"" What's She Eating Now?: Top Five Movie Food Scenes

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Top Five Movie Food Scenes

A reader named Allen recently posted a request for a list of the top movies about food. The Hungry Mouse beat me to it with a pretty exhaustive top 50 list, though I note the site's teetotalling omission of both Bottle Shock and Sideways, as well as its protest of people as an acceptable pastry filling with its exclusion of Sweeney Todd. And while I do love movies about food, some of the best gastronomic lines or scenes are actually contained in flicks about entirely different subjects and should not go unrecognized. Here are some of my favorites snippets from films not on Hungry Mouse's list, add yours to the comments section!

1) Its so hard to choose a favorite among the various food-related scenes in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. The scene where Brad tells Arnold he can talk to Dennis Taylor to see if he can get him a job at All American Burger since 'everything went downhill at Bronco Burger ever since they started with the chicken mcnuggets'? How about when Stacy meets Ron Johnson, Audio Consultant, when she waits on him at Perry's? Or better yet, what about the one where Spicoli orders pizza to Mr. Hand's classroom? All good choices, but its hard for a scene from this movie to emerge as a favorite on any list when it doesn't involve Mike Damone. Take note of rule #4 in his 5 point plan:


2) An obvious choice but no food movie quote list would be complete with out this line from Silence of the Lambs:


3) Who could forget Ally Sheedy's mayo, Pixy Stix, and Cap'n Crunch sandwich from the lunch scene in The Breakfast Club?


4) This scene from Heat is not about food but does take place at a restaurant and has the historical significance of being the only scene Al Pacino and Robert De Niro had done together up to this point. Perhaps they should have left the collaboration at this one great scene instead of embarking on box office smellsation Righteous Kill with 50 Cent last year.


5)And perhaps my favorite food scene from a movie not actually about food? The prison scene from Goodfellas:

4 comments:

  1. What about the classic fast times scene in the german restaurant. when damone drops the wallet off on the table full of empty cokes.

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  2. Good call Eddie. A priceless clip. That movie is so chock full of great food scenes.

    I realize I was also remiss in not mentioning my favorite food scenes from Trading Places, like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4Uv4ftekaI , and this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgGjqD_QUC8. Genius.

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  3. While not focused on squarely on food, I think the diner scene in When Harry Met Sally is a classic.

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  4. Man, oh man. The first 2 minutes of last night's 30 Rock season 4 priemer instantly entered my personal food-scene hall of fame.

    http://www.nbc.com/30-rock/video/episodes

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