7 Great Films About Food

We've compiled a list of seven delightful films that have lots and lots of yummy food. Expect spicy curries, French delicacies, Italian cooking, hillarious culinary adventures, and heart-warming stories of family, love and friendship. 

The Hundred Foot Journey

Spicy Indian curries vs. buttery French delights!

What it’s about: The Kadam family was running a restaurant in Mumbai when an ill-fated event forced them to move to France. In the family is Hassan Kadam (Manish Dayal), a particularly talented, self-taught culinary novice. The family opens an Indian restaurant, but just hundred feet away is an acclaimed French restaurant run by the uncompromising Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren).

Why you’ll love it: First of all, the story takes place in a lush green French countryside, so everything is really beautiful. Second, you’ll get to see a lot of food being made; we particularly loved a scene regarding the making of an omelette. Also, the battles that take place between Madame Mallory and Hassan’s papa (Om Puri) are hilarious and just too cute.

Cloudy with a chance of meatballs

It’s raining burgers and donuts!

What it’s about: A small town experiences a strange phenomenon: instead of rain, food is falling from the sky. Behind this strange occurrence is the local scientist Flint Lockwood (Bill Hader), who was considered to be a failure by the townsfolk until he invented a machine that can make food fall from the sky. Things take a menacing turn when Flint is unable to control the machine, and together with the brainy weathergirl Sam Sparks (Anna Faris) he sets out to get to the bottom of this delicious disaster. 

Why you’ll love it: With giant spaghettis, giant burgers, ice creams that you can literally dive into, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs is guaranteed to get you laughing. It’s also a family adventure film, and this means you can enjoy this hilarious foodie animation with your kids as well.

The Lunchbox

Curry, chapatti and love, all in a small tiffin box.

What it’s about: In an attempt to spice up her stale marriage, Ila (Nimrat Kaur), a young and lonely housewife living in Mumbai, begins to send special lunchboxes to her husband everyday through the ‘dabbawalas,’ Mumbai’s complicated lunch delivery system. As fate would have it, Ila’s lunchboxes are mistakenly being delivered to Saajan (Irfan Khan), a widower on the verge of retirement. Realising the mix-up Ila places a note in the lunchbox, and curious about the note, Saajan responds, and thus begins an unusual friendship.

Why you’d love it: It’s a charming little story of love and friendship. We found it really interesting to catch a glimpse of how a lot of people in Mumbai handle lunch. Expect to see lots and lots of Indian food, and you’ll probably want to eat a curry by the time you finish watching it.

Julie & Julia

You can never have too much butter!

What it’s about: Frustrated with her cubicle job, and determined to bring some excitement into her life, New Yorker Julie Powell (Amy Adams) takes on a new challenge. Within the span of a year, she vows to prepare all 524 recipes from legendary cookbook writer and TV personality Julia Child’s (Meryl Streep) cookbook “Mastering the Art of French Cooking."

Why you’ll love it: It’s such a light-hearted culinary comedy with so many memorable scenes. We particularly like one with a lot of onions and another with a lobster. The story is also based on real events and there’s so much cooking and eating in it that every time we watch this we just have to rush off to the kitchen to cook up something. It’s also a great film to watch with friends, while sharing food of course.

Today’s Special

A tandoori comedy.

What it’s about: Samir (Aasif Mandvi) dreams of becoming a great French chef. But in real life, he is suddenly forced to use his culinary skills for running his father’s Indian restaurant in Jackson Heights. Having to learn Indian cooking in a short period of time, Samir enlists the help of a larger than life immigrant cab driver Akbar (Naseeruddin Shah). And through the curry making lessons, Samir rediscovers his Indian heritage and developes a new affinity for life.

Why you’d love it: It’s a feel-good comedy in which you would see lots and lots of familiar Indian food being made. On top of that, we got mesmerized every time Akbar made a spice mixture.

Ratatouille

Anyone can cook, but only the fearless can be great.

What it’s about: A rat named Remy dreams of becoming a great chef. But his family is against it, since the culinary profession was a decidedly rodent phobic one. A series of events land Remy in Paris, living underneath a restaurant made famous by his culinary hero, Auguste Gusteau. Remy forms an unlikely partnership with Linguini, the restaurant’s garbage boy, and the two of them embark on an adventure that turns the Parisian culinary scene upside down.  

Why you’d love it: It’s a fast paced, family friendly, stunningly animated adventure. Remy’s love for food and cooking is quite contagious too.

Chef

A foodie roadtrip.

What it’s about: Unwilling to compromise his creative integrity for his controlling boss, Chef Carl Casper (Jon Favreau) quits his job at a prominent Los Angeles restaurant. Carl finds himself in Miami, and there, he teams up with his his ex-wife (Sofia Vergara), his friend (John Leguizamo) and his son to launch a food truck.

Why you’d love it: The movie combines the two best things in the world: food and travel. It’s also really heart-warming to watch Carl and his son bond over the culinary adventure. Delicious scenes we particularly loved include one with a hot bowl of spaghetti and another with an overly good-looking sandwich.

Did reading this make you hungry? If you are in the mood for whipping up something in the kitchen, have a look at our top 10 recipes. Or, if you'd rather go out we've got some great recommendations in our Eating Out section.