Cooking with Hollywood: Ratatouille 3

Another favorite quote from Ratatouille: Remy, the little chef rat is explaining to his father why he loves to cook and he says, "It's because of the infinite combinations". This is contrary to what the French lady chef (can't remember her name) says, when she scolds Remy and says, "We have to follow the recipe!" Actually, making up our own combinations is a luxury we have more often at home than a restaurant chef has. Once he/she has the fun of creating a recipe, it does have to be followed exactly because clients expect to be able to order a dish and have it show up the same each time. A chef has to keep to a standard to meet expectations. It's the same when you write a cookbook. The recipe has to be exact enough so that it works for everybody. At home, however, we can create a new dish every day!

Cooking with Hollywood: Ratatouille 1

A friend of mine suggested that I write about cooking with Hollywood - i.e. the role that food plays in movies. That's an interesting thought, so let's go back again to Ratatouille, the animated movie where a sweet, little rat becomes a chef. Cooking is his passion, so he tries different dishes, imagines different spice combinations, and spends time reading cookbooks. He learns how to become a great cook because of his passion.

On the other hand, a boy (called Linguine) has a job as a cook and is a total disaster. The little rat helps the boy create great dishes by sitting under his hat and pulling his hair. Each pull controls what the boy does (lift an arm, grab a spice, stir the pot, and so forth). The boy, however, doesn't learn. He follows the motions and in the end does what he likes (which is fine) and becomes a great waiter, delivering food to enthusiastic customers that the rat and his friends make.

A cookbook highlighted in the movie (by a great chef and the little rat's mentor) is called, "Anyone Can Cook". I say that anyone can LEARN to cook who pays attention and has the desire. They only need direction (recipes and/or a mentor chef)and the DESIRE to cook well. As with learning anything, you have to pay attention, want to learn and invest time experimenting on your own.