20. Food & Movies with Pete of Middle Class Film Class Podcast

Get your popcorn ready: on this episode we go to the movies with Pete, a host of the Middle Class Film Class Podcast -- a radio-style show that talks about all things related to film and television.  Pete breaks down some of his top food scenes in movies, and I interject with some of my favorite scenes as well.

Movies and Scenes: 

• Spanglish – “Oh baby” sandwich: https://youtube.com/watch?v=mASVABRNeM4&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=FilmfoodJanneke…
• Inglourious Basterds: Strudel & crème: https://youtube.com/watch?v=W2rFWk45eSg&ab_channel=THESSALONIAN31N…
• Hook – Imaginary dinner & insults: https://youtube.com/watch?v=s-T-vG1LX9A&ab_channel=BingeSociety…
• Jiro Dreams of Sushi – Symphony on a plate: https://youtube.com/watch?v=G2edsT-HCjE&ab_channel=MagnoliaPictures%26MagnetReleasing…
• Ratatouille – Ratatouille reminds Ego of home: https://youtube.com/watch?v=5m7SGjJo7c4&ab_channel=FrancoSeguer…
• Big Night – Timpano so good, I should kill you: https://youtube.com/watch?v=Yd8gK6EgpLM&ab_channel=Movieclips…
• Babette’s Feast – The entire 3rd act  (1:04 on in the link below): https://youtube.com/watch?v=ILS0bZWiWvM&ab_channel=1987s…
• Honorable Mention: Studio Ghibli food: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ILS0bZWiWvM&ab_channel=1987s

Pete

• Twitter: @TheRealPEEEETE

Middle Class Film Class:  

•  Website: MCFCpodcast.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/podcastMCFC  

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• https://www.kanopy.com/en/category/9513 
• Check your local library for access!

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The flaky foodie podcast. Theonly show where the discussion
is delicious and there's chatterto chew on. On today's episode
is kind of a podcast crossovermoment. We have Pete from the
middle class film class podcastson board, and he's going to talk

(00:33):
to us about the best food scenesand movies. So whether your
movie snack food of choice isRed Vines and soda or popcorn
and m&ms, you're going to wantto get it ready because we have
some cinematic culinary delightsto share with you that's coming
up right after the break.

(00:59):
Did you know that this episodeis also on YouTube to find it
search for the flaky foodie.
So I don't know if you heard butpumpkin spice season is back.
Which means fall is definitelyon the way, which means that is

(01:23):
also the best time to curl upwith a good movie. But make sure
that there's plenty of snacks inyour house place an order
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click the link in my show notesor show description.
Welcome back to the flaky foodiePodcast. I'm Jess and today we

(02:07):
have with us Pete. He's from themiddle class film class podcast.
Do you mind telling us a littlebit more about that, and welcome
to the show?

Pete (02:16):
Oh, thank you so much. I'm happy to be here. Yeah, that
middle class film classes were aweekly news and review. And
recommendation show. We do twoshows a week. We used to do one
really long show. And there'sessentially the first half is
released on Mondays. And we talkabout the weekly news, things

(02:37):
that are happening in the newsand fun stuff, crazy stuff, the
obvious things, you know. Andthen the second half of that
episode, we do streamingrecommendation streaming picks.
So if you got all the big stuff,Hulu and Amazon Prime, and
Netflix, we all watch stuffthroughout the week recommend
what's good, what's to stay awayfrom. And the three of us, we
record it live like it's a radioshow. So there was really no

(03:00):
editing, there's really nothingthat's off topic. And we, you
know, have live sound intros andsegments and all that kind of
stuff. So it's kind of likelistening to a radio show,
because I really like oldschool, morning shows. That's
kind of what we modeled itafter. And then the second
episode a week is one deep divereview. And that's just movies
that we're really into, or wehave a fan suggestions. And we

(03:21):
all do it randomly from aspinning wheel. It's pretty fun.

Jess (03:24):
Yeah, that's pretty fun. I didn't realize that you guys
were doing 100% live as Ilistened to a few episodes. So
that's dope. I'm just thinkingabout the juggling that that
would take so I'm just like,wow, that's that's really cool.
You're also into foods. So tellme a little bit more about how
you enjoy food and movie.

Pete (03:43):
Well, foods, foods and interesting thing food is like,
I mean, there's a reason whythere's, you know, multiple full
time food networks ontelevision. It's, it transcends
every culture, you have to youhave to eat it, you obviously
have to eat it to survive, sowhy not enjoy it? And I've
always had a really strongrelationship with food. My My

(04:06):
mother tells me I have to takeher at her word, because I don't
remember this but much she'stold me my first thing I ever
said more than just a fleetingword here and there was give me
more food. Sitting in myhighchair Give me more. I love
our food. I'm so hungry. And Iwas that was just me as a child.

(04:26):
I was my mom called me thebottom was Pete and I could just
eat and I used to be a littlemore picky when I was a child
and now I I've as I've grownolder, I forced myself to get
out of my bubble and stop beingyou know, picky. And, you know,
this isn't sweet. I can't havethis. And now I'll eat just

(04:46):
about anything and I'll try.
I'll try anything twice. The onelike for only sea urchin in
sushi. I've tried it twice.
Never third time. It's not forme. I'll wait. I'll wait. decade
before I try it again but, butin in movies, I have a really
strong emotional connection withfilm, mainly because it's like

(05:07):
you can revisit a movie 100times and it's the same every
time. And you get this endorphinrush, maybe not always
endorphins but sometimes sadnesssometimes fear, you know scary
movies. But there's there'sreally something that hits on a
really visceral level for mewhen you see amazing food
portrayed in film and then watchthe people consume it because

(05:29):
almost like I'm eating the food,except for I'm not getting I'm
not getting away from it.

Jess (05:34):
Or to make you at the end, you're just like, Okay, I have
to go get this. Oh, yeah, one ofthe I have this experience for
myself.

Pete (05:41):
One of the scenes we're going to talk about today, I've
made that that sandwich manytimes in my life tried model,
that's my sandwich after thatone sandwich. So,

Jess (05:51):
okay, so we'll get into it, because I definitely have a
question regarding that. Okay.
Yeah, sure. So let's start onthis list of awesome food scenes
in movies or our food movies,because some of these movies are
centered around being in thekitchen or being a cook or being
a chef, which I thought wasreally interesting. So what is
the number one because I'm notsure the order Yeah, list. I

(06:13):
haven't really

Pete (06:15):
ordered these per se. I'll think of just like just off the
top. Although I'll just pick myprobably my lowest impactful
one. So this is the from themovie Spanglish starring Adam
Sandler, one of his seriousroles that people kind of
reference he plays a funnyenough character, but he's he's
a very definitely, it's astraight man in that, and he's

(06:37):
actually love that. It's great.
Yeah, and they'll be crews. Ibelieve that a long time since
I've seen it. But I rewatchedall these specific scenes for
the show. And there was a onespecific scene, he's uh, he
plays a chef in the movie, it'snot really talked about a ton.
You don't see him cooking a ton.
I used to believe he plays achef. If not, he's just really

(06:59):
likes food because he makes thissandwich that it's some sort of
meat I'm not sure if it's like aroasted chicken or if it's a
steak sandwich. But it's a bigcut of meat. They don't really
linger on it. And it's on nicesourdough like white, white,
sliced sourdough bread, and hetoasts. toast some cheese on it
in the toaster oven. And thenonce he assembles it all

(07:21):
together, he fries a nice friedegg and puts it on top, puts it
cuts it in half, and he'sgetting ready to take a bite and
he says, Oh, baby, and then theKEA and that's that's his
respite from the family madnessthat's happening in the house.
And then right right as he'sgetting ready to take his first
bite, the madness comes in. Andeveryone's like I kakaka we need
to we need to talk to you, dad.
And it's very relatable. So, Isaw that, I saw that. When the

(07:46):
movie first came out, I saw itnot in theaters, but right when
it released a DVD out as arental. And that sandwich looks
so good. And

Jess (07:58):
I took such loving care and making it you can tell that
you know I'm about to savor thisbefore he's rudely interrupted.

Pete (08:08):
Food can be Yeah, food can be an escape in a lot of ways
sometimes an unhealthy escape.
But a lot of times it's just youhave a favorite food. And it
doesn't matter what's happeningto the day when you take a bite
of it. It's just a way to juststop and I don't know how many
times you've stopped on a like alunch break for work. And you
take a bite of something. Maybeyou go home and have some
leftovers or bring leftovers towork or something and it's

(08:29):
whatever it is it just hits thespot and you just go ah, and
it's like the day why melt awayfor that moment.

Jess (08:39):
You could mine us a warm chocolate chip cookie really
instant escape.

Pete (08:44):
I love it. You have do you have a special recipe for your
chocolate chip cookies.

Jess (08:50):
I do is actually the one from Sally's baking addition
addiction.com Her recipe adds alittle bit of cornstarch into
the dough. And what that does,it makes them last longer
because you make the Nestletollhouse they're good that day.
But the next day they don'ttaste as great they get a little
stale these days soft and chewy.
And I think it's corn starchthat makes the difference. Dark

(09:15):
brown sugar makes a differenceand leaving your dough to rest
in the fridge for at least a dayor two really, really? Yes it
really develops a depth offlavor. And you also prevent
cookie spread which for whichmakes good fat cookies. Yeah,
sure. Id good.

Pete (09:34):
So if you don't if you don't let them rest in the
fridge, they will kind of smooshout and make the white thing
cookies.

Jess (09:41):
They will spread Yeah, you will get those thin crispy
cookies. Oh and a friend whomakes your dough rest.

Pete (09:47):
I had a friend who put vanilla Jello pudding mix in her
cookies chocolate chip cookiemix that that does. I've never
done a side by side comparisonbut they were good.

Jess (09:58):
I think I can't remember what recipe I use the putting in
for cookies there. There arecertain types. They're like a
whole series when you usedifferent put in flavors.
Everybody has like their ownspin online on food blogs.

Pete (10:09):
It's nice like that.

Jess (10:12):
So I think I made like a strawberry cheesecake cookie
once before. I experimented witheverything.

Pete (10:18):
Now you're speaking my language. That but that
rewatching all the scenes forthis, this show. That's the one
that I've copied that sandwichmany times tried different
variations on different meatsand whatnot and cheeses. But
that's what that was the moviethat broke out frying an egg on
a sandwich for me. Never reallythought to do that before and I

(10:39):
saw that and I'm like, That's agreat idea. I love runny eggs.
And now I like every almostevery time I make a burger home
a fried egg and put it on top.

Jess (10:47):
I'm the exact opposite but I have a very unpopular opinion
on eggs

Pete (10:54):
that's all right. It's that's that's how my girlfriend
likes it. So I'll cook I couldnot wait for her.

Jess (11:01):
Very nice for you to do so because some people are very,
you know, it has to be this wayor it has to be that way. So
yeah, that's very nice.

Pete (11:08):
You did did you remember Do you know what Cena was
talking about? When I sent youthat list for the the Oh, baby
sandwich.

Jess (11:16):
You know what? I didn't really remember it. But as soon
as I watched it, I was like, Iremember that because I was just
thinking like, I want to saywhat she you know, it didn't
make me want that specificsandwich. But I was just like,
You know what, it would bereally nice right now a
sandwich. Yeah, it's that'sreally cool. All

Pete (11:31):
right, let's see what's the what's next. I'd say that.
The next one is a little morefun. It's a little less
realistic. This is from mychildhood. This is from Steven
Spielberg is a Peter Panversion. rendition Hulk. Yeah,
this is the imaginary dinner.
You you've seen hook.

Jess (11:50):
I've seen it like once okay, I didn't watch it a whole
lot growing up but

Pete (11:55):
I Oh yeah. Only as an adult have I found out that
people people say that hook isnot a good movie. And I'm just
like infuriated by that becauseit's so it's so instrumental my
childhood and I've been calledPeter Pan my whole life. So
it's, it's there's a lot ofmaybe there's some repressed
anger there that goes along withit and retribution. But it's oh

(12:20):
gosh, Julie Roberts playsTinkerbell. I'm completely
having a brain fart. On PeterPan. He's He's, uh, gosh. What
is the name? Who plays Peter Panand Robin Williams? That's it. I
don't know. I can't think ofthat. Yeah, the best the
greatest. And, and, and DustinHoffman as the as the titular
hook. So Peter Pan loses. He'san adult. He doesn't believe

(12:45):
he's Peter Pan, he thinks hePeter panning, and he goes back
to Neverland. And he's withloss, boys. We're all boys
still. And he's this taxaccountant. And he's sitting
there and they're all pretendingto eat this dinner and it's just
a bowl full of empty steam. It'sand he can't wrap his mind
around say What are you guysdoing? What are you eating? And

(13:07):
the catalyst to him beginning tobelieve is the whole theme of
the whole movie. And the themeof Peter Pan you have to believe
is that he gets an insult battlewith the new leader of laws boys
Rufio played by Dante Basco andand he

Jess (13:22):
they had a Shakespearean insult Oh,

Pete (13:24):
yeah, that's great. lucru back of old chewed food dude. I
remember that, like from mychildhood burned in my head and,
and he the insole battleculminates with the lost boys
finally, being excited thatPeter Pan's here. And He scoops
up a bowl of air with a spoonand flings it at Rufio and Rufio

(13:44):
gets hit in the face of thiscreamy blue and red sludge. And
then he looks he takes one lookagain and you have what Steven
Spielberg is great for is justthis wonderfully lit. whimsical
dinner of some of its real food.
Like there's like a roast duckor roast chickens and things
there. But then there's a lot ofit's just giant bowls of wet

(14:05):
like colored whipped cream, anddifferent COVID puddings and
things. Yeah. And it's so it'sso fun. And it looks so
appetizing as a child. Maybe notso much as an adult now. I'm
like, Man, I get heartburn fromthat.

Jess (14:24):
But I mean, it's no space left on the table. The dishes
are super close together all yousee on the table pretty much his
food. And something that wasinteresting in the comments was
that when he starts to believeyou see, like a blue light on
the spoon before he flicks it.
And so it was like a interestingkind of lighting choice there
which I thought was

Pete (14:45):
interesting. I'm gonna have to rewatch that
specifically for that becauseI've I tackled a lot of old
Spielberg stuff for the show forour show. And one of them was
et. It was a movie that scaredthe hell had me as a child. And
I revisited it to overcome myfear on the show. And it was

(15:06):
really fun too, because I callmy mom on air. And we had I told
her how traumatized I was aboutit. And she, she had no idea.
But in et, there's a number ofscenes where they're in the
house and the lights coming inthrough the window, and you can
see the sun rays coming in. Andit's like, it doesn't seem it
seems like real life, it doesn'tseem like a movie in a lot of

(15:28):
Steven Spielberg stuff. And hereally has a way of luck with
life. So that's, that's reallyinteresting, he said. The other
thing that I love about thatscene in hook is the camaraderie
that's tied to the meal. Andthat's something that some
people never, maybe never, butevery once in a blue moon will

(15:49):
have those like large scalemeals with friends and family.
And it's, it's somethingspecial. It's do you do eat in
large groups often?

Jess (15:58):
Yeah, we're on holidays. I have a really big family since
pandemic happen, or the greatPanini, as I like to call it. As
it happened, we've done thatless but yeah, definitely big
food. But it's interesting thatit's never been around like this
huge table. Everyone kind ofgoes to because it's usually

(16:19):
like a smaller house. Everybodykind of goes to their own little
corners. Yeah, it kind of clicksthe cousins, you know, kind of
sit around together and eattogether, but separately, or
it'd be like in a room but youknow, we're at one. One group is
at this little table and otherones at this little table. And
so you have jokes kind of be aholler from table laughing at
Oh, yeah.

Pete (16:41):
Wanna hear that joke?

Jess (16:43):
You have your, your my aunts and uncles and they're
telling some stories because wegrew up. I live in I grew up in
Quincy, Florida, which is a verysmall town there, Tallahassee.
And so they're telling tales ofmy favorite one is the great
bird feast that they had onetime when they were kids, you
know, kids being kids, they werejust and you know, that time,

(17:03):
they just kind of let you looseto roam outside. And so, you
know, they had these birds thatthey all kind of just shot up
random birds. Oh, really. And,and so, you know, I can't tell
the story, as well as my auntsand uncles, but it's just things
like that. That's great. Idefinitely get that camaraderie

(17:24):
field was very interesting tosee. And it kind of reminds me
of the movie soul food. Which tobe honest, I haven't really seen
in its entirety. But I rememberall the scenes around the table
from like, compilations andthings like that, and it and
it's just people kind of sitaround the table. And the food
is kind of the backdrop of theentire story that I'm sitting

(17:45):
around eating. So

Pete (17:46):
that's it. You haven't seen that before. How long did
that come out? It's a newer one.

Jess (17:51):
Oh, that was a 90 Oh,

Pete (17:52):
90s. Okay, I'll check that out. I like 90s in the 2000s are
like my sweet spot. Yeah, therewas only later in life. Let me
as a kid, you don't really getthat. And like the lunchroom,
cafeteria and stuff like that.
But it's not the same. You know,you're there for admission, eat
and go back to school. But theone time I experienced that
outside of my household, we hada work function. And we I was

(18:13):
selling alarm, it's door to doorterrible job. It was hard work
sucks. All day, or anything. Itwas I mean, our goal was to sell
one house per day, and you'd be350 500 doors you'd knock on and
you get one yes. And the restare nose. It's crippling to your

(18:34):
to your psyche. So the end ofthe season. You don't see in
here, your coworkers becauseyou're in this side of town, and
they're in that side of town. Soyou're literally by yourself the
entire time. And at the end ofthis season, our boss it took us
to. I'm in Northern Californianear Sacramento. And we were
selling in Newton, Sacramento,but we drove to San Francisco is

(18:58):
about a two hour drive. And wewent to this this Italian
restaurant called steps of Romein North Beach, San Francisco.
And it's traditional Italianfood. And it's traditionally set
like they do in Italy where thedinner service runs until about
midnight, maybe one in themorning. And we were there until
about 230 or three o'clock. Andthere was probably 25 or 30 guys

(19:19):
there. Everyone who wanted tocome and after I left that
dinner, I felt like they werelike my best friends was so
great. And we're sharing offeach other's plates. We we did
not we ordered instead of justordering dessert individually.
We just ordered one of everydessert and pull it down the
center of the table and we allwould just eat off the plates

(19:39):
man it was it was I felt like Iwas Peter Pan with last supper I
was the kid

Jess (19:48):
that is that as though but I was I think it's interesting
to how that piece is looked sogood to a kid but as an adult.
You can see the work that theperson should see, you know,
just like they just colored soputting on the table. As a kid,
you're just like, Man, I want toscoop with that green stuff and
blue stuff. And that's right, somany different colors on the

(20:12):
table as well. And you know,this scene kind of reminded me
of that scene in Matilda withthe chocolate cake. Yeah. That's
iconic. You know, the ladybrought out the cake, licked her
arms and said her sweat andblood went into it. You're just
still like, Man, I could really.
And he was forced fed this cakeas well. You're still just like,
I want a slice of it. Which is,which is really interesting

Pete (20:35):
when I was when I was looking through like lists food
lists to make sure I didn't missany obvious ones. For this list.
I saw the chocolate cake scenecame up a number of times, and
that one that one never landedon me just I'm not much of a
chocolate cake guy. But, andit's been so long since I've
seen that movie, but your blood,your literal blood, sweat and

(20:56):
tears can go into a dish andI'll still eat it. I don't. I
don't I don't. I mean, you seeeasy chef's tasting their dishes
as they're cooking in the backand it's like that's just you
got to do it. It's okay. You'reyou're not gonna die. It's all
right.

Jess (21:12):
Well, yeah, you missed out on some good food spots, because
I always say the whole hole inthe wall type places have the
best food.

Pete (21:19):
Absolutely. Let's see.
What do we got next? Let's dothe strudel scene from
Inglorious Basterds.

Jess (21:30):
Now, I had never seen this before. And I love like apple
pie, anything like that. So Iwas just like, I felt I was
like, I feel like I'm notsupposed to be enjoying this
scene as much as I should.
Because there's so much tensionthat you feel but I'm just my I
kept going back to the plate. Myhands. That's some thick crust.
I bet that's fair, buddy.

Pete (21:49):
I know. You see that one the money shot where she cuts
into it and he gets explode. Soyou have you seen Have you seen
the movie since then? At all?
No. Okay, I haven't seen thewhole movie. So, the premise of
Inglorious Basterds? It's aQuinn Tarantino movie. I have a
poster of it right? literallystaring right at it right in
front of me at the moment. Allright now it's fist fantastic
movie. It's one of my favoriteshas the best opening scene of

(22:12):
any it's a characterintroduction scene for Christoph
Waltz. Character, Hans lander,Colonel Hans lander. And that's
Hans lander, in the in thestrudel scene. Well, in the
opening scene of the movie,which is you could just watch
that one and know what you'regetting yourself into for the
movie. It's a 15 minute movie,10 minute scene. It is a
textbook class, on tension, justlike the brutal scenes. And in

(22:38):
that scene, he's in NaziGermany. He works for the SS.
And his job is to find theJewish families that have hidden
in France, so they canexterminate them. And he goes to
miss you a lot of these Housesays little milk farmer in the
countryside of France. And hegoes in and he basically says, I

(22:59):
need to find out what thewhereabouts of your net your
your neighbors are. And it turnsout that he's hiding them in the
floorboards beneath his house.
It's It's the mother of theFather and to the son and two
daughters, and Shoshana is theoldest daughter, and without
giving away the entire scene,Shoshana is the only one that

(23:21):
makes it out alive. And sheknows exactly who Hans lander
is. She can see him through thefloorboards having this
conversation and thisextravagant conversation. And
then, halfway through the movie,she sees him again, as she's
running a movie theater, andthey're trying to secure the
movie theater to show thispropaganda film. And Hans lander
is head of security. So he needsto interview her because she

(23:42):
owns the theater and will berunning the projector. And as
soon as he walks in the door,her heart just is racing and she
knows she's trapped and shecan't do anything about it. So
he doesn't know what she lookslike because he only saw the
back of her head and she'schanged her name. So she's
sitting here with a man whomurdered her family while she
was laying on the ground next tothem. And he's a stone, stone

(24:05):
cold killer with no remorse. Andthe only respite she has in this
entire scenario is that heorders a strudel for her. And it
forces her to wait for the creamto come to eat the cream and
then she takes one big bite ofthe cream with the with the
strudel and you get that bigsigh of relief through her nose

(24:25):
that she's doing. Because she'sexactly like you said, you're
like I don't know if I shouldenjoy this right now. But it's
so good. And it's just just thatone shot of her taking the bite,
chewing it and then that momentfeels better. And that's that
delicious strudel that doesthat.

Jess (24:47):
So there's this wonderful close up shot of the waiters
scooping out the crane and ainteresting like, plot point, I
guess or device is that he Let'ssit so carefully and gently on
her strudel. But he just kind ofplops it down. Really on his on
his.

Pete (25:08):
I didn't I didn't catch that. That's great. I probably I
probably seen this movie 15times. It's a brutal, very, very
brutal movie. I mean, it'sTarantino, so you know, you're
expecting but the care that hetakes to paint that scene is
very, very good. And there'salmost no there's almost no like

(25:31):
positivity in, in the entiremovie. Like it's just down and
down and down and down, down.
But in that scene, you get shegets just that little waft of,
of relief and I, I like thatbecause it's, it's so easy to do
with a good delicious bite offood.

Jess (25:47):
You know, it was so funny to me in the comment section on
that somebody said they tooklike a frozen just regular
Toaster Strudel Apple, heated itup, added some ice cream, so but
so basically, you know, a verybasic version of what they saw
the movie they were like, That'sall it's awesome. And I have it
every day. Just that kind of asimile of what they saw the

(26:10):
movie was enough to kind of keepthem going on. I was like,
that's awesome. If

Pete (26:16):
a unique food idea from that, if the person who wrote
that comment is listening to hispodcast right now, please make
yourself some homemade cream,like whipped cream. Heavy, heavy
cream, in in a in a stand mixer.
Little bit of a know a littlebit of sugar, there's not much
need you need to it it is lifechanging. It'll change all your
desserts forever. You don't haveto do ice cream, because you
know that that takes it to awhole nother level that turns

(26:38):
into its own separate categoryof dessert for me, but just just
a little dollop of homemadewhipped cream. It's so good. The
state the stand mixer pays foritself with with the homemade
cream in my opinion.

Jess (26:54):
Now you look making a store run. I've already bought
some apple something afterseeing that so

Pete (27:03):
I like to have I like to squeeze some fresh blueberries
into my whipped cream when I'mmaking it just makes them such a
good idea. Whatever berry I gotand on hand I'll just squeeze it
down. I don't put the you know,the pulp and stuff in there.
Just squeeze it down and run itthrough a sieve or something and
then throw that into the bowl asit's beating it. It doesn't get
as thick because the in thewateriness kills it a little bit

(27:26):
but it's it's it's really good.
And lemon zest that too.
Probably yeah, probably right atthe at the end. Absolutely.
Yeah. Delicious. I have bothdownstairs.

Jess (27:40):
Yes, because my favorite cake to make and probably one of
my most successful was a lemonblueberry cake. The recipe is
from Mel's kitchen cafe. I thinkit's her her blog title. And
it's a blueberry and lemon cakewith cream cheese frosting.

Pete (27:57):
That sounds great. That's more my speed. I'll leave the
chocolate at the door. I'll takethat. Alright, let's see what do
we get next? Let's go with thethere's a specific scene from
this movie, but the whole movieis worth it if you're a foodie
is Jiro Dreams of Sushi. Andthis is more of a documentary

(28:18):
than a narrative movie. And itfollows I don't know his first
name his last woman I think hisfirst name is Gero, Gero
something, and he is known asthe greatest sushi sushi chef of
all time. greatest ever was goodas ever will be. He's literally
dedicated, like 70 years of hislife to creating good sushi. And

(28:41):
the interesting thing, but haveyou seen the entire dock?

Jess (28:45):
No, I haven't. Okay, well now. Yeah, it's on my to watch
list for sure.

Pete (28:49):
It is gorgeous. Gorgeous.
It's like It's like watchingart. And and it's it's the
interesting thing about Jiro andhis sushi is that he only has
two restaurants. And they onlysee about 15 people each. And
they're in a subway tunnel inTokyo. They're not, there's not

(29:11):
a whole lot of pomp andcircumstance, there's no,
there's a waiting list that'ssix month long to get into the
restaurant. And yet, it is themost simple little cuts of fish.
And the scene that I sent you isthis it's called the symphony on
a plate. And he and Joe talksabout how each meal should be he
thinks of like a symphony. Andit's, it's you don't just give

(29:35):
somebody a piece of fish and youdon't just give somebody five
pieces of fish. You start withthe intro that warms your senses
and you move to the Mac rolebecause that's the weight of the
meal and then to the fatty tunabecause the you know more more
vibrant flavor and more thickmore substance. And he explains
it as he's serving it to thesepatrons and the During the scene

(29:58):
you see it set over some likemusic like like classical music
and you're just watching theselike up close macro shots of him
painting some unknown sauce onthis fish and molding in his
hand and placing it on thislittle black slab. And God makes
me mountain and with my mouthwater right now you're gonna run

(30:19):
me watching it and

Jess (30:21):
every piece is perfect.
Yes, like not not a grain ofrice out of place. Everything is
just perfect and onpoint

Pete (30:28):
it's um, but forgetting that one scene because the scene
is amazing, the entire movieslike that. There's the talk
about Tamago it's like some sortof like an egg souffle. That's
you don't really see it toooften at sushi places. If you
see it on the menu at a sushiplace. It's kind of a risky,

(30:48):
risky purchase because it's it'sa funky dish. It's it's really
is like whipped egg baked into apan and then cut into squares
and wrap like sushi. And I can'tremember the full name of it but
tomatoes egg, and it's likeTomohiko or something. And
they'd spent about 15 minutes ofthe movie talking about how his
son who is his apprentice, hedoesn't let his son after 15

(31:12):
years of practicing to make thetama Kiko still doesn't let him
make it for the restaurant cuzhe can't get it right. It's it's
like that difficult to make inhis eyes and juros eyes. So
there's a very interestingfamily dynamic that goes along
with it. There's He has twosons. And I believe it's I
believe it's Tucson. It's been along time since I've seen it.

(31:33):
And there's the secondrestaurant. And he one of them
has to be able to run it. Sothere's like this jockeying back
and forth I believe, and itspends probably 2030 minutes of
the movie talking about how theychoose their ingredients,
interspersed throughout shots ofthem, cooking it, so they they
know specifically all the fishmongers at the market. They go

(31:53):
down there at four o'clock inthe morning, every morning to go
pick the best fish and they havethe giant macaroni puts his head
down on the macro and knocks onit like he's knocking on a
melon. And he goes now thismacro is no good. Give me Give
me another batch to knock on.

Jess (32:09):
And it's like didn't know I didn't know fish at the Noctis
too good.

Pete (32:12):
I had no idea. Really interesting. Yeah. So I mean,
you and I would knock on a fishand go Yeah.
Yeah, I'd say I don't even knowwhat kind of fish that is. But
Jiro is literally spent hisentire life longer than a lot of
people have been alive start tofinish. And he's still still

(32:36):
trapped. He still says, I thinkin this in this clip, I think
maybe it was maybe a differentone. But he says, I'm still
learning. I'll never be the man.
I'll never be perfect. There'snever perfection. There's only
the strive for perfection. And Ifeel that when I'm trying a new
recipe that speaks to me. I'vebeen spending five years to
master my fried chicken wings.

(33:00):
And I feel like I'm prettyclose. But every time I every
time I eat it. I'm like, Okay,well, let's change it a little
bit. Do you have do you have arecipe like that you're chasing
the the ultimate version?

Jess (33:11):
Well, usually the recipes that I'm chasing are usually my
mom's because my mom is she'sthe homemaker. She's probably
one of the best cake makers. Iknow. So every time I made a
cake, I don't I don't reallybake as much anymore. But when
every time I made a cake, I willalways take it to her. And
probably just like the sun fromthe film. I'm like, What do you

(33:33):
think? And I'm like watching herface. Like she takes a bite and
I'm just like

Pete (33:39):
I hope you like it. Tier one tier. Well, how's How's mom
like your cakes?

Jess (33:45):
Well, it's something that she likes the shields. She's
very honest. If she if it'ssomething that's not quite
right, and she's, you know, sheused to do cake demonstrations
at school. So she she basicallygrazed the cake. Like, she'll
just be like, Well, you see thisshriek right here? You probably
need to mix it a little whilelonger and I'm

Pete (34:05):
interested. What's what what is your mom's like, if you
think of if it's your birthday,and mom's gonna make you cake.
What are you secretly hopingit's with?

Jess (34:15):
Without cake? Chocolate pancake pancake?

Pete (34:18):
Is that what kind of frosting goes on that?

Jess (34:21):
I don't, I'm actually not a big frosting person. So, it's
usually just a plain pancake andpeople don't understand people.
When people say that they likefrosting on the cake I'm like,
But why frosting is so easy tomake. It's just fat and sugar
you know? But a cake to get itright to get it to where is the

(34:41):
Kromme is the way you want it.
It's the perfect moistest artand so I'm just like you need to
please save for the cake. Justthough just just don't scoop the
frogs ago savor the cake.

Pete (34:53):
How do you feel about fudge if you're if you're that
way about frosting because Ican't do like I can't do fudge
either.

Jess (34:58):
I don't I always expect like some huge chocoholic, and
it's always this and it smellsso good, like you pass the fudge
shop and always invite you inand I get it and I take one bite
and I'm just like, I don't likethis cloyingly sweets, and it's
too cloyingly sweet and thatkind of I like kind of like I

(35:18):
love cheesecake. So I like likerich things. And I'm just like,
it's it's just is way too

Pete (35:23):
way too much. Yeah, yes.
The one chocolate cake that Icrave also comes from my mom and
it's a it's a chocolate stoutcake. She like It's like
boiling, stout beer, mixed withwhatever else and it makes us
really, really dark cake. Andthen she she puts a chocolate
ganache frosting on it, but it'sshe she rolls it out real thin.
And it's a it's just the rightamount of frosting like a

(35:45):
little, maybe a tad bit toomuch. But it comes from mom, so
it's perfect.

Jess (35:52):
Exactly my mom's chocolate pancake is very kind of light on
the chocolate. So the best way Ican describe it as like a like
kind of chocolate ice cream.
It's so smooth, like she makesit to where it's like melts on
your mouth, on your on yourpalate, like ice cream. And
there's a little part at thebottom of the cake and which is
tick, which is you know the topwhile it's baking in a bundt

(36:14):
pan, and it gets slightlycrispy. But right below that is
like I don't know what you wouldcall it. But it's like almost
like a It's not candy, but it'sit'll just like instantly melt,
melt away when you eat it. Andit's like the best part of the
cake. Like you really eat thecake from the top and savor this
little bottom part of the cake.

(36:35):
And it's really good.

Pete (36:36):
So I love pancake. I mean, it's I could just grab it, grab
it at any moment. Just take abite. It's good to go.

Jess (36:45):
I always pancake is always a safe bet because with layer
cakes is a massive waste for mebecause I will scoop out most of
the cake. And probably about afourth of the icing because I
only need a little bit. Butwhere I am now there's this
bakery called decadent likes.
Her frosting is not that sweet.
And I love her her cakes. Nice.
So

Pete (37:07):
good deal. Well, yeah, I sorry, I think no, a big
tangent. Okay. That's that'swhat it's all about. I mean, you
could I have a my chicken wingjourney has transitioned into
the Suvi realm. So now I Oh,wow, your face. Yeah. I cook
them all. Because there's tworeasons why number one is that

(37:31):
it's really hard to get, it'sreally hard to get keep them
juicy and kick them all the waythrough, you know, chickens like
that. You got toed the line, ifyou could get to the safe point,
if you go just a little bit toofar, he starts getting dry. And
I think that's the that's thekey to a really good chicken
wing. And if I don't havecontrol over getting like the
big ones because you just go tothe store and get the frozen
wings, I'm not fancy enough toget get them fresh. I have to I

(37:54):
have to control the temperature.
So I cook the other then thesecond reason is that you can
pre freeze bags in differentsizes. So I put like 1010 Pack
bags and 15 Pack bags anddifferent sizes and label them
and I put them pre pack and prefreeze them. Just salt and
pepper a tiny bit of butter andthen vacuum seal them and then
throw my freezer standing up.

(38:15):
And at any time if I'm like wejust want an easy dinner. I'll
just tell you know my girlfriendworks from home. So I'll tell
her Hey, get the water runningand throwing you know two packs
at at noon. And it'll take anhour for them to thaw and then
two, three hours for them tocook. And we're by the time I
get home from work I'm gettingready to pull them out and fry
him. And they're already cooked.
So we just we just toss them incornstarch, unseasoned

(38:38):
unflavored cornstarch becauseshe's gluten free so we don't
use flour. And do just a quickflash fry like two minute flash
fry just to get some crispnessto it and then we usually dry
season and but we do the wholehot ones thing well we'll put
the 1010 levels of spiciness andthen all the dry rubs we make
all our dry rubs from scratchtoo. And it's it's a good time
chicken weeknights fun in ourhouse.

Jess (39:02):
So yeah, that was an experience. Yeah, find out a lot
about each other. Yeah, thegradual lead up to the very hot
wind or is it just kind of like,

Pete (39:14):
we kinda Yeah, we, when we do it with just ourselves. We
know the sauces we like, so wedon't do we don't make a big
hurrah about it, but we have hadpeople over well, we'll cook 100
wings, and then just lay him outunseasoned season them yourself.
And here's the here's theexperience and we'll there's
there's a point of no return inthe hotness where you're like

(39:35):
this is for this is what mostpeople consider hot and this is
another level. So if you if youdon't if you don't want that,
here's here's the delineationline. So stay away from you
know, what's the what's thereally bad I got to there's a
Blair's Ultra death sauce Ithink is the one that I have.
That's really really hard. It'sreally hard. I mean, you one

(39:58):
little dab of it and you'reyou're done. post for 20
minutes. So I see people I haveone, only one friend I've ever
seen. We'll put it on an entirewing and he eats it and he's
like that's, that's pretty hot.
Pretty good. Like a very casualone dab on a on a on a tortilla
chip and I eat it and I'm like,rubbing my head under the
mountain on the top water for 10minutes. And he grew up eating

(40:20):
like unbelievably hot stuff. Hegrew up with his pair his
grandparents and hisgrandparents said if you don't
need it, you don't eat and so hewas forced to eat just the end
he grew up in the South lot ofhot la hot stuff.

Jess (40:35):
So it's that mix made out of Kevlar.

Pete (40:38):
Yep, shout out to page

Jess (40:42):
there's I'm always intrigued by people who can just
dial something like super likeI'm talking about nuclear high
spicy and just be like, Oh, allright. What are we doing next?

Pete (40:52):
Page. I'm yeah, I'll do it. I'll eat it but I'm not
happy about it afterwards.

Jess (40:57):
Yeah, I My nose is like the indicator whether or not
something is spicy. Have youever had the spy ocean deck, its
roster sauce rosters. They haveit here at Tijuana flats where
they actually have a hot saucebar for they sort of like kind
of Tex Mex food, okay? And theyhave a hot sauce bar. And the

(41:18):
Rasta sauce is always my go to.
It's like, it's so good, butdoesn't really go with what I'm
eating usually, but I'm justlike, you have to have some of
this. So it's, it's really likesuper flavorful. It's not too
spicy. Has a lot of like, allspice kind of taste to it. So
it's really different. But it'sworth a try.

Pete (41:37):
Is it supposed to be like it's supposed to be kind of a
like a Jamaican sort of wasmaybe a little bit of sweet.

Jess (41:44):
I it's not really. It's not sweet. It's I think it's
supposed to have kind ofCaribbean inspired flavors. But
I'm very hesitant to say that myhusband's from the Virgin
Islands. So he's alwayscomplaining about how they say
they put out something and sayhe's Caribbean and they put
pineapple on he's likePineapples don't grow here. Why

(42:06):
would you do that? That's sobig. So I'm real hesitant to put
anything off on being WestIndian or Caribbean without
doing my due diligence.

Pete (42:17):
I'm, I'm adding that to my list. I'm gonna see if I can
find Rasta sauce somewhere, I'mactually just gonna send it to
you on Twitter so I can protect?
Do I think naturally we talkedabout a family and how mom's
cakes hit just different. Ithink the next one we have to do
is has to be ratatouille. Yeah.
It's, it's the most heartwarmingemotional scene in a movie about

(42:43):
a rat that sits on a person'shead all day. It's Oh my gosh,
every time I watch it, I tearup. And for those who don't
know, Ratatouille is a Pixarmovie. And it's essentially
about a rat, who does not acceptthe fact that he has to eat
trash for the rest of his life.
And he has a refined nose. Andso he Luckily for him, he right
near London. So he goes toLondon or Paris, Paris, France.

(43:08):
He goes to Paris and he pairs upwith a rookie chef named
linguini. And he sits on hishead essentially, and learns he
can control him with his armsand make him make the dishes
that he can't make because he'sa rat. And essentially, there's
a very, very high profile andvery dour film critic named

(43:32):
Anton ego who loves ripping offripping apart young chefs and
very, very, not very nice aboutit. And ego gets a word of this
fantastic restaurant that thatlinguini is cooking for and he
comes to feature him in hisnewspaper article. And what he's

(43:52):
gets served is this dish calledratatouille. And Ratatouille is
a peasant dish made ofessentially just seasoned
vegetables baked in a dish. AndI've never heard of the dish
before the movie. Have you? Haveyou ever heard of it? Or I've
had it?

Jess (44:09):
I haven't had it surprisingly so some vegetarian,
it sounds like it would be rightup my alley. But what I did know
of it not it's I've heard theterm before, but I didn't really
know what the dish was. Yeah.
Before the movie.

Pete (44:24):
Yeah, it's and I didn't, same thing. I didn't either. And
I'm still yet to have it. Idon't, I can't imagine any place
that would just serve. It's justmixed vegetables. You know, it's
pretty much round round here.
It's all you get,

Jess (44:36):
you know, I made something similar. It's not it's not
ratatouille but it's verysimilar and it has a tomato
sauce on the bottom and you haveit kind of stacked with slices
of tomato. I don't I can'tremember the exact name. It's a
similar dish. Differences in it.

Pete (44:53):
Well, it looks delicious in the movie makes it look
delicious. And I don't thinkthey're always it's always was
entered in that way it's sliced,you know, cylindrical like
gourds and vegetables, thingslike that, that are round and
they slice it into disks, orcoins and kind of they stack it
in alternating colors. And it'snice spiral pattern and bake it

(45:13):
like a pie. And it manic when itcomes out it looks great. And
ego is this hoity toity old manlooking down his nose at this
and ready to rip it apart. Andhe takes one bite very gray have
to say that it's wearing allblack with the black scarf and
he walks in like, like he'sready to burn the place down and

(45:34):
everyone's like that on ego, andan ego. And he is a scoffed at
being served ratatouille becauseit's a peasant dish. When it
comes out, he takes one bite ofit. And you get this fantastic
shot where it zooms right in onhis face. And when it zooms out,
it's its ego, as a child cominginto his kitchen, crying because

(45:57):
he heard himself out playing orsomething. And it's cold outside
and he comes into and his mom'scooking that dish in his
childhood kitchen and she setsit down for me takes a bite and
is warmed up and the colors getbrighter. And he and he's
everything's right in the worldwhen he takes that bite, and
then zooms back to him sittingin the restaurant. And it's like
all those emotions are likeinstantly invigorated in his

(46:20):
head. And he just digs into thered hat to sit in front of him.
And it's such a heartwarmingthing. It makes it makes me
almost cry every time.

Jess (46:30):
And what's so interesting is that just yesterday we had
Strawberry Shortcake and mymom's and it was a surprisingly
not homemade cake that weusually use for Strawberry
Shortcake is necessarily pancakestrawberries. Cool, but very
simple. Very quick. And mysister, she's she took a bite.

(46:51):
And she was just like, memories.
Because we that was always mymom's kind of go to like very
quick. Yeah, just to kind ofround the meal out for dessert.
And we've had it different waysto to get through the years. But
it's early pancake is kind oflike a standard. And so she took
a bite and you can tell she washaving a food memory. It's just
amazing how that is how that canfood can just transport you to

(47:14):
happier day. So

Pete (47:18):
yeah, there's, it's it's one of the most frustrating
emotions when you you can'tscratch that itch of something,
you smell something like whydon't we smell different? Why
don't we know that and you justcan't You can't let it go. It's
like a song and get stuck inyour head but worse. And I went
out for topping yaki one time.
And it was at the, you know,Benny on his type place around

(47:40):
here, and they made fried friedrice on the griddle right in
front of us and cracked an eggin it chopped up some green
green onions, cooked a littlebacon, mixed it all up, served
in this little bowl. And asecond I took a bite. I'm like,
That's it. That's Uncle John'sfried rice. And I hadn't had it
in probably 15 years. And He'smy uncle married into the

(48:03):
family. He's Japanese. And he,he made his parents were born in
Japan, he makes a lot oftraditional Japanese dishes. And
that was the one that was like,we'd have that all the time. It
was his go to if he was cookingdinner, you'd always have his
fried rice and I didn't knowwhat was different about it. And
it was the bacon in the greenonions. Watching him cook in
front of me and now I can makeit at home. And I get that

(48:23):
endorphin rush and the memorythe food memory every time I eat
it now but sitting in thatrestaurant was like I felt like
I was ego. Anton ego. Oh my god,it's a memory I forgot about me
so happy to discover that.

Jess (48:40):
My favorite part other than you know the ego scene,
which is iconic. Is the factthat I can't remember the little
kind of ratty guy. Oh, that'skind of like sabotage you the
whole time. I can't remember hisname

Pete (48:52):
used to be the head chef before and linguini Yes.

Jess (48:55):
He takes a bite you could tell he's fired. It's not like

Pete (49:00):
you're right. That's a great shot. He's like Oh,

Jess (49:03):
takes a bite. He's like yeah

Pete (49:07):
I love this enemy. And then and then the reveal to that
is that he's like, who got thisI need to go into kitchen and he
runs in the kitchen he sees allthe rats in the kitchen

Jess (49:20):
yes I'm so surprised that that movie made me root for a
rat

Pete (49:25):
at the kitchen full of rat well done Pixar Yeah, that's I
don't know that's it's it's feelI feels like a cheat because
it's an animated movie. But it'slike the emotion behind it like
in them they make the foodlegitimate look great too. But
that just the everybody I thinkeverybody's had that unlocking

(49:45):
of a food memory and it's,that's really relatable.
Alright, let's see what else wehave here. The last two
essentially art food moviesstart to finish if you want I'll
just kind of mentioned Thenbecause there's you could cherry
pick any scene from big night.
It's Stanley Tucci, TonyShalhoub in home. Isabella

(50:08):
Rossellini. There's so manypeople in that movie that are
known actors now that you'relike, Wow, these guys are so
young here.

Jess (50:20):
If you watch the marvelous Mrs Maisel, Moishe. Oh yeah.
Isn't that too? Yeah.

Pete (50:25):
Who else? Oh, Jennifer, Jennifer Lopez, ex husband.
What's the name Anthony. I can'tremember his name. Now. He's
He's there like a littleassistant. And so big night is
two brothers. Tucci, StanleyTucci and Tony Shalhoub. And
they are, they are Italians,first generation Italians. They

(50:45):
came over from the old country,and they came to America in the
1950s. To make authentic Italianrestaurant that's not doing so
good, because people aren'tready for that yet. And they are
constantly fighting between theolder brother who wants to do it
traditional, and the youngerbrother Stanley Tucci, who wants
to do things that are going tobe crowd pleasers, and maybe,

(51:06):
maybe serve hot dogs sometimes,because that's what people want
in Venice Beach in the 1950s.
And, and they they so this isold world versus new world and
being true to your roots andwavering to that. And they they
can't really come up to anagreement. So essentially, the
restaurant is going to close andthe entire movie is building up
to one big night, that they'regoing to cook a feast for all

(51:27):
their friends and family beforethey leave. And they're going to
invite some recording artiststhat everybody loves to come and
sit at the head of the table andbe the special guest. And that
the scene there's a number ofgreat scenes and there's one
scene where they're the twobrothers are fighting like
brothers do. And they whilethey're fighting at the end of

(51:48):
the tail end of theconversation. Stanley Tucci just
picks up a frying pan andstarts, they're in a kitchen and
fighting. And he whips up acouple of eggs for the two of
them. And they he waves them upreal quick. There is a mountain
they stop and eat together andthen go off their separate ways.
And it's like two brothersreuniting for just a moment, eat
some eats and nice eggs, andthen they go off on their way.

(52:10):
It's really it's really fast.
But then the last probably 15minutes in the movie is just
this nonstop barrage ofdelicious food at dish after
dish after dish after dish. Andthey're constantly serving it to
these people. And it culminatesin a dish called I was happy to
reference what it's calledbecause it's I've never heard of

(52:31):
it before. It's a team panel.

Jess (52:35):
Yeah, and I was looking at up that's actually it was saying
they called it Tim. Tim pennaYeah. I'm not butchering that,
but it's something else. Areally. Yeah,

Pete (52:47):
it's like a, it's almost like a like a, like a pasta mold
almost. Yeah, it's like a cake,they pack with pasta. And then
they bake it up, right. And thenthey have to flip the dish over.
And then really, hopefully, itreleases and you have this nice,
I think it's, it's got a cruston the inside, too. So they they
line the cake dish, deep cakedish with crust and then pack it

(53:10):
full of layers, like almost likea lasagna. And then they flip it
over and have to shake it out ofthe dish and you cut it in
slices like a cake. But there'syeah, there's a very tense
moment when they're, they'rereleasing the tempo. And yes,
and they're all who's freakingout. And

Jess (53:26):
I recognize that to my core. There was one time when I
was learning how to make cakesat home with my mom, I actually
I just took it on myself to makea cake. I don't think, you know,
I was trying to sneak in kind ofdo it without without her
knowing. And then it was time tokind of like turn it out. And it

(53:48):
was stuck. And so my dad, he'salways able to support it, he
comes up and he's like trying tohelp me out he sees I'm like
about to cry because I forgot togrease this pan Oh boy. And all
my hard work is stuck on theinside of this Panther. And so
he's trying to kind of help metalk me through it. You know, he
doesn't really know either. Andso we're just kind of standing

(54:09):
over this cake. And it finallyreleases falls and cracks. Oh,
and I'm just like. So my momcomes with just my Oh, what
happened? And then she kind of Idon't know how she did it. She
kind of glued it back togetherwithout gluing it back together.
How did you do that? And so whenthey're waiting for it to

(54:30):
release, and also when they'rekind of checking it, but you can
tell they can't take a cut outof it before presenting it at
the table. And it's kind of thistension there. And I'm like I
recognize that and it was why Ihad a baking business for a
brief period. Oh yeah. And it'swhy I never want to sell whole
cakes because I'm like you can'tmake sure that you can't tip
pull off one like if you make anindividual it tasted like

(54:52):
quality assurance. You have tosend it out without knowing what
people are cutting into. And Iwas just like, it just felt the
tension

Pete (55:00):
It's a familiar familiar feeling. And yes, and then when
they do serve it out, too. Theyhave one of their rival who's
played by Ian Holm who'sfamously most famously known, I
think now as Bilbo Baggins fromThe Hobbit, and he and he, he
says, It's so effing Good. I'llkill you. And then he kisses him

(55:21):
on the on the mouth. And he'slike, I love it. It's it's
another one of those, like theguy from ratatouille. Yeah.
Doesn't want him to succeed. Butgosh, it's so good.

Jess (55:32):
Yeah, and there, and people, the actors eating it in
the sea definitely sell itbecause they're just like, so

Pete (55:40):
that movies great most of these movies to Jiro Dreams of
Sushi Babbitt or big night, andthen Babbitt's feasts was the
last one I'm going to talkabout. They're all available on
canopy. It's a movie streamingservice that's set up through
your library. And it's free,100% free. So if you have a
library card listeners, and youhaven't taken advantage of this

(56:00):
and your movie fan, theybasically they almost
exclusively have movies thatyou're going to learn something
from on their important moviesmore or less, that's kind of how
they market and you get 1010Free watches a month that have
never matched by now because

Jess (56:16):
it's so canopies ca n

Pete (56:18):
it's a it's US, Canada with a que Kanopy if you go to
their website, and not everylibrary participates with it, I
had to go about 40 miles northof here to Lincoln where my
sister lives and sign up for alibrary card there. But once you
get it, you just put yourlibrary card information in and
you get this free service. It'sawesome. So you want the last

(56:41):
one? Yeah. Okay. Final, finalmovies, food movie scene. And
this is again, another moviewhere I can't pick one scene
from this. It's the entire thirdact of Babbitt's feast. And
Babbitt's feast is, I think, aDanish movie from 1987. And it

(57:04):
is one of the most loving. It'slike the greatest love letter to
fancy food that I've ever seen.
And Babbitt is a woman who whofled from France. She was a
renowned chef in France. And youdon't know this till the very
end when she starts cooking thisgiant feast. And she fled
through there was a politicalunrest there and uncertainty and
danger. And she had nowhere togo. All her family and friends

(57:26):
were gone. And she went to thistiny town in Denmark. And these
little old biddies took her inand allowed her to stay there
because they knew a mutualfriend or something. And she
basically became their housemaid cooked and cleaned it did
all the stuff and they taughther all these Danish recipes
that were disgusting, likebread, bread, ale stew, just a
big loaf of brown bread and abunch of bottles old, whatever

(57:49):
old beer they had mixed togetherinto a slop. And that was like
what they were, were used toeating. And like local fish,
whatever they could catch offthe coast because it was like
right on the coast. And so thefirst two thirds of the movie is
the relationship with the peopleand the townspeople and Babette
and her learning to cook andshe's this bright point of light

(58:10):
in their dour town. And they'revery strong religious town, and
they believe they shouldn'tenjoy anything that takes away
from the glory of God. And atthe very end, she wins a sum of
money and she's like, got enoughmoney where she's going to move
home. And she asked if she cancook a feast for the entire

(58:30):
town, which is only like 20people. And so she ordered all
her ingredients from France hasit delivered to this tiny town
in Denmark, and it's likelive coil and pheasants and a
boars head, and all the fatquail eggs and all the fanciest

(58:51):
of French cuisine, you canimagine Trump and truffles and
truffles and truffles, bottlesof champagne from the 1700s like
really going all out and you'relike, holy moly, she's making
the feast. And the the thetownspeople realize that she's
about to serve them alcohol, anddecadent food and they realize
that that's going to essentiallycause them to sin. So they they

(59:13):
all get together and they havethis little this of all these
old, old people in the in thechurch. And they say, if we
don't enjoy it, it won't be asin. So they agree to not say
one good word about it for theentire feast, which is
heartbreaking because you lovethat bet. And you want her to
just to her joy to be spreadthroughout the town. And she's
cooking and dropping off foodand cooking and dropping off

(59:36):
food and cooking and droppingoff food and she doesn't even
sit sit around to hear thereaction from these people. And
they can't help but love it. Thefirst first course and the
second course and the thirdcourse they just grow with more
and more love and admiration forit and I can't believe it's so
good. It's so good. And there'sone person who is not from the
town. He's their special gueststhat there was the mutual friend

(59:58):
to both of them. He's a generalof the Swedish army. He comes in
with his full giant colorfulregalia and the big feathered
hat and stuff. And he's tellingthem how much they should enjoy
this food because he's like,I've had what I've only ever had
quail eggs this good any oneplace and it was in Paris. And
this whole dish champagne, thisis, this is the most of the
delicious champagne I've everhad. I can't believe it's a 1780

(01:00:21):
butter, but whatever, blah,blah, blah. And he's he's
rubbing off on all of themslowly. And as they drink more
and eat more, by the end,they're telling stories and
loving each other and confessingto hurting each other's feelings
years past and all this stuffand bad bet the entire time is
in the kitchen slaving away, andshe doesn't even care. She knows

(01:00:42):
what she knows what she's givingto them. And she's giving them
basically everything that shehas all of her training and her
life's work is going into thatmeal. And you realize that the
end, the whole $10,000 that shewon from this through this
lottery all went into the onemeal that she gave, she gave it

(01:01:03):
all back to the town because shehas nowhere to go. And she's
doesn't plan on leaving. But shejust wanted she wanted to do
that one time. And it's to methat movie is like it's giving,
it's giving the biggest piece ofyourself to the people that you
love. And it's it's shown insuch a beautiful way in bebidas
feast but that entire third act,you could cherry pick a 45
second segment of that. And it'smy favorite food scene of any of

(01:01:26):
for the for the next 30 minutes.
You know, it's nonstop. It's soit's so gorgeous.

Jess (01:01:32):
I always love watching chefs like in the zone,
especially when they're doinglike big multiple dish feasts.
The way they're just kind ofeasily effortlessly juggling all
of that work. And also not justjuggling work, because you know,
you joke you multitask at anoffice job all day. Yeah, it's
the the heart and the passionbehind it while they're cooking

(01:01:55):
as well. It's kind of like adance, you know, it's like
watching a good dancer or afantastic singer.

Pete (01:02:02):
You would love that last that last act and it's one
watching her in the kitchen isjust as enjoyable as watching
the people enjoy the food. She'sgot one little helper her her
cousin her nephew or somethinglike that, who he she brought in
from the mainland. And she'slike, You need to pluck the
chickens and you need to do thisand he's classes empty, go out
there and make sure it makessure he's he's got a full glass

(01:02:24):
all the time and then leave thebottle with them the general and
like she's orchestrating thenight from the kitchen and
she'll poke her head out to dropsome food off and then come
back. But she doesn't linger andgo. Oh, I hope you guys like the
food. He knows

Jess (01:02:37):
me I will be staring here for about others who would say
well, like Are you enjoying?

Pete (01:02:47):
Another quail egg, Madame?
Yeah, it's weird. It's tooweird, too, because a lot of
those dishes I've never seenbefore. And I

Jess (01:02:58):
think it was the quail in the puff pastry. Yes, the Whole
Whale and the puff pastry. Yeah,I've

Pete (01:03:02):
never seen that and the way they eat it is maybe a
little off putting to modernaudiences. But I think this is
set set in the 30s I think ormaybe maybe even earlier than
that. It's it's a I just seenthis movie just this year, and
it's become one of my favorites.
It's

Jess (01:03:18):
somata ASMR chewing gum.

Pete (01:03:21):
Yes, yes. So yeah, I really hope that the people
listening at least come comeaway with you know a few
recommendations for movies theymay never heard of before big
night. Babbitt's feast. Thoseare kind of not contemporary
movies that get talked aboutoften and they're start to

(01:03:42):
finish fantastic food movies.

Jess (01:03:44):
I love Stanley Tucci, so I'm definitely going to be
checking out and watch thatbefore

Pete (01:03:48):
he is glorious. Glorious in that movie. Glorious. I love
to to you. But I think that'sthat's my list.

Jess (01:03:56):
Okay, well, thank you so much. Oh, we're gonna talk about
Studio

Pete (01:04:00):
Ghibli. Yeah, that's that's a Studio Ghibli is like
an A perennial all time championof food and movies. His what is
what is the name the the founderbehind Studio Ghibli? I can't
remember. But he's Saki Saki.
That's it. Yeah, exactly. Andalmost every movie that they

(01:04:22):
have doesn't matter how lighthearted and Fancy Free or
depressing their movie is itthey always show people cooking
food in a way that is like, veryjust very earnest. on it.
There's no There's the show. Youknow sometimes in cartoons, it's
like maybe maybe they're notgoing to show the the prepper
prep work and the rawingredients and stuff. And they

(01:04:43):
don't show the actualpreparation of the food but in
meat and music and movies andStudio Ghibli. It is you see
everything basket full of rawingredients that chopping and
boiling water, and then and thenthe enjoyment of the people.
It's really Do something.

Jess (01:05:01):
Yeah. And his movies are always so relaxing in a way,
like you just you sit down, youreally escape, because you sit
down and it's like you're takingaway and it's something you
know, they say that ASMR relaxyou it's kind of almost like
that in a way but visually towhere it just kind of hits all

(01:05:21):
the right buttons and it's likeinstant calm so that plus food
preparation is like a recipe forlike, just, just, I don't know,
Zen like, it just sounds

Pete (01:05:33):
a good way to put it Zen.
Yeah, yeah. If you ever if youever just looking for some
really relaxing backgroundmusic, you can just tell. Tell
your Alexa. Hey, Alexa, playStudio Ghibli music.

Jess (01:05:45):
I don't want to do that.
Yeah, there's thought aboutthat. But I've definitely gone.
There's YouTube

Pete (01:05:50):
mixes, there's like Lo Fi Studio Ghibli. There's low, you
know, Studio Ghibli relaxingsounds. And you can there's
people make these playlists. Butif you just take the music
straight from the from themovies, they're just as good.
But yeah, we listen to a lot ofthat in our house. So I haven't
seen all of his stuff. Buteverything that I've seen has

(01:06:10):
been very, very relaxing reason.
And the food, the food alwayshits right.

Jess (01:06:17):
And it's always realistic.
What kind of reminded me of thatis that scene in turning grid,
where maymays father is cooking.
And He is funny because this ispretty like high energy,
typical, almost kind of a meshbetween East east and west in
terms of animation. And so it'svery high energy and for the

(01:06:39):
scene where the dad is, like,taken away. He's almost in like
his artistic happy place. Allright. Well, we saw in Seoul
Yes. In that, that realm. He'sclicking. And it's like, the
music slows down and you havelike a brief little like Studio
Ghibli moment in that film,which I thought was really like,
interesting.

Pete (01:07:00):
Yeah, I like that. And I also like when she's making the
dumplings, and she like, throwsit to her dad. And he's like, so
good. Dumpling.

Jess (01:07:07):
Yes. She's. She's waiting on approval. In our face. Yeah,
no, it is good. I see. We havespecial guests there in the
back.

Pete (01:07:17):
Yes, my great dane. I know.

Jess (01:07:24):
She just like okay, you've been at this now.

Pete (01:07:28):
Yeah, they the if I were to give like a special mentions,
there's a couple other foodmovies that didn't make the
list, but are just great foodmovies in general. We have a
chef the it was it's basicallyabout a guy that he's a
classically trained chef and hegets a food truck and starts
doing his own thing. I am he'sJon Favreau is wrote it directed

(01:07:51):
it started. And then boilingpoint is a movie that just came
out last year. It's Yes, Iwanted to see oh my god. It's
very tense. It's more about arestaurant than food because
they don't show a lot of thefood cooking. But it's it's a
little bit of a hard watch. It'sshot like a one take there's no
edits, no cuts. No nothing. Andit's a real they really did

(01:08:12):
shoot the movie. A 90 minutemovie in one shot. No. Oh, yeah.
It's like, everybody's ready.
It's very good. And then I thinkthose are the two big ones that
kind of missed missed my listthat I think people would
probably want Oh, no chef andburnt. Burnt is a Bradley Cooper
movie where he's in a place achef with a anger problem and

(01:08:32):
can't keep a job. That waspretty good, too. I'm not as not
as good as I think Chef wasvery, very fun watch with Chef.
So that's, that's, that'severything I got.

Jess (01:08:45):
Well, thank you so much for being a part of the show. I
really enjoy talking with youabout food and movies. So if
someone wants to check out oneof your podcasts, where would
they go?

Pete (01:08:56):
You can you can look up middle class, phone class,
anywhere that you're listeningto this podcast, anywhere you
find any pod chaser and Spotifyand Apple and Ghana and all the
funky ones that you never heardof before we're on those two.
And we release our news andreview which we call Gavin
chatter that's every Monday andthen our deep dive review is

(01:09:17):
every Wednesday, so and we'rereally strong and listener
interaction. So if you listenand you like it or you don't
like it, send us an email. We'llread it on air we interact with
our listeners quite a bit. Okay,that's it. I had a blast by the
way. It was really fun. Sorryfor once I get going, it's hard
to stop

Jess (01:09:34):
worries. I'm not gonna stop a good thing. Good thing

Pete (01:09:39):
was wonderful. Thank you so much for talking with me.

Jess (01:09:41):
Yes. Thank you so much for being here. I'm just like you
foodie. If you enjoyed thisepisode, treat it like gospel
the gospel and tell somebodyabout it. New episodes every
Wednesday. All the info aboutour guests and about the show
and where you can find us onsocial media is in our show
notes and have a great weekeverybody eat something

(01:10:01):
delicious and if you do tell meabout it on Facebook Instagram
and Twitter thanks have a greatevening