that good food is good, no matter which culture it hails from. Highly recommended, you will not be disappointed!

This movie takes a hilarious attitude towards molecular-cooking. Jean Reno's and Michel Youn's double drag act scene is the funniest such cinematic performance since Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in "Some Like it Hot". You just can't stop laughing - this slipping noodle eating sequence could seriously split your sides!

Fictionalized yet based on a real life story of a real person and an actual historical event - the last extravagant 3-day banquet held at the famous Château Chantilly for the benefit of King Louis XIV and his entire Versailles court entourage, carefully orchestrated behind the scenes by François Vatel, a legendary Maître d'Hôtel, who worked for Louis XIV's cousin, and the owner of Château Chantilly, Prince of Condé-Bourbon, shortly after Vatel's previous employer, the infamous Nicolas Fouquet was convicted and thrown in jail for embezzling on an unprecedented scale from the French State.

Here's a piece of Trivia: François Vatel is often, but erroneously cited as the inventor of Chantilly Cream.

A Fantastic Indian masterpiece with a refreshingly original and novel approach to anything but a traditional love story. Also, worth pointing out the very simple, yet complicated backbone of the story: India's "Dabba" food delivery system is well known for being the most effective and error-free organization in the World! The fact that the love story depicted in this movie happens only because of that 0,01% error margin, says it all. This is truly a must see film!

Another surprise! Really well written story which is almost brutally honest about the madness that is in reality attached to a game of chasing the coveted Michelin star, and how destructive life-destroying process it can be. Includes a major surprise plot twist, which is truly a massive jaw dropper! I mean, if anyone would claim they guessed the plot twist in advance, I would be inclined to say they are either lying or they have a unusually remarkable gift of perception. Producers include Gordon Ramsay and Mario Batali and it shows revealingly in the dishes, which are heavily influenced by low fat modern French Haut Cuisine, well known to be favored by both Ramsay and Batali.

Stanley Tucci's and Tony Shalhoub's cult classic dinner movie. Presents many lesser known Italian food masterpieces. The entire plot device and sequence involving the planning and making one of their signature specialty, "Timpana" is in its simplicity a truly remarkable featured eye candy, that will make you want to get into the kitchen as soon as possible!

Truly an unexpected surprise of how good this film turned out to be! The cooking and food in this film are shown in exquisite standards. And what's even better, they are showing us at the same time both Chinese higher classic cooking and modern French fusion at its best! -As in most world cinemas, Chinese cinema has its own conventions and visual styles, which can be a bit overpowering and obfuscating for inexperienced western audiences, but for once they are really done with tastefully and without exaggerating too much, so it won't really bother in the course of the film all that much. Cooking shown is highly inventive, and most of the dishes have a distinct and easily recognizable influence from Heston Blumenthal's, Ferrano Adrià's and Rene Redzepi's molecular cooking styles. As it has been said: All cooking is basically just chemistry and how well we know it.

Animated food has never looked so good! Surprisingly realistic portrayal of how the kitchen brigade system actually works. Also some of the misogyny in professional kitchens portrayed in this film, is very realistic and unfortunately true, especially in French kitchens, where female chefs are a true rarity.

This is an American remake of Ang Lee's "Yin shi nan nu" ("Eat Drink Man Woman"), now moved into L.A. Mexican-American family surroundings, and it works pretty well, doesn't have anything to be ashamed of when compared to Ang Lee's original masterpiece.

Surprisingly good, optimistic and realistic food movie. If you don't start craving for a "Cubana" after watching this... -then there is something really wrong with your appetite. This movie also manages to lift in status such humble dish as "Grilled Cheese Sandwich" - by explaining precisely how it SHOULD be done, when done properly.

Superbly written story, one of the best screenplays I have ever seen. This film oozes eccentrics, without being too distracting nor does it slip into surrealism. Eddie Murphy manages to convince in his role which is very different from his usual repertoire. We don't even get to hear his famous laughter, as the comedy in this movie is very toned down, and so is the entire plot, which has obviously been given some sort a special treatment in which all distractions and possible sources of conflicts, which could have altered the way this story is being told. All clear references to things like race issues, alcoholism, cancer, death and such are not discussed at any point, not even referenced in anyway, even when they're glaringly obvious, preventing any of it coming up as points of discussion. For a story supposedly based on real life, this is a bit strange self-censorship, but I admit it also does help telling the story it wants to tell in a very focused - yet overtly sanitized and unpolished way. Yes, it is a weird and baffling choice, which really is very hard to understand. However, my personal opinion is that this is one of the best American movies released in the past 20 years! Critics really, really, really hated this film, but all I can say is that please ignore what most of the professional critics have said about this film they obviously didn't even want to understand. Cooking in this film is presented extremely thoughtfully, which presents a refined style of home cooking with typical Southern flavor. Highly recommended film to all film and food lovers!

Those who are not familiar with the history of McDonald's, this will be a learning experience of how one of the worst examples of American corporate greed was born. All in all... This is a very good film, however the way the story is presented, there are plenty of unforgivable gaps and time lapses, and for those reasons, the normal character development looks like it has been discarded, which is a real shame, because it is so obvious there would have been much, much more to tell regarding all the main characters. The very unscrupulous manifestation of greed which comes out on top, is brought vividly forward by Michael Keaton, who is perfectly cast as Ray Kroc. His feverish, almost deadpan delivery works especially well in this context.

One more surprise find. For a small budget indie movie, this is just too good to be true! - The story has a sense of novelty, even though it has few too much used cliches, but still it manages to impress with its sense of realism. Low key of the film is its soundtrack, which is minimal, and mainly just manages to irritate. Also, acting is at points abysmal. I can only imagine what they could have accomplished with a large budget. As for indie movies, this is a must see!

Yet another surprise find! Turned out to be way much better than expected, with completely original take on restaurant, food and humanity. Based on a Japanese TV-series, which is truly quirky and a bit weird, even in Japanese standards!

Really interesting story, seriously nice presentation of some of the most simple of the French classics, such as "Black Truffles on Toast".

Another fantastic mixing of well established genres, a Jidaigeki-samurai-food movie... First of it's kind.

I expected this one to be more like "Delicatessen", an exploration into world of surreal, but found instead a marvelous pastiche, which dives unafraid into the depths of hedonistic, unrepentant, ultimate pinnacle of seeking culinary and gastronomic pleasure, without any consideration for ethics or thinking if it has "too many calories". Vegans, this movie is definitely not for you.. they suck too many bone marrows and eat "soft-eyed deers" in this one!

Focuses more on the delights of confectionery, but still a good one. One of Johnny Depp's best.

Food and restaurant movies are very popular subjects in Japanese film and television industry, so therefore its not that surprising to find a Japanese film which concentrates only on one narrow niche of Japanese cuisine. This film is about "Yakiniku", where customers grill the carefully prepared meat themselves right on the grill inserted on the table in front of them. This has a good an interesting story arc, and like so many other Japanese films, teaches the viewer a lot about Japanese food and food culture. Highly recommended film!

On the realm of surreal existentialist films, you will either love or hate this, depending on your level of understanding abstract concepts. Includes a "surprise" plot twist involving food.

Includes a plot twist which won't come out as any major surprise to anyone watching the film. Soooooooooooo predictable.

This movie is very good as a comedy, and on the side explains everything in-and-between you have ever wanted to know about noodles.