Good Taste In Everything

Foodies attack the silver screen! In today's Times Arts & Leisure section, the long history and current feast of food in film is given another look. Would there have even been a Big Night if not for the food? In the coming months, Russell Crowe, the first person we think of when the phrase "good taste" coming up, will star as a man who inherits a vineyard and Nora Ephron is working on an adaptation of Julie & Julia, the Julie Powell book that came from her blog. Fast Food Nation has been filmed, too, and, there will be acompetitive eating movie, All You Can Eat, to add some low-to-middle-brow enjoyment to all the wineries and roux.

Being filmed aknowledges how pervasive the trend toward more conscious eating has become and it's being cited on the bookshelves, too. In September, look for The United States of Arugula, How We Became A Gourmet Nation, by David Kamp. Kamp, a Vanity Fair and GQ writer, looks at the rise of food journalism, Whole Foods, extra-virgin olive oil and Iron Chef.

What are your favorite food movies? Eat Drink Man Woman, Tampopo, Like Water for Chocolate and Babette's Feast rank high. Oh, yes, and the American Catherine Zeta-Jones-starring version of Mostly Martha (Zeta-Jones as a NYC chef) has been completed. And what is an article about food on screen without a quote from Anthony Bourdain, who ridicules the seriously ridiculous Spanglish which had Adam Sandler as a Thomas Keller-esque (Thomas Keller "trained" Sandler) chef who didn't even speak Spanish! As Bourdain put its, "A completely ludicrous movie with good food styling. The food looked good, but I didn't believe for a second that Adam Sandler made it or ever worked in a kitchen."