You Can't Eat That in the Theater...

I, like 96% of all food bloggers, love Top Chef. And since I’m a big movie geek as well, last night’s episode was awesome. The cheftestants had to build a course around their favorite movie. While some were well thought out (Willy Wonka and A Christmas Story were my two favorite dishes), some utterly failed, either at picking a movie that would help them in any way or in making a dish that represented the film.

Of course, as soon as Padma announced the challenge, I turned to my roommate and asked what film he would choose. This led us off onto a whole discussion of which foods tie in to which movies and what we would make for this challenge. Here’s what we came up with. I realize that we took it all more literally than the cheftestants did, but hey, no one has to actually eat this stuff.

Indiana Jones – A dish involving snake meat. We didn’t go too far with this because we got sidetracked with dessert – monkey brains! Peeled fruit (like grapefruit) in a sorbet or ice cream, served in a hollowed-out coconut. Oh, and “bad dates” somewhere on that dish too…

Big Night – Big ‘50s red sauce flavors - risotto, timpano, and a whole roast pig. Or simply a perfectly cooked omelette, like the one in the last scene of the film – so evocative of the brothers’ relationship.

Wicker Man – I’d go with something involving apples and bacon, but my roommate wanted to build the apples into the shape of a person (and then light it on fire!).

Lord of the Rings – Rabbit with a hard “lembas”-style bread.

Donnie Darko – Pizza with the toppings split right down the middle – red tomato sauce and pepperoni on one half, blue potato slices on the other half. (This would work for any politically-themed movie, but I love the family’s political talk over pizza in this movie).

Sadly, I couldn’t come up with anything for some of my favorite movies – Empire Records (peanut M&Ms, cupcakes, rock music, and pot brownies?), Mulholland Drive (espresso… and loathing of loved ones?), The Commitments (beer and cigarettes?), or Zoolander (water?).

What would you make?