Gourmet Business September 2017

The influence of motion pictures on my outlook towards life cannot be overstated. My general view of the world for sure, but even regarding my interest in food and housewares. There are of course, the silly comic images, like Three Stooges pie fights or the starving Little Tramp dining on his shoe in the Yukon wilderness as if it’s filet mignon in The Gold Rush. Then there is food as a symbol of the human condition, such as Anthony Quinn wolfing down a plate of spaghetti and a tumbler of wine in Fellini’s La Stada, Maximillian Schell desperately eating his life-giving egg and roll in Julia, and the simple delicious Provençal soup enjoyed by Yves Montand and Daniel Auteuil in the cruelly beautiful Jean de Florette. Food appears as a central character in wonderful lms like Eat, Drink, Man, Woman, Big Night, Tampopo, and the godmother of them all, Babette’s Feast. And then there are those creepily stacked DEAN & DELUCA spice tins in Sleeping with the Enemy. 

Kitchenware and housewares get attention too. How many times, for example, have I spotted a Richard Sapper whistling tea kettle or a Philippe Starck hand juicer on the kitchen counter in some rom-com from the past 30 years? Bialetti espresso pots and their Neapolitan cousins have been showing up in Italian movies for decades, and in more recent times all manner of accessories, from All-Clad cookware to Dualit toasters have
had star turns on the big screen. Sometimes it’s the whole kitchen that has a cameo. Remember the fabulous black and white kitchen at the end of Woman of the Year, in which Katherine Hepburn ineptly tries to make breakfast for Spencer Tracy, or Jason Bourne’s sleek stainless-steel galley in The Bourne Identity, and even the Old-World elegance of the kitchen in Downton Abbey, ruled over by the fiery Mrs. Patmore. 

Clearly, I watch a lot of movies, new and old (but mostly old). I love movies and I love food and kitchenware, and when they all come together I think it’s magical. It’s not bad for business either. So next time you’re at the movies (which may be in your living room) keep an eye out for the carefully staged set decorations. Those cool gadgets, appliances, pots and pans and packaged foods are not there by accident. You can bet that some savvy art director has been paying attention to our industry. So, I’m o to the movies – tonight it’s a recent Pedro Almodóvar – and soon I’ll be off to Cologne for the huge food fair Anuga. I hope to see some of you there, and who knows, maybe we’ll catch a good German lm and try and spot the Wusthof knives. Cheers. 

James Mellgren 

Managing Editor, Gourmet Business 

jmellgren@gourmetbusiness.com