"movie food" news and stories

It's impossible to watch Julia Roberts twirling her spaghetti in "Eat, Pray, Love" without imagining taking a bite of your own. Or chomping into her pizza in Naples. Or slowly savoring her gelato on a Roman park bench.

Filming food can be a challenge, but when it's done right, the audience can practically taste the succulent dishes being served on screen.

Saveur has put together a list of 21 great recipes from films that make your mouth water, the Huffington Post reported.

And from Julia Child's classic boeuf à la bourguignonne in "Julia and Julia" to the bounty served in "Eat, Drink, Man, Woman," food can steal the scene in some films.

Roll out the red carpet, check the TV listings for Joan Rivers and, most importantly, don’t forget the snacks – it’s time to get ready for the 78th Academy Awards! Planning a menu can be difficult. First of all, the show takes a long time and when you're hosting a party that takes several hours, you'll probably need a lot of food. I think that popcorn, parmesan or microwaved, is a movie must-have and you can never go wrong with veggies and hummus. On the other hand, you might want to get into the spirit of Hollywood by having a movie themed menu at your party. This year's best picture nominees - Brokeback Mountain, Good Night and Good Luck, Capote, Crash and Munich - are not really huge inspirations in the food department. If there were more foodies in the Academy, maybe they would have nominated Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, since there are definitely Hollywood-types that would do anything for chocolate. At it stands, though, the options look like barbecue, lamb and apple pie from Brokeback Mountain and brisket and stuffed cabbage from Munich. I can't say that I recall seeing any food in Good Night and Good Luck at all. Fortunately, the staff at Allrecipes.com has put together an extensive set of menus from each movie.

As for me, I'll be giving a nod to Wallace and Gromit and noshing on cheese and crackers. And maybe I'll take a tip from the Seattle Times and have some really snarky snacks, like "Japanese food for Memoirs of a Geisha, but in honor of the ethnically inaccurate cast, it has to be made by Chinese people."

Just in time for the Golden Globes, the Food Network aired a special on their work behind the scenes of Queen Latifah's movie, Last Holiday. The special, creatively entitled Food Network Goes to Hollywood, was a fun behind-the-scenes expose of how food is styled for the silver screen.

In Last Holiday (which, Cinematical tells us, receives raves from all the critics), Queen Latifah plays a housewares saleswoman with a heart of gold and a love for Emeril, whose dishes she cooks up for the kid next door. But the plot's not so important here: we care more about how many chickens they had to be purchased so the Queen could make Chicken Tchoupitoulas along with Emeril (on TV in her kitchen). They never actually said, but it was clearly dozens. We care that the actors usually don't get to eat the food in restaurants scenes, but in this movie? They did, and ate cassoulet and roasted quail with brioche and chorizo stuffing and spiced lamb shanks with blood orange relish. Oh my.

The funniest part of the whole show, though, was one of the chef consultants explaining that, because Queen Latifah's character ate Lean Cuisines for dinner, she was making a red wine sauce to go over the frozen entree: "so it will taste better for Queen Latifah." That's so sweet.

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