The bloggers of Girls on Food are all friends with each other on Facebook, and a lot of us LOVE staying in and binge watching food related docs. These docs have been mouth-watering, but the film biz has been lacking in great “foodie” movies lately. Has anyone else noticed this? There are talks about investing in an android box and seeing if there any good shows and films on there. A few people have suggested that we look into getting a VPN since it allows you to have access to shows from all over the world through your streaming platform. You can find out more information about VPNs by clicking the link. It seems too good to pass up, and you really can’t beat a good binge session, especially when it’s equipped with delicious snacks.

Today, we’re dishing on our favorite feature films that have the best in food and drink.

Dawn –Fried Green Tomatoes was a great book and an even better movie. The characters are as richly developed as the food served up at the Whistle Stop Café owned by Idgie Threadgoode. Set in 1940s Alabama, the film will take you on a trip through time back to the 1940s. Idgie Threadgoode owns and runs the Whistle Stop Café serving up homemade southern cooking made from scratch by mother and son team, Sipsey and Big George. The amazing cast includes Kathy Bates, Jessica Tandy, Mary Stuart Masterson, Mary-Louise Parker and Cecily Tyson.

Image: Universal Pictures

I recommend reading the book first. At the back of the book, you will find a gold mine of mouth-watering recipes including Sipsey’s Southern Fried Chicken, chicken and dumplings, coconut cream pie and, of course, fried green tomatoes. Get ready for a roller coaster ride of loss, revenge, murder, love and deep friendship.
Reno Tastebuds – If you have ever worked in the food service industry behind the scenes as a Chef, then you can relate to the stress and feeling of the dinner rush that gets your adrenaline pumping on a daily basis!

Image: Open Road Films

After watching the movie, Chef, I fell in love with my career all over again. That satisfaction of feeding thousands of people and watching the smiles your food brings to their face are priceless. But being a Chef isn’t all sweet smiles and warm fuzzies, you also get your “critics” who waltz in, judge your hard work harshly and drop their opinions which may or may not always be accurate. The frustration and flared tempers that were portrayed in the movie towards those “opinions” were 100% dead on in real life. Be kind to your Chef, after all, they’re the one that has been working in front of an 800-degree grill and preparing your meal for the last 6 hours just to meet your satisfaction!

Katie – When Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets a magic crab and a witty sous chef, you know you’re in for a great movie experience! This film actually coins the phrases “emotional eating” and “all the feels!” And I love it for that!

Image: 20th Century Fox

Simply Irresistible is one of the last of the great late 90’s chick flicks – lighthearted, utterly silly and enjoyable. Gellar plays Amanda, a terrible chef, who thanks to a magic crab and a pair of “good luck” earrings, becomes an incredible chef, who creates fabulous food renown not only for their flavor but for the emotions they evoke in the person who eats them. Anger in a chicken paillard ends up with a patron throwing plates around the restaurant; passion ends up with an intense scene in an elevator over caramel éclairs.

I I might include this movie on my shortlist of factors that got me interested in food in the first place! Scenes in a farmers market. Whipping up fabulous gourmet meals without batting an eye. Baking incredible desserts that waft out of my television screen….Sarah Michelle Gellar slices an apple perfectly, adds vanilla flowers to her desserts; even cooks a peach dessert so when opened, a vanilla fog floats out. My ideal date idea would be to book a private cinema hall and watch this film alone with my partner. Maybe have something sweet and crunchy to munch on while watching the comedy. Feel-good movies blend perfectly well with date nights, you know, they always end well! If you haven’t watched this, or it’s been awhile, definitely put it back into your mix of cheesy feel good movies. It’s on Amazon Prime for $5. As a bonus, I found a recipe to the caramel eclairs!

Nin – I didn’t run to the theater to watch Julie & Julia when it came out seven years ago, but I really should have. This film is my absolute favorite food-based movie. I can relate to Julie Powell (played by Amy Adams) but aspire to be Julia Child (played by Meryl Streep), almost like Julie Powell tried to do in her real life blog the “Julie/Julia Project.”

Image: Columbia Pictures

I’ve had a lot of trials and a TON of errors in the kitchen. The idea that Powell had to blog her way through each recipe in Child’s book “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” for a year was as brilliant as Child’s actual attempts to master the French cuisines herself during her time spent in France at Le Cordon Blue after the second world war.

Even though there are high profile stars in Streep and Adams, the real star(s) were the dishes of yummy looking nosh. I believe the term “food porn” was created specifically because of this movie. With all the mouth watering images of the meals both women prepare, the food preparation also symbolizes the “courses” through life each woman experienced in their journeys. An analogy for life was conveyed throughout this film. If you let things simmer too long, it can boil over, but if you pay attention and take great care in all of the details, you can have a delicious outcome. The same can be said if you rush to do anything, you will wind up either getting burned or undercooked/underwhelmed.

Not only is this a movie about cooking, but it is about putting your mind to something and to go through with it. I haven’t been as ambitious as Julie and Julia in life when it comes to trying to make my mark in the world, but some (ok maybe all in my opinion) of the movie’s little anecdotes can and do apply to all people if you really (over) think about it.

Image: Fox Searchlight

Amanda – One of my absolute favorite food movies is a little indie film for pie-lovers (or bakers in general), called Waitress (2007). In this movie, Jenna (Keri Russell) is a pie genius at an old-fashioned diner (but thankfully for the pies, without roller skates). Her confections are described as “biblically good” and “a thing of beauty”-high praise a baker can only hope to attain. A true artiste, Jenna channels her unhappiness in her life and marriage into culinary masterpieces, and she names her pies accordingly.

A surprise pregnancy invokes “Bad Baby Pie,” a brie and ham quiche. Her particularly nasty spouse, Earl, (Jeremy Sisto) inspires an oddly-delectable “I Hate My Husband Pie,” a mélange of unsweetened chocolate “drowned in caramel.” Waitress is funny, heartwarming, and at times, genuinely poignant. But be warned: don’t watch it if you’re on a diet; you’ll be up to your elbows in pie crust before the credits stop rolling.

Image: Columbia Pictures

Fatboi Tendencies – Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs is the animated adaptation of the popular children’s book of the same name. Growing up, it was one of my absolute favorites. Who wouldn’t want to live in a town where it rains orange juice and hails meatballs?! The film follows the misadventures of budding scientist Flint Lockwood of the small island Swallow Falls, and his pet monkey Steve. Once the town’s sardine business fails, he creates an invention called the “Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator”, or FLDSMDFR for short, that can turn water into food. Flint finds a new friend in Sam Sparks, a weather intern for the local TV station when she is sent on a mission to cover his new invention. Cheeseburgers rain from the sky as the townspeople rejoice, becoming increasingly greedier from their newfound fortune. The town is renamed to Chewandswallow and becomes a hit tourism spot.

Julianne – Collaborations are some of my favorite posts here to edit because I get to see who writes what and write based off that. This post is tough because I love Chef, Julie & Julia, and Simply Irresistible. So I was slightly scratching my head trying to remember a film where the scenes featuring food that were memorable for me.