Enjoy your food — bon appétit
Food is like an identity to a place they say. Food is culture. It defines a vital aspect of any civilization on earth. Countries like India where we have diverse cultures and traditions, variety of different foods and tastes is also ample. Yes! India is famous for innumerable delicacies and bold tastes. I am a Maharashtrian and like to savor many Marathi delicacies. I like to cook them myself and also find joy is serving them to others. In Marathi, while sitting on the dining table and before beginning our meal, we say “Anna he purna Bramha” meaning “Food is entire Universe”.
I thought of writing this blog as I love cooking. As an Indian, I have tasted foods from different parts of India. But a recent thing made me discover more about French Cooking.
I have seen the movies like ‘The Ratatouille’, ‘The Hundred Foot Journey’ and ‘Julie and Julia’. They all are about French cooking, French food and chefs. I loved them so much that I watch them again and again. And that has made me discover more about French cooking and culture. I don’t know much about French food but I have developed a liking towards it and would definitely like to try some French delicacies in my Kitchen. I am convinced that, like India, France is also very passionate about food.
A little bit about what I liked about the movies. I am not writing a review and neither am I a critic. This is just what my takeaway was from these movies.
In the movie “The Ratatouille”, a mouse saves a French restaurant by it’s amazing sense of cooking. A complex recipe prepared so effortlessly by a mouse — something worth watching. Although it is an animated movie, I liked the spirit of it. It shows a mouse having chef’s abilities and how a critic gets impressed by it. The mouse is shown to control a boy’s actions while cooking and the boy becomes famous chef. A critic comes to taste the restaurant’s food, prepared by the boy and is thrilled to have tasted “ratatouille” a French delicacy. He is rocked to his core, so much so that he waits for a long time after dinner, just to meet the chef, which to his surprise is a small mouse. He writes a review that is worth remembering. It says that he tasted such good food cooked by a “singularly unexpected source” and compares this mouse with finest chefs in France. He supports the idea “Anybody can Cook” which is the restaurant owner’s strong belief. At the end he writes something which I will always remember — “Not everybody is a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere”. Loved the movie.
Now the movie -“The Hundred Foot Journey”. An Indian family comes to reside in front of a famous French restaurant in St Antonin village of France. They open their Indian restaurant right in front of this old and famous French restaurant that is situated one hundred foot away. The son of the Indian is a gifted cook and has had this passion for food and cooking since his childhood. He loves Indian cooking but also enjoys cooking French food since they live in France. He, one day happens to cook French Style egg omelet using traditional Indian spices for this French restaurant owner. She gets mesmerized to the extent that she invites him to work for her restaurant. The boy excels and becomes a star thereafter. I enjoyed watching how passionately the boy cooks and adds his Indian twist to old French recipes to make them more exquisite. “Food is memories” he says — another idea that I liked. Critics love his food and the boy wins Michelin star for the lady’s restaurant which is considered to be of great honour for a restaurant in France.
This third movie, “Julie and Julia” is based on two true stories. There is this American woman Julie, 30 years old, having a job which she does not enjoy at all. She is so fond of cooking that she says — “after a long tiring day at work where nothing seems certain, cooking at the end of the day liberates her as she knows what added to what produces what”. She is a fan of Julia Child — a famous personality who transformed the ways Americans cook, as shown in the movie. Julie decides to cook more that 500 recipes given in Julia Child’s book within a span of one year. She leads a very average life and is too bored. Her love for cooking and this difficult feat gains her self-confidence. While she is always nagged by everybody of not completing a single task on time, achieving her goal of cooking over 500 recipes in 365 days excites her and makes her a better, self-confident person. She writes a blog about how she cooked a particular recipe and gradually gains a fan following. How Julia Child publishes her book on French Cooking for Americans, while staying in France and how after so many years, Julie commits to the book is what I enjoyed watching.
Well, all the three movies are great fun to watch.
In “The Ratatouille”, the mouse is threatened by it’s father that mice can only have a dreadful end in the world of humans. But the mouse is so much committed to it’s love for cooking that such threats stand no chance and chooses it’s love for cooking over it’s meagre existence.
In “The Hundred Foot Journey”, the Indian boy gets encouragement for the work he loves doing and his talent is recognised and picked up rightly without a sense of partiality. In spite of not being French, he is given a chance to perform for his talent. Encouragement and appreciation for hard work is so important in life.
In “Julie and Julia”, the story of Julia and Julie run parallelly. In both the stories, the ladies are immensely supported by their respective husbands. It’s so important that a man believes and supports his wife’s ideas so that she also can fulfill her dreams and achieve success in a male dominated society.
I shared all this because somewhere I instantly got connected with the ideas narrated in the films and also because of my love for food and cooking. I enjoy cooking and try out different recipes as I get time. I believe, it is with a great sense of humbleness and respect that you cook your food, makes it so tasty and fulfilling. That is my eternal connection with food. Food is such an important part of our lives. They say there is music for every mood, I say there is food for every mood.
And after we finish our food, we say “Annadata Sukhibhava” meaning “God bless those who provide us with Food”.
