The 40 best food films of all time

Cinema and food play crucial roles in how people communicate socially and develop relationships through the medium. For just about as long as there have been movies, food has played a meaningful role in them. The love story between food and film dates all the way back to the beginning of cinema: one of the very first moving pictures by the Brothers Lumière is the 1895 Le repas du bebé, a short black and white clip of Auguste Lumière and his wife spoon-feeding their baby. A few years later, in the 1904 silent film Sorcellerie culinaire, Georges Méliès portrays a chef preparing delicious dishes that attract a homeless person. The food topic continued in silent film works like the 1909 Mr. Flip, considered the first known film to use the famous pie-in-the-face gag. Or think of The Gold Rush dated 1925, in which cinema icon Charlie Chaplin makes a soup of his own shoe, ladling the “broth” over the boiled boot before eating it with a knife and fork for Thanksgiving dinner.

It is no coincidence that food becomes the protagonist of the silver screen starting from its inception, and has not stopped over time. Many modern day filmmakers have included on the screen aspects of food that are salivation-inducing but also undoubtedly metaphorical, social and “spiritual.” Throughout the history of film, food has played a crucial role in making the movies we love feel (and taste) real.

To celebrate the enduring connection between food and film, we compiled a list of the best food films of all time. In this index we included both the obvious picks – movies set in restaurants or kitchens, portraying chefs and diners – as well as the less obvious: films that employ food in a more subtle way, furthering the narrative and helping viewers connect with characters and situations.

Here is a chronological inventory of our favorite films that depict food, dining, cooking, drinking and eating. Grab the popcorn and read on.

The 40 best food films of all time

1928 – From Soup to Nuts

At a gala party, Laurel and Hardy are hired as waiters. Their inexperience immediately causes trouble: Laurel argues with the cook because he is wearing a hat, Hardy is unable to bring a cake to the table without constantly falling over it. Laurel then receives an order for an undressed salad, and misunderstanding, he serves the salad in his underwear. At this point the hostess punches Hardy, causing him to fall on the cake.

1960 – Adua e le Compagne

The closure of the brothels in 1958 leaves Adua, Milly, Lolita and Marilina without income. The four young women decide to open a trattoria on the outskirts of Rome, with the aim of running a clandestine “house of pleasure” behind the cloak of an honest enterprise. For Adua and her business partners, a new life begins with serenity of mind in work. Business flourishes and a new and unexpected prospect of decent work and possible reintegration into society opens up for the women.

1971 – Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

Adaptation of the 1964 novel by Roald Dahl (thankfully omitting the author’s blatant racism). The film is the story of Charlie Bucket, a child of humble origins who, after finding a golden ticket in a chocolate bar, visits Willy Wonka’s factory together with four other children from various parts of the world. Gene Wilder plays Wonka in this film. In 2003 the Tim Burton version starred Johnny Depp, and the latest incarnation of the extravagant chocolate maker is Timotheé Chalamet in the “prequel” Wonka (see below).

1978 – Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?

A mystery comedy that tastes as good as it looks. One by one, the greatest chefs in Europe are being killed. Each chef is murdered in the same manner that their own special dish is prepared in. Food critics and the (many) self-proclaimed greatest chefs of the old world demand the mystery be solved. The original novel revealed the murderer at the very beginning; the film opted to reveal it at the end. In addition, the film’s killer in the film was not the same one as the novel.

1985 – Tampopo

Surely this is the most iconic film ever made about noodles. It’s the story of two Japanese truck drivers as they embark on a quest to teach flailing ramen shop owner Tampopo the real art of this beloved Japanese dish via a series of schemes and clumsy espionage attempts. The film is both a heartfelt, occasionally slapstick comedy and a scathing satire of American Westerns. It also features one of the most bizarre food-themed sex scenes in cinema history.

1987 – Babette’s Feast

Babette flees violence in France to work for two pious sisters in 19th-century Denmark, whose bland diet of bread soup keeps them just sustained enough, but never tipping into gluttony. That is, until Babette (portrayed by Stéphane Audran) insists on cooking a “real French dinner” of dishes like turtle soup, quail with foie gras and truffles, and rum sponge cake. In silence (so as to avoid praising what is surely a sensual sin), the town eats, and comes to understand the godly power of pleasure that food can provide.

1988 – Crossing Delancey

A romantic comedy and also a story about pickles, which represent the old world, the old traditions, the old Yiddish-inflected storefronts of the Lower East Side. Amy Irving and Peter Riegert play the starring roles. Filmed on location, the movie is a portrait of a disappearing culture as it is of an independent woman negotiating romance, family, and the push and pull of her own expectations.

1988 – Mystic Pizza

Charming portrait of three young waitresses at a small-town pizzeria the summer after high school. The pizzeria functions as both a source of income and a center of gravity for the three protagonists, who hover on the cusp of adulthood with dreams of what they want their futures to be. When a snotty restaurant critic visits the pizzeria, you hope for a good review every bit as much as you hope for the three girls to get what they want in life. Movie that put Julia Roberts, Lili Taylor and Annabeth Gish on the map.

1989 – When Harry Met Sally

The greatest friends-to-lovers rom-com ever, written by Nora Ephron and starring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan, follows the friendships and relationships of its two protagonists over the course of 12 years in New York City. As is true for so many residents of the Big Apple, much of the titular characters’ life together happens at restaurants. It’s at restaurants that they learn who the other is at their core. Epic orgasm scene at Katz’s Deli.

1989 – The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover

The wife of a barbaric crime boss engages in a secretive romance with a gentle bookseller between meals at her husband’s restaurant. Food, sex, murder, torture and cannibalism are the exotic fare in this beautifully filmed, but brutally uncompromising modern tale. Directed by Peter Greenaway it’s a recipe of food and sex mixed with art that is both delicious and deliciously wicked. The cast features Richard Bohringer, Helen Mirren, Michael Gambon and Alan Howard.

1990 – Goodfellas

Director Martin Scorsese first showed how food and Italian-American mob life are intertwined, whether it’s slicing a garlic clove with a razor blade, dates at prime tables in elite supper clubs, eating pasta at mom’s house, or making a Sunday gravy in between drug runs. The stellar cast includes Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Ray Liotta, Paul Sorvino and Scorsese’s own mother, Catherine.

1991 – Fried Green Tomatoes

The film uses food to explore some of its biggest themes: love, revenge, and reclaiming one’s power. Housewife Evelyn (played by a magnificent Kathy Bates) is unhappy and stuck with a distracted husband until she meets Ninny (Jessica Tandy) at a nursing home. The two strike up a friendship, and Ninny shares with Evelyn a colorful array of stories that center on the relationship between her older sister Idgie (played by Mary Stuart Masterson) and her best friend Ruth (played by Mary-Louise Parker) in 1920s Alabama. The flashback scenes show how the two friends eventually fall in love after they deal with Ruth’s abusive husband in a decidedly dark (and smoky) way. The two run the town’s Whistle Stop Cafe, serving their fried green tomatoes and other Southern comfort staples as they confront terminal cancer, family chaos, and queer love in the Twenties’ American South.

1992 – Like Water for Chocolate

This is the film that has arguably done more than any other to equate food with the expression of emotion. Tita, a young woman living in early 1900s Mexico (played by Lumi Cavazos), is deeply in love with Pedro )Marco Leonardi) but forbidden to marry him due to a family tradition. Instead, Pedro marries one of Tita’s sisters, while Tita, forced by said tradition to take care of her mother, channels her feelings into the food she cooks. So tears baked into a wedding cake cause the guests to weep, and a quail dish made with petals from an illicit bouquet provokes overwhelming horniness in all who consume it.Director Alfonso Arau made food the central language of this magical film.

1994 – Eat Drink Man Woman

Comedy-drama that’s impossible to watch without working up an appetite. Chu is a banquet chef with three adult daughters. Every Sunday he prepares elaborate family meals, and week after week, their lives take dramatic turns, as the dinner table becomes the setting for the seemingly sudden announcements of pregnancies, marriages, and other major life decisions. The importance of food to these characters is underscored in perhaps the most devastating of the dramatic twists when Chu loses his sense of taste, forcing him to leave his job in shame. The message is clear: Life has little enjoyment without the presence of good food and the ability to appreciate it. Directed by Ang Lee, the film stars Sihung Lung, Kuei-Mei Yang and Wang Yu-wen.

1996 – Big Night

Primo and Secondo are two Italian immigrants who open an Italian restaurant in America. Primo is the irascible and gifted chef (played by Tony Shalhoub), brilliant in his culinary genius, but determined not to squander his talent on making the routine dishes that customers expect. Secondo is the smooth front-man (played by Stanley Tucci), trying to keep the restaurant financially afloat. Pascal’s restaurant, an enormously successful rival (despite its mediocre fare), is outdoing them. To save their restaurant, the brothers plan an evening of incredible food, a feast of a lifetime.

1997 – Soul Food

It’s rare to find food content that doesn’t praise the therapeutic value of homemade meals enjoyed with family. In many Black American households, this is exemplified by weekly gatherings organized by an aunt or grandmother. However, what occurs when the main cook and tradition bearer falls into a coma? This forms the basis of the film about the Joseph family’s efforts to heal old wounds, maintain long-standing customs, and progress together. Narrated by 11-year-old Ahmad Simmons, the movie blends humor and drama but excels in portraying meals as both unifying and dividing experiences. The cast of characters includes, among others, Vanessa Williams, Vivica A. Fox and Nia Long.

1998 – La Cena

An evening at Arturo al Portico, a restaurant in Rome. Various parties of middle-class people come in – large and small, young and old, regulars and tourists, married and single – to dine, converse, argue, celebrate, make confessions; to overhear other people’s discussions, to interrupt them, to sing, listen to music, and enjoy life. The camera, just like the people, moves constantly from table to table, into the kitchen and the back room to observe the staff’s petty jealousies and frustrations. Stellar cast, featuring Fanny Ardant, Vittorio Gassman, Giancarlo Giannini, Marie Gillain, Stefania Sandrelli and many others, under the masterful direction of Ettore Scola.

2000 – Chocolat

The slightly magical Vianne (played by Juliette Binoche) arrives at the most romantic town in the south of France like Mary Poppins, setting up a picturesque chocolate shop that becomes home for the wayward and needy, and clashing with the prudish ideas of some. In the film, chocolate appears to change minds, erase prejudice, and reunite families. But mostly, it is the textbook example of how a good food movie should make us salivate. The endless shots of chocolate being stirred, drizzled, unwrapped, and sucked off fingers are pure sensuality. Also, Johnny Depp.

2000 – Vatel

The film is inspired by the true story of François Vatel, cook and master of ceremonies for the Prince of Condé’s reunion with King Louis XIV. The festivities are wonderful. But for the concluding three-day celebration, the ice garden played on the themes of marine mythology and based on seafood, the suppliers fail to bring the fish in time and Vatel takes his own life after eating the few shellfish delivered. When it’s too late, the coveted supply of fish arrives. The luncheon is finished by Vatel’s helpers and proves to be a success. The last images linger on the rest of the ice sculptures, now almost melted. Gerard Depardieu plays the titular character.

2003 – La finestra di fronte

An elderly pastry chef, Veroli (played by Massimo Girotti) who suffers from transient amnesia and is taken in by Giovanna (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), in her home in the Jewish Quarter. During the course of the story Giovanna discovers that Veroli is Jewish and throughout the story he pieces together his memory. The film touches on the tragedy of the German assault on the Nazi Ghetto in October 1943, and opens a window into the memory of one of the last and few survivors. Giovanna slowly discovers that she herself has lost memory of her feelings and true passions. Veroli helps her make some big decisions in her life, like pursuing her dream to work in a bakery and having the strength to fight for her marriage and her children. We love the memorable montage of Veroli baking dozens of cakes in Giovanna’s kitchen.

2004 – Sideways

Remembered as the film that put pinot noir on the map (and wiped Merlot right off of it), Sideways is ultimately a film about coping mechanisms. As Jack (played by Thomas Haden Church) seeks sex to quell his insecurities on his bachelor weekend, Miles (Paul Giamatti) uses his knowledge and appreciation of fine wine to avoid dealing with heartbreak and anxiety over his unpublished novel. Amid golden shots of California vineyards, the two face what is wrong with them, and wine becomes a beautiful metaphor for care, attention, and not letting things go to waste.

2007 – Ratatouille

This animated Disney film tells the story of Remy (voiced by Patton Oswalt), a rat who’s also a talented chef. Beyond its cultural impact, the film excels in portraying the visual and auditory splendor of food, exemplified by Remy’s experience of flavor combinations like cheese and strawberries. More importantly, Ratatouille champions the inclusive message that cooking is for everyone, regardless of background. Remy learns to embrace his various identities, realizing that true passion transcends boundaries, even for cooking-loving rats.

2007 – No Reservations

Starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart, this film is the story of Kate, a terrific chef at a Manhattan restaurant. Kate’s world is overturned when her only sister dies and her ten-year-old niece comes to live with her. As Kate struggles to be a parent to a grief-stricken child, the one world she used to control – the restaurant kitchen – is changed utterly by the restaurant’s hiring of a second chef, the loose, operatic, Italian-trained Nick, who claims it’s an honor to work in Kate’s kitchen but who she suspects wants to replace her.

2009 – Julie & Julia

Directed by Nora Ephron and starring a dream team of actors: Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, and Stanley Tucci, the film is a comfort movie for the ages. What makes it so charming upon each rewatch is the way its characters find pleasure in food: Child’s excitement as she tries cassoulet and sole meunière in France, and Powell’s relatable sense of accomplishment as she learns from Child’s recipes how to poach eggs and boil lobsters. By connecting Powell’s and Child’s lives, the picture is an encouraging and heartwarming story of two women who are both “saved by food.” It also commemorates a major inflection point in modern food culture: when blogging became a serious, viable pursuit, paving the way for today’s creator economy.

2009 – Soul Kitchen

In Hamburg, Zinos (played by Adam Bousdoukos) runs a diner; he gets by, but his girlfriend has taken a job in Shanghai. His feckless brother (played by Moritz Bleibtreu) can be on daily parole from jail only if Zinos employs him. Zinos hires a temperamental chef and loses all his customers, signs a power of attorney giving his brother full authority at the restaurant, and buys a ticket to Shanghai. Is this a recipe for disaster? Spoiler: it’s not.

2009 – Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

This fun animated movie tells the tale of Flint Lockwood (voiced by Bill Hader), who thinks he’s a genius. But none of the things he invents make sense or are useful. When the small island he lives in is in an economic crisis because their primary source of income, a sardine cannery, gets shut down, Flint decides to try his latest invention, a machine that can turn water into food. But something goes wrong and the machine ends up in the atmosphere. Later it starts raining food. And as Flint’s girlfriend – weather anchor voiced by Anna Faris – predicts, chaos ensues.

2010 – The Trip

Ideal for anyone like me who loves planning their travels around good food, The Trip follows comedian Steve Coogan on a newspaper assignment to review some of northern England’s best restaurants. For the trip he brings along fellow comedian Rob Brydon. The circumstances are fictional but the dynamic that the duo cultivates meal after meal is deliciously real. Their sprawling conversations as they drive through gorgeous scenery and dine in some of the most acclaimed restaurants in England are dotted with dialogue that’s totally improvised. Smiles when the two shake their heads at sauce dots and the sometimes silly naming conventions of the dishes. Underneath the comedy lies a moving portrait of middle-aged life, love, and friendship. And so much food.

2011 – Jiro Dreams of Sushi

Close-ups of ingredients being prepped and plated, set to soaring orchestral music. Nearly every food documentary owes some of its aesthetic to Jiro Dreams of Sushi. In a novel approach for the time, the film focuses on shots of hands slicing fish and forming sushi. With this work of art, director David Gelb changed the whole food topic, down to how we eat it. Jiro Ono became a global phenomenon, making reservations at Sukiyabashi Jiro a hot commodity. In doing so, it also popularized the concept of omakase and spurred a high-end sushi boom worldwide. The film then paved the way for Gelb to make the influential Chef’s Table series.

2014 – Chef

Carl Casper (played by Jon Favreau) is an acclaimed chef with a family life that seems as decaying as his artistic freedom. Those frustrations boil over into a raucous viral-videoed public rant. Now with his career ruined, Carl’s ex-wife (Sofìa Vergara) offers an unorthodox solution in Miami: refit an old food truck to serve quality cooking on his own terms. Now with his young son and old colleague (John Leguizamo), the chef takes a working trip across America with the truck to rediscover his gastronomic passion. He discovers he is serving up more than simply food, but also a deeper and delicious connection with his life and his family.

2014 – The Hundred-Foot Journey

The Kadam family has a life filled with both culinary delights and profound loss. Drifting through Europe after fleeing India after a fire destroyed their family restaurant and killed their mother, the Kadams arrive in France. Once there, a chance auto accident and the kindness of a young woman, Marguerite, inspires Papa Kadam to set up an Indian restaurant there. Across the street is the direct competition with an acclaimed haute cuisine establishment across the street where Marguerite also works as a sous-chef. The resulting rivalry eventually escalates in personal intensity until it goes too far. Spoiler: happy ending and great cooking scenes.

2015 – Sweet Bean

The manager of a pancake stall in dire financial straits finds himself confronted with an odd but sympathetic elderly woman looking for work. A taste of her homemade red bean paste convinces him to hire her, which starts a relationship that is about much more than just street food.Little by little, he opens up and reveals his beautiful inner world. Could she be hiding the secret of his success?

2015 – Burnt

Bradley Cooper plays chef Adam Jones, the former enfant terrible of the Paris restaurant scene, who destroyed his career because of drugs and his haughty behavior. Once sober, he returns to London, determined to start over and puts himself in charge of an upscale restaurant. To land his own cuisine and a third elusive Michelin star, he’ll need the best of the best on his side, including the beautiful Helene, played by Sienna Miller.

2017 – Phantom Thread

Daniel Day-Lewis plays an intense, obsessive, and sometimes paranoid dressmaker with a voracious appetite. He meets Alma (played by Vicky Krieps) waitressing at a restaurant and the two quickly become a couple. While those who have only seen the trailer might not immediately categorize this as a “food film,” the drama and resolution in the movie always hinge on a meal. There’s the restaurant where the two meet, the ill-fated dinner she prepares for him in a display of her devotion, and a pivotal, poisoned mushroom tea, which she gives to her lover so that she can be the one to nurse him back to health. Finally, the film culminates in a lovingly prepared omelet that reveals the depth of this complicated couple’s connection.

2020 – Minari

Heartfelt and poignant, the film is named after the Korean term for water celery, portrays food as a representation of both hope and the sacrifices made in the pursuit of the “American dream.” The film tracks the journey of a Korean immigrant family striving to establish roots in rural Arkansas during the 1980s. Jacob (played by Steven Yeun) and his wife Monica (portrayed by Han Ye-ri) work in the poultry industry despite Jacob’s desire to grow Korean vegetables for a living. With the arrival of Monica’s mother from Korea to assist the family, a gradual bond forms with her grandchildren, while Jacob’s aspirations for his farm introduce additional complexities.

2021 – Pig

Nicolas Cage stars as a retired chef who has been living off the grid in the Oregon woods, foraging truffles with his titular truffle pig. When his pet is stolen, he must return to the grisly underworld of Portland’s dining scene to get her back, forcing him to confront the life he left behind in the process. Exploring themes like loss, grief, artistry, genius, and finding one’s purpose, the film is at times intimate and imaginative. And there’s plenty of food, as a movie about a chef should be, complete with high-end restaurant parody of pretentious cheffery, and a scene where we finally see the protagonist cook a beautifully rustic squab with chanterelles.

2021 – Boiling Point

With this film we enter the relentless pressure of a restaurant kitchen as the head chef (Stephen Graham) wrangles his team on the busiest day of the year. The film directed by Philip Barantini is filmed in a single tracking shot (one long, unbroken scene without editing tricks) at a real restaurant in Dalston, London. Originally intended to be filmed in 8 attempts, twice per evening for four days in March 2020, just as the pandemic was escalating in the UK. After the first day, Graham and the producers decided it was too dangerous to have so many people together, so filming was cut short to just two days, resulting in only four 92 minute takes – the third of which was used as the film.

2022 – The Menu

What would you pay for the most exclusive dining experience in the world? That’s the question at the heart of the dark comedy-horror film starring Ralph Fiennes as the tyrannical chef Julian, a man with a lust for revenge on those who have misunderstood or undervalued his culinary genius. His victims are a dining room full of elites, played by a stellar ensemble cast that includes John Leguizamo, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Nicholas Hoult. The film unfolds much like a tasting menu, and each course is more terrifying than the next.

2023 – Wonka

The story of young Willy Wonka and his encounter with the Oompa Loompas in one of his early adventures. He is the mastermind behind some of the most delicious and innovative chocolate creations the world has ever seen. But before shaking up the chocolate industry and making a name for himself as a confectionery genius, the ambitious young creator has to defy all odds. The cast features Timothée Chalamet as the titular character, Hugh Grant as the Oompa Loompa and Oscar-winner Olivia Colman as Mrs. Scrubitt.

2024 – La Cocina

Based on Arnold Wesker’s acclaimed play The Kitchen, the film is a tragic and comic tribute to the invisible people who cook our food. In the opening of director Alonso Ruizpalacios’ black and white film we meet Estela (portrayed by Anna Diaz) who is headed to “The Grill”, a NYC tourist trap, where she gets hired on the spot. As soon as we, the camera, enter the back door of the building, the frame tightens, the aspect ratio shrinks, and we, the audience, gasp for air. The bowels of “The Grill” are made up of narrow corridors and small offices that finally lead to the kitchen. Here we meet chef Pedro (played by Raúl Briones), owner Rashid (Oded Fehr) and waitress Julia (Rooney Mara) as well as a multitude of faces, ethnicities, nationalities, and languages spoken as varied as the food offered. Lobsters and tortellini, pizza and scaloppine: an endless menu meant to satisfy the numb palate of an omnivore clientele sitting beyond the swinging doors.

2024 – La Passion de Dodin Bouffant

The English title is The Taste of Things. Set in France in the 19th century, the film is the love story of cook Eugénie (played by Juliette Binoche) and her gastronome employer Dodin (portrayed by Benoît Magimel). The narration examines the deep romance in cooking for, and with, someone. Accordingly, the story is told through food, which director Trần Anh Hùng presents in indulgent, drawn-out, and atmospheric detail. The movie opens with a 40-minute ensemble cooking sequence. The director excels at portraying sensuality through cooking. He lets the camera linger on the steam billowing from a pot of stock, and then holds it there as Dodin drips that broth onto the taut skin of a chicken, the kitchen aglow in golden-hour light. These lush visuals are enhanced by the crisp sounds of cooking, with no music for distraction. It’s a film that makes you yearn not only for the food, but also for the idea of spending days cooking in the kitchen of a chateau, and then sharing that food with a loved one.

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