The Menu + Breadless Bread
A Spoiler-Free Analysis of Food featured in this Foodie Film, or, an Amuse Yeux
The Menu (2022) Film Flavor Review
Film Review ★★★
Food Review ★★★★★
Do you remember when Aziz Ansari made Master of None around 2016, basically assumed every viewer was a “foodie,” and poked fun at foodies as if it was going to be a universal jab?
That irked me. The Menu? Not so much.
Part One | Film Review
The Menu is a simple, entertaining and funny movie worthy of your time, given it’s a Tuesday.
Frankly, it was deeply refreshing to see a film so unassuming. The film takes place over a singular evening, following a young couple (played by Nicholas Hoult and Anya Taylor-Joy) to a date at an exclusive restaurant. Located on a secluded island and run by a celebrity chef (Ralph Fiennes), the Michelin starred venue requires reservations made months in advance and a journey by boat in order to attend. As the martial staff wait on the ensemble of guests, from restaurant critics to aging movie stars, the night quickly descends into chaos. The Menu is equal parts horror, mystery, revenge, and comedy, sprinkled with surprisingly lighthearted cultural critiques.
I don't know much about the writers of The Menu — Seth Reiss and Will Tracy — beyond a few Succession episode writing credits, but I can only assume they are the type of people Chef Slowik would have invited to this fictional evening and it’s been weighing on them.
Given the premise of The Menu is so downright fun, my only real complaint is the script’s bashfulness. I wish the filmmakers took it even further. Went even crazier. A few jokes fell flat, a few of the action sequences and antics felt half-baked, and the film left me wanting more. The writing becomes a bit muddled near the end: Main characters finally admit to secrets they have been hiding, only for there to be little to zero actual consequences. The Menu seems to always teeter on the edge, forever on the brink of elation, epiphanies and punchlines without ever coming to a full resolution.
Still, I walked away feeling The Menu had created it’s own universe and stayed there throughout. The meat and potatoes, the real feelings, the real twists, and the real humor did often shine through.
As Chase Hutchinson wrote in Collider, "In a capitalist society, work is extracted from the workers until they no longer even understand why they are doing it."
Lately, mainstream media seems to ask, ‘Don't we all know that feeling?’
Between Parasite and Squid Game, audiences have trudged through years and movies and tv shows depicting nothing short of economic and class despair (Korean and otherwise). Apocalyptic dramatizations of our own day-to-day simply aren’t always the movies and television shows many viewers feel like watching at the end of a long day. We, of course, love these works of agony but we also crave a light bite now and then.
By contrast, The Menu begs the question ‘Don't we all deserve a way to laugh about our collective fiscal pain through a satire that doesn't take itself so seriously?’
I clearly agree as I’ve now deemed it time to examine the film’s food. Shall we take a nibble?
Part Two | Food Review
First Course: Amuse Bouche
“Amuse-bouche” is a french term for a small complimentary dish served before a meal in fine dining settings, derived from the french words for “amuse” and “mouth.” Amuse-bouches are purportedly differentiated from classic appetizers and hors d’oeuvres by their size. Typically only one or two bites, an amuse-bouche is meant to exclusively entertain your mouth rather than fill you up. In the case of The Menu, the amuse-bouche comes before the “bread” course, my favorite, which we’ll get to in a moment.
The film’s on-screen chyrons denote1 their fictional dish is comprised of compressed and pickled cucumber melon, milk snow (goat milk and sugar), and charred lace (that really thin bread-like stuff fancy restaurants serve). To me, the cucumber melon definitely seems like the hardest part to get right, but if you want to dip your toes in the water of fine cooking at home, I found a stellar recipe and tutorial here.
Second Course: Breadless Bread Plate for the Bros
Say that five times fast.
Before the second course appears, Chef Slowik notes that bread “is and has always been the food of the common man.” Since many of the guests are likely members of the USA’s highest tax bracket, we can safely assume the diners are not the '“common man” Slowik is referring to. He promptly serves them only savory sauces, dips, and other emulsified accompaniments, while the bread hangs in baskets just out of reach above the guests’ heads.
Anyone who knows me or reads this newsletter could probably guess I loved this scene — which I’ve fondly dubbed “Bros Demand Bread” — and they’d be correct. An appetizer dip without bread is but a peanut butter without a jelly, a Mary-Kate without an Ashley, a David Lynch without the weather, an Andrew VanWyngarden without a Korg synthesizer etc.
The trio of corporate executives in The Menu recognize this universal truth, and revolt to no avail, begging for bread only to be denied by the maître d' (played by the scene-stealing Hong Chau.)
“Of course you make your own yeast from apples, you wicked thing.”
A Quick Aside: One of my favorite lines in the movie is spoken by one of the food critics, “Of course you make your own yeast from apples, you wicked thing.” Don’t laugh, but I do think making your own apple yeast is indeed a wicked alternative to sourdough for home-bakers interested in upping their home bread-baking game. The internet houses plenty of apple yeast recipes to try, but this apple peel yeast recipe seems like a solid gateway technique.
A Later Course: Memory + Malfeasance Tacos
Of course, the breadless stunt serves only as a setup. After the corporate boys throw an unsuccessful temper tantrum clamoring for carbs, they finally receive a serving some courses later. As the tortillas are served, we see that proof of their white collar crimes has been laser burned into the starch.
While I cannot divulge much more about this course, I can tell you the filmmaking team worked with the esteemed industry stars like Chef Dominique Crenn of San Francisco’s Atelier Crenn to concoct dishes for the film. One of the most shocking backstage secrets is one of craft: every dish was edible and made for the actors to relish live on camera, a rarity in the world of movie-making.
(While Crenn did find a laser that could etch words into the tortilla “without marring the food,” this service is best left to professionals — unless you want your toast to taste of charred plastic.)
The bread and tortilla debacles are presented as “just the beginning” in a wild ride of elaborate stunts that result in near-camp acts of torture and revenge. Alas, the camp status is eluded due to the film’s aforementioned reticence.
Third Through Tenth Courses | Omitted Until…
I’m sorry to report that the inclusion of analyses for the third, fifth, sixth, seventh, eight, ninth, and tenth courses featured in The Menu would require what a chronically online person such as myself can only describe as spoilers. (I fear I’ve already said too much by featuring the fourth taco course above.) And — what’s worse — today’s review is meant to be entirely spoiler free.
Luckily, I plan to offer a full breakdown of all 10+ dishes featured in The Menu at a later date. If you have not already done so, please do subscribe to Film Flavor to be the first to know when the spoiler-filled extension of this article comes out (and please, do yourself a favor and watch The Menu in the meantime!)
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Disclaimer: Film Flavor is a newsletter written for entertainment purposes only. While I do my best to write meaningful posts with good intentions and cite sources when I have the bandwidth, I do not have the capacity nor the expertise to fact-check research as a trained professional journalist would. Despite my best efforts, the Film Flavor newsletter may contain omissions, errors, or mistakes and cannot be relied upon for accuracy or correctness. Additionally, I am not a chef, doctor, nutritionist, or food professional, and it is the responsibility of the reader to consult qualified professionals and use good judgement to decide whether the ingredients, foods, drinks, recipes, and cooking instructions mentioned within Film Flavor are safe to use, follow, or consume. The Film Flavor newsletter does not contain any professional advice or guidance and its contents should not be considered as such. Read the full Film Flavor disclaimer on the Film Flavor About Page, here. Thank you!
Film Flavor is a newsletter publication created for the author, Via Marsh, to chat about all things food, films, and food in films. Via is an NYU-trained filmmaker, writer, film-industry-survivor, bread-baker and bread-consumer. If interested, feel free to follow the Film Flavor Instagram and Letterboxd for more.
The lack of hyphenation in the film’s chyrons also denote the lack of grammatical standards on screen. As someone who has been the post-production pawn in charge of fielding complaints about on-screen spelling errors and director’s and executive’s demands that said mistakes stay intact, I would like to dedicate this footnote to expressing my deepest sympathies to all those involved in the post-production QC of The Menu and the no doubt gut-wrenching late night email chains that ensued... Godspeed, brethren. This is why bread is made for the common man.
Well written! Excited for the full release!