Last Friday I drove into L.A. to attend a luncheon hosted by Sony Home Entertainment at Vincenti Ristorante to celebrate the release of Eat Pray Love on DVD and Blu-ray.
Although I enjoyed the great group of bloggers in attendance (Sippity Sup, Daydreamer Desserts, In Erika’s Kitchen, Family Fresh Cooking, The Enchanted Cook, Teenie Cake, and Yvonne in LA, just to name a few), and the food was wonderful (I could have eaten an entire plate of the polenta croutons that came on the salad we ate and I loved the white pizza with artichokes, burrata cheese, zucchini flowers, and prosciutto crudo), the real highlight of the event was the presence of two special guests: Susan Spungen, the food stylist for the movie, and Dede Gardner, the producer. They regaled us with stories of navigating the narrow streets of Rome with refrigerated food trucks, the difficulties of making fried zucchini blossoms stuffed with cheese look gooey and delicious on camera, and the joys of making a book come to life through film. Not only were their stories wonderful, but they were both incredibly friendly and down to earth.
This past summer I read the book, the story of the author’s attempt to put her life back together following a divorce and horrible depression, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Gilbert travels to Italy to rediscover pleasure, to India to find devotion and peace, and then finally to Bali to find balance between pleasure and devotion/peace. I loved Gilbert’s description of her experiences with the food and sites in each of the countries, but the food moments in Italy were easily my favorite. When the movie came out in the theaters this year, I couldn’t wait to see it just to see how those food and travel scenes would be portrayed. One of my favorite scenes from the movie, that I like to call the food “love scene, is when Gilbert (played by Julia Roberts) is in Rome, eating a simple meal by herself at a restaurant. The waiter places a plate of spaghetti with a tomato sauce and a bit of fresh basil in front of her and the camera zooms in so that you can see the strands of pasta swirled in the blood red sauce on the plate. Gilbert then picks up her fork and almost reverently begins to eat the pasta. Just thinking about the scene has me craving pasta and wanting to jump on a plane to Italy. At the luncheon, Susan Spungen explained that she styled the entire scene with her hands, creating a “skein” of spaghetti and then twirling it on the plate and carefully adding garnish.
Susan talked about her experience working for Martha Stewart Living as the founding food editor as a formative time in her styling career. Now she blends her love for food and her eye for design through food styling, and was the food stylist for the movie It’s Complicated, and one of my personal favorites, Julie and Julia. Her enthusiasm and passion for food was contagious and she was an inspiration and a delight to talk to. I can’t wait to see what she does next!
Susan was a sweetheart and let me film her talking about her favorite part of the movie to work on—thanks Susan!
To help celebrate the release of Eat Pray Love on DVD and Blu-ray, I am giving away one copy of the movie on Blu-ray!
To enter:
1. Leave a comment below telling me what your favorite food scene from a movie is.
Bonus Entries: (*Each bonus entry requires a separate comment to be counted!*)
2. Follow @fujimama on Twitter. RT this post and then come back and leave a separate comment telling me you’ve done so. NOTE: You must be following @fujimama for this entry to count. You can even just copy and paste this tweet to make it easy: “I just entered to win Eat Pray Love on Blu-ray from @fujimama http://su.pr/2OSihU”
3. Like La Fuji Mama on Facebook. Come back and leave a separate comment telling me you’ve done so (or if you already “like” me on Facebook).
4. Sign up for our RSS Feed or Email Subscription. Come back and leave a separate comment telling me you’ve done so (or if you’re already a subscriber).
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Favorite food scene from a movie has to be when Juliette Binoche is making her chocolate confections from scratch in ‘Chocolat’.
Cheers,
*Heather*
Already following @fujimama on Twitter.
Tweeted about the giveaway as well!
The spaghetti scene from EPL was one of my favorite scenes too! And almost all the scenes from Julie & Julia :o)
RT’d the giveaway here! http://twitter.com/Kay819/status/14415305442856960
The beginning part of Eat, Drink, Man, Woman where they show Chu getting all the food ready for his daughters. Amazing!
You are so lucky to have met these women! Complete awesomeness. But this is L.A right? : ) I haven’t seen this movie yet (gulp!) but maybe if I win I would. lol. My favourite food film though is Babette’s Feast where a french woman escapes the revolution to Denmark and proceeds to transform the small village taste buds and lives. I love the near end when she commits herself (and her entire lottery winnings) to a grand feast. It’s incredible!
I’ve just tweeted the entry as well. : ) @ChantaleP
Great minds think alike ;) had so much fun hanging out… it made the 3 hr drive home totally worthwhile.
The scene in Mostly Martha when Mario is cooking for Lina is my favorite movie food scene.
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the best scene is when she finally starts to understand the sensuality of food with the pasta! i love that scene :)
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My favorite food scene?
“I’ll have what she’s having.”
Tampopo’s ramen making scene(s)!
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One of my favorite scenes involving food is at the beginning of Amelie, when little Amelie sticks raspberries on her fingertips and eats them off one by one. So cute!
I totally love ‘Cheaper by the Dozen.’ The food scene in the beginning when Steve Martin is preparing breakfast for his family and it gets ‘interrupted’ by one of the kids pet frogs jumping in the eggs, then the entire breakfast ends up all over everyone and on the floor. Cracks me up everytime.
I’m not much of a movie watcher, but my favorite food scene would have to be in No Reservations. When Nick starts to talk to Zoe and gets her to try the spaghetti. :D
So many favorite food scenes: love the bruschetta orgy (well, not literally an orgy) in Julie and Julia. The entire dinner from Big Night is amazing, and I have to watch that movie at least three times a year cause I love it so. I also really love the omelette scene at the end of Big Night, all in one shot with no dialogue. The scene from Spanglish *not so great movie, in which Adam Sandler makes the perfect BLT and Egg Sandwich, plus pours an amazing beer. The movie Ramen Girl had some good moments and made me sad that Brittany Murphy died so young. Her attempt at making ramen for the skeptical judge was a pretty cool scene. The movie The Scent of Green Papaya is filled with amazing food scenes, but I think I love the beginning where the young girl slices papaya and makes food with the house cook. And there’s a great movie called Vatel, with Gerard Depardieu as Francoise Vatel, a chef who constructed a three day feast for Louis XIV. It has HUGE feasts that are amazing to behold.
I love the dinner scene in “Goodfellas” with Paul Sorvino slicing garlic with a razor blade.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQhBfRDd6GM
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Any of the cooking from Eat Drink Man Woman. YUM!!!!
I’m a fan of the scene immediately preceding “I’ll have what she’s having” in When Harry Met Sally. (And most of the food scenes in Julie & Julia are pretty awesome too)
Oh I love food based movies! All of the food realted scenes in It’s Complicated are great. Totally made me want to make croque monsieur. Also, Ratatouile is great. Gotta love the spaghetti scene from Lady and the Tramp.
OMG Rachael you lucky, lucky girl…this luncheon tops alot of lists for sure ;) My favorite food scenes don’t really involve the food as much as the people. 1.) In “When Harry Met Sally” and Meg Ryan fakes an organism in the dinner and 2.) In “Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil” in the dinner when the guy with the flies attached to his shirt comes into the dinner and leaves without eating…can’t remember his name…”Earl” maybe…lol
Thanks for a great giveaway…I haven’t seen this yet ;)
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It has to be Meryl Streep as Julia. The scene I like most is the one where she is at a restaurant and takes a bite. She closes her eyes and has this look of utter contentment on her face.
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Hmmmmmm this is a really hard one… I can’t decide between the “Eat Drink Man Woman’ the opening scene or the scene in ‘Like Water for Chocolate’ when they are eating rose petals and everyone begins to take off their clothes! So hard…well I guess “Like Water for Chocolate” \\(*0*)//
I love all the food scenes in Ang Lee’s Eat Drink Man Women. Also love Like Water for Chocolate.
My favorite food scene, from a movie, is from Ratatouille. When Ego takes a bite of the Ratatouille, prepared by Remy the rat, and is transported back in time. He was a little boy coming in from the cold and his mother had made him Ratatouille. Then the scene cuts back to Ego scarfing down his Ratatouille like he had never eaten in his life. LOL Such a warming scene.
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It’s not a food scene but it’s a constant showing of Brad Pitt in Ocean’s 11 eating. In many of the scenes – he’s eating something, and he looks ultra sexy while doing it. He made food loooooooooooook good!!
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Read EAT, PRAY, LOVE and loved the movie. Favortie scene was Liz and Sophia at the pizza restaurant!
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I love the food making scene in Como Agua Para Chocolate where Tita is not allowed to keep her roses and insteads puts them in a sauce that makes everyone at the feast super passionate.
I love the scene in a Christmas Story where the dad keeps stealing pieces of the Christmas turkey and the mom says he better stop or he’ll get worms. Love that movie ~ such a Christmas classic!