Focus Features

If I could only have one food movie, this would be it. I don’t know which came first for me, the movie or the short story, but I love them both. Charming tale, beautiful and romantic 19th Century French cuisine, the struggle of the artist, the contrast between a sensual and puritan existence. I won’t provide a synopsis, but from the moment Babette returns from her shopping expedition, the movie becomes a culinary burlesque. Every little detail that we glimpse makes us want to see that much more. If I ever need a little inspiration or a reminder about why I spend long days in the kitchen, why I go to extraordinary lengths to find an ingredient or use a certain cooking technique, this movie is one of my touchstones.

This film is a lesson about communicating through food. It could be subtitled “be careful what you think about when preparing food for others,” or maybe “don’t think bad thoughts when you cook.” Feeding another person is one of the most basic things you can do for them. A meal prepared with love simply tastes better—but what about a meal prepared in anger or despair? I thought of this movie a few years ago when visiting a Buddhist Ashram. The cooks were chanting over the food as they prepared it because it was believed to put a healing and nurturing “vibe” into the food. Maybe chefs (or anyone preparing a meal), should keep the heroine Tita’s lesson in mind.

I love this movie now for different reasons than when I first saw it. In the beginning it was just beautiful food, exotic ingredients, and those unbelievable knife techniques that I didn’t have (and still don’t). Now I am beginning to see it like “chef is getting older” and “really unexpected things happen in life.”

I cook Italian food. I live in America. What else is there to say about this movie—except you have to mention the soundtrack. Also, I learned one of my favorite party tricks for my demos and cooking classes from this movie—a guaranteed “ooh” involving Amaretti cookie wrappers—it’s at the end of the feast scene.

This movie caught my attention a number of years before I became a chef. In addition to the soundtrack, and even more than the incredible visuals, I remember the Cook’s discussion about black foods, the most expensive foods (think truffles, caviar, squid ink) and how their consumption was a way to show mastery over death. I think that was the first time that I realized that food could be more than just fuel.