'Chef' To 'Willy Wonka': 8 Films Food Lovers Can Add To Their Watchlists

For foodies to appreciate, there are many great films centred on different types of cuisine. Others use food as a way to relate to the bigger issues of the story, while some of them are primarily about cooking and eating. Even a few specific movies have come to be regarded as defining this subgenre. 

Food may have a significant impact on someone's life, whether they are a well-known chef searching for their next big break, or a young girl who will always be connected to her father through the meal they created together. It has a significant role in society and has the capacity to tell incredible tales, which may explain why it's so simple to relate to these food-related movies.

Films Based On Chefs

Movies on food and chefs are not only great to watch, perhaps with a glass of wine, for their gorgeous culinary aesthetics and typically entertaining narratives, but they can also be a terrific inspiration for experimenting with new recipes in the kitchen. Here is our selected list of such movies for you to read on.

Chef

In the 2014 American road comedy-drama film Chef, Jon Favreau plays a chef who, following a public argument with a food critic, loses his job at a well-known Los Angeles restaurant and starts working for a food truck with his young son. Along with Robert Downey Jr. appearing in a cameo, it also stars Sofia Vergara, John Leguizamo, Scarlett Johansson, Oliver Platt, Bobby Cannavale, and Dustin Hoffman. After helming many high-budget movies, Favreau wanted to "go down to basics" and make a movie about cooking. Roy Choi, the proprietor of a food truck and a chef, worked on the production as a co-producer and was in charge of the menus and food.

Waitress

The comedy-drama film by Adrienne Shelly tells the tale of Jenna Hunterson, a table attendant who lives in the American South and is bound to her abusive and domineering husband, Earl. She works at Joe's Pie Diner, where part of her employment entails inventing unique pies with names inspired by her experiences, such as the "Bad Baby Pie" she comes up with after learning of her unwanted pregnancy. Jenna is steadily saving money to leave her unhappy marriage because she desperately wants to.

Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory

The plot of the movie centres on Charlie, a little boy from a poor household, and four other children who are given the opportunity to explore an incredible chocolate factory managed by an inventive chocolatier named Willy Wonka and his team of Oompa-Loompas. The connection to food also serves a much wider symbolic meaning, which is intensely personal. But if you're just seeking to have fun with food, a Roald Dahl classic is probably your best chance. This is a hilarious and chaotic adventure that sees Charlie finally take on the enormous chocolate factory, with a captivating performance from Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka and a variety of strange situations that result in children being eliminated from the game.

Suggested Reading: This Chocolate Day, Try These Interesting Flavours That Everyone’s Gushing Over

Salt N' Pepper

Salt N' Pepper has a tagline that approximately translates to "A Story About Making A Dosa," despite the fact that many people consider it to be a love movie. Therefore, in many respects, cooking and eating totally frame this tale of love and friendship. In the movie, the foodie Kalidasan gets a call that was not intended for him. He discovers that Maya, the person on the other end, enjoys cooking and eating as well. They quickly fall in love with one another. Aashiq Abu directed and produced Salt N' Pepper, an Indian romantic comedy movie in the Malayalam language, for Lucsam Creations. Lal, Asif Ali, Shwetha Menon, and Mythili are the movie's leading actors, and Baburaj and Vijayaraghavan are its supporting cast members.

Cheeni Kam

In R. Balki's Cheeni Kam, the politics of age and diet are set aside to show that what actually attracts people who are the complete opposite of each other is a subliminal need to get a taste of each other's personalities. Even though Amitabh Bachchan and Tabu play the roles of Neena and Buddha, who fall in love through time, they end up on opposite extremes of the love spectrum. Despite presenting a wide variety of dishes at his restaurants, he has never had meat, whereas she has a religious bent toward non-vegetarianism.

Julie And Julia 

When Julia Child started getting involved in cooking in the 2009 Nora Ephron film, she too was at a crossroads in her life and unsure of what she should do with her life. But Julia Child elevated cookery, forming her own story and inventing something wholly original. Julie Powell adopted Julia's story rather than coming up with something entirely new.

No Reservations

A 2007 American romantic comedy-drama starring Catherine Zeta-Jones, Aaron Eckhart, and Abigail Breslin, No Reservations was directed by Scott Hicks. In the narrative, a perfectionist cook battles to raise the daughter of her deceased sister as a new, brash chef poses a danger to taking over the kitchen with his swashbuckling methods.

Ratatouille

Chefs have long loved Ratatouille's portrayal of the pleasures of food and the labour involved in preparing it; Anthony Bourdain, who played a brief consulting role early in the film's development, proclaimed it to be the best culinary movie ever created.