In ‘The Taste of Things,’ all those delicious foods on screen are real: NPR

Many critics have warned: do not see the new French film The taste of things on an empty stomach. Juliette Binoche plays the personal cook of a man with a sweet tooth. They share a passion for food (and each other), but she refuses to marry him. Filled with delicious foods, the film celebrates food and all the work and love that goes into preparing it.

When you see a delicious food in a movie or in an advertisement, chances are it’s not edible. Food stylists have been known to substitute milk for glue, whipped cream for shaving foam, and coat meat with motor oil to make it shine.

All this was a big “Non” for French Vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung.

He says he wanted “everything” in The taste of things “be real“, from the raw ingredients to the menu and the way the cooks move in the kitchen.

Instead of opting for “beauty photos,” Tran says she prefers to “see men and women at work doing their craft in the kitchen. And when this feeling is right, then everything will look beautiful. Not beautiful like a picture. It’s beautiful as something that is real.”

Easier said than done. Real food can’t always withstand multiple feedings. Additionally, Tran needed to show dishes in different stages of preparation. So he needed a lot of everything. For the classic French stew pot-au-feu “we needed 40 kilos of meat for filming.”

That’s almost 90 pounds.

He also had to find vegetables that looked like they were harvested in the 19th century. “They’re not as pretty as they are today,” he says. “They’re not smooth, you know, and they have a lot of spots on their skin.”

‘Crazy sensuality’

One of the most impressive creations of The taste of things is a seafood vol-au-vent, a large puff pastry filled with a thick sauce of crayfish and vegetables. The image of the cut cut for guests is one of “absolute beauty” and “crazy sensuality,” says three-star chef Pierre Gagnaire, a consultant on the film.

After conducting extensive research on the history of French cuisine and working with a historian, Tran recruited Gagnaire to ensure the menu he had devised would work in real life.

“He found out that some recipes weren’t good, so he changed them for me,” Tran recalls.

Gagnaire also cooked for Tran for five days so the director could study his movements in preparation for filming. Tran says that watching Gagnaire move around the kitchen taught him that “simplicity is important and you don’t have to have the perfect gesture for this or that. You just need to, you know, be very free… and improvise.”

Gagnaire says the film is like a gift: “It’s a tribute to my technique, to my creativity,” he says. He renowned The chef agreed to take a small role in the film, the culinary specialty of the Prince of Eurasia. mouth officer.

‘When I say cut, they always keep eating’

If the kitchen in the film had been manipulated by a food stylist, it probably would not have been edible. Tran Anh Hung says The taste of things The crew took home bags of dogs for dinner and the actors said, “When I say cut, they always keep eating.”

The time came when they had to shoot some scenes “unbuttoned,” he laughs, “because there was no more space for the costumes to enlarge them.”

The taste of things It doesn’t have much dialogue. The action (and intimacy) is in the kitchen. Binoche’s character is calm and focused. She is less interested in romance than in a creative culinary partnership.

Gagnaire says he identifies. He started working in kitchens when he was a teenager and he didn’t like it. He was shy and reserved. But when he realized that he had a special talent for the profession, it became his way of socializing.

“By feeding people and making them happy,” he says, “cooking helped me connect with society. And develop.” real relations.”

The taste of things It’s the opposite of a great superhero action movie. Gagnaire believes people need that right now.

“We are bombarded with vulgarity and brutality,” he says, “When you leave this movie, you feel calm… because instead of violence, there is tenderness.”

For Tran, the pleasures of good food are essential. “In life we ​​have two sources of sensuality. It’s love and food,” she says.

The taste of things bring those two sources together in the kitchen.

This story was edited for broadcast and digital formats by Rose Friedman. The web story was produced by Beth Novey.