Spoiler alert! Spoiler alert!

Oh Bravo. Let's not kid ourselves: The Elimination Challenge from this week's Top Chef episode was about as Project Runway as it gets. The contestants worked in pairs to create dishes inspired by their favorite movies, and it felt almost like Tom Colicchio was channeling Michael Kors in his criticism ("They talked about vibrant colors -- I didn't see vibrant colors there").

We at Slashfood absolutely love movies and food, whether it's a quiet night in with take-out and a DVD, a date night out in a restaurant followed by a movie, matching food to movies, movies about food, or talking about foods that might come up in movies.

Premiere.com also like food movies, since this year, there are at least three movies that involve it: Keri Russell in Waitress, the Pixar film Ratatouille that has every good foodie clamoring for eggplant, zucchini, and tomatoes, and No Reservations, the movie that came out this past weekend. In honor of these food movies, Premiere.com lists the 20 Most Mouth-watering Movie Moments, which I'm re-printing here (after the jump). Your favorite food movie or food scene in a movie not listed? Tell us!

If, like some of us, you were left wanting by the film adaptation of Fast Food Nation, a new documentary called Our Daily Bread might be more your speed. Created by Austrian filmmaker Nikolaus Geyrhalter, Our Daily Bread is composed of long, unblinking scenes shot in industrial greenhouses (above), farms and animal processing plants throughout Europe. There are no interviews or voice-overs and the locations are not identified. The New York Times gives it a glowing review, and also features a related piece with a few quotes from Geyrhalter. Several trailers are available here. For the moment, it appears that screenings of the film in the U.S. are limited to New York City and Chicago. Hopefully that will change soon.

We've been waiting for some time now for Fast Food Nation, the theatrical version of Eric Schlosser's popular book from about 5 years ago, to hit theaters. Fortunately, we don't have to wait much longer as the release date is November 17th.

The Washington Post has an interview with Schlosser and director Richard Linklate, who co-wrote the loosely adapted and fictionalized screenplay with Schlosser. Instead of only taking questions from an interviewer, however, they opened the floor to some curious readers from around the country so that they could ask their own questions about what went into making the film and what issues Schlosser has had to deal with since writing the original book. For example, one wants to know how many lawyers they needed to "cover-their-ass," while another wants to know if Schlosser has seen any big changes since the first publication of the book.

The interview doesn't offer as much food for thought as the book, but it's still enough to whet the appetitie for the movie's premier.

Most sour candy seems to be marketed at kids and I'm willing to wager that at elementary schools around the country, perhaps around the world, kids still have contests to see who can out-sour their friends by eating extremely sour candies. I never went in for the sour candies because, to be honest, they don't usually taste very good. The overpowering sourness gives way to an almost burning sensation and you wonder if you are ever going to regain the use of your tastebuds even after you have spit the candy out. But they're fun to eat, right? Isn't that why people subject themselves to them in the first place? I have no idea, but I can say that the people eating the sour candies in the Sour Death Balls video, where they seem to be trying to keep the candies in their mouths as long as possible, above don't exactly look like they're enjoying every moment of the experience. For us viewers, on the other hand, the faces they make are pretty funny, though.

[via growabrain]

At this point, we all know what happens when you combine Mentos and Diet Coke, but what about combinations of other sodas with other candies? Will they produce similar, or perhaps even more spectacular, results? Thanks to a video linked to by Brian, from Candy Addict, we now know the answer to this subset of life's little mysteries. These film makers bravely tested the following combinations in the name of science: candy corn and root beet, Sweetarts and Sprite and Toucan Toes and milk. Check out the video above to see their results.

I think we'll all sleep a little better tonight, although not quite as good as I'll sleep once I learn where I can get some of those Toucan Toes....

One reason that some people prefer to carry big bags into the movies is that they are perfect for storing extra snacks and drinks, so the lines at the concession stands, not to mention their high prices, can be avoided. We know that we're not supposed to do it, but slipping a can of Coke or a bottle of water into a handbag will save a few dollars and you can pick out a snack at the store that is something other than the standard theater offerings.

Speaking of theater offerings, another reason to consider taking your own snack is that most movie theaters are diet disasters - even if you're not actually on a diet. A large popcorn with butter can have more than 1,500 calories and 120 grams of fat. Movie sized boxes of candies usually contain multiple servings, so those calories can add up quickly if you're munching in the dark.

A snack bar or a small bag of trail mix will satisfy you better than a tub of popcorn, since it won't leave you feeling greasy and bloated from eating way too much in a short time. Hard candies and other regularly sized sweets are better options, or you could even bring a bag of sliced apples if you want to be a really healthy snacker.

Admit it: you've done it at least once. What's your favorite food to sneak into the theater?

MasterChef Goes Large is coming to BBC America this fall, giving food-loving US viewers a chance to check out a great British reality show. The show is a remake of an older, more subdued British show, simply called MasterChef, and is a culinary competition that challenges amateur cooks to face off against each other to see who is the Master Chef - sort of like Top Chef, only with a seemingly greater emphasis on sheer culinary skill, passion and talent and less on interpersonal conflicts. At least, as much as can be hoped for in any sort of reality show.

The number of contestant s narrows as the season goes on and the chefs face multiple types of cooking challenges. In the Invention test, each chef has less than one hour and a set of ingredients that must be used within the time gram to create a dish. The Pressure test puts the amateurs into real kitchens to see how they fare, as well as giving viewers an inside look at some great restaurants. And for the Final test, chefs are expected to put out their best 2 course meal for a review by the judges.

The show premiers on BBC America on October 2, but if you want to get in the mood to watch, blogger Maki of i was just really very hungry played along with the invention challenges when they aired in Europe earlier this year and tried to make 40-minute meals using the same ingredients that the MasterChef contestants were given to work with.

I'm not vegetarian (though I did try a vegan lifestyle for about a year), but I love this idea of a vegetarian film festival. Organizers of New Zealand's first ever Vegetarian Film Festival will be showing selected movies that have vegetarian themes, ranging from "light" like the indie film Shooting Vegetarians to "heavy," like the story of a live sheep export campaigner in Jill's Film.

But it's not just vegetarian in the movie, it's vegetarian at the movies as well, with concessions stands selling popcorn, vegan ice cream, and contests in which festival-goers can win vegetarian wines (aren't all wines vegetarian!??!) and vouchers to vegetarian restaurants.

The film festival will take place in Auckland and Christchurch, New Zealan on October 8 in conjunction with World Vegetarian Day.

In the movie Grease, Danny Zuko gets stranded at the drive-in theater when Sandy storms out on him. As he sings a strange advertisement for the snack stand rolls on the screen behind him, complete with dancing sodas and trick-trained hot dogs. The song is great, but it is hard to tear your eyes away from those anthropomorphized snacks. I saw this video of about one of those snacks, giving a little backstory and spinning out a rather clever little tale of what happened to Jerome, the Marching Gumdrop, when he left "The Lobby Gang" - featuring Pops Corn, Bonnie Bon Bon, Smokey (a pack of cigarettes isn't exactly refreshing, but whatever), Hot Doggy and Sodey Pop - and struck out on his own.

It's strange, it's funny and, as if that weren't enough, it stars a talking gumdrop.

[via tgwae]

"At 30,000 feet, snakes aren't the deadliest thing on this plane"... not if there's a cake involved, anyway. The picture shown here is small, but this birthday cake is based on Samuel Jackson's upcoming movie, Snakes on a Plane (due to potentially offensive language, the full cake is after the jump). Somehow, "snakes on a cake" has more of a ring to it than the original title, though it is clear that the movie would have to be much shorter - on account of a cake being much smaller than a plane and able to accommodate fewer snakes. This is a great choice of birthday cake for a movie buff.

Read on to see the whole cake up close.

Fast Food Nation, the movie, is due to hit theaters nationwide this fall and after the tremendous publicity it has received, as well as both positive and negative press, I'm sure you're all dying to see the preview. Well, here it is. It doesn't give away much, but it does give you a tiny taste of what the movie is going to be like. The cast includes Greg Kinnear, Patricia Arquette, Luis Guzmán, Ethan Hawke, Kris Kristofferson, Avril Lavigne, Esai Morales, Wilmer Valderrama and Bruce Willis. For more information, check out the official site, and for more video clips, head over to the Fast Food Facts site.

Are you planning on seeing it in theaters?

It looks like the famous 1976 Paris wine tasting could be made into a movie.  A Los Angeles production firm bought the movie rights to George Taber's book on the blind tasting, in which the California wines Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon 1973 and Ridge Montebello 71 beat the favored First Growths Chateau Mouton-Rothschild 70 and Haut Brion 70. The studio says that they plan to focus on the interaction between Steven Spurrier, the wine mastermind who arranged the tasting, and the Californians, who will be portrayed as the underdogs.

The film sounds like it will be an interesting one. The studio has already suggested Jude Law and Hugh Grant for the role of Spurrier, who wanted someone British and young to play him, as he was 34 when he organized the tasting. He objects to both choices of actor, claiming that "they are far too old."

I should note here that Jude Law is actually only 33, so it's not entirely clear if Spurrier knows who the actor is or how young he wants to look in the film. He could always call up Stephen, 24, from Top Chef, if he wants someone really young. I bet he could do a British accent.

[via The Food Section]

Animated movies often have food elements to them, just like live action movies, only more over-the-top because they aren't constrained by what is physically possible. Personally, I'm a huge fan of the French chef in The Little Mermaid, Louis. He's just too funny and his song, "Les Poissons" probably taught a lot of kids their first French word.

Disney has a new animated venture with a foodie twist coming up in 2007. The film, called Ratatouille, is about an American rat living in Paris who is a foodie - a tough lifestyle choice for a rat, as you might imagine. As he points out in the trailer (you can check out the trailer at the official site), there is lots of good food available, it is just dangerous to steal it from, say, a french restaurant that appears to be entirely staffed by Chef Louis' relatives. The film looks adorable and, as it's done by Pixar, the animation looks great - not to mention the fact that it's about food and foodies (even if the main character is a rat)!

[via boing boing]