I don’t watch cooking shows. Okay, I don’t really cook. I’m fine on the receiving end, and ultimately just marvel at how all these simple elements transform into something magical and sensuous in the hands of a master. The idea of watching other people eating would seem to have even less appeal. And then I watched Babette’s Feast. Boy, was I wrong. I think it’s safe to say it is the most wonderful film ever made about the pleasures of food.
It is a Danish film from 1987 about a small, pious village in the nineteenth century. A mysterious French housekeeper moves to this claustrophobic, provincial town, which is populated by a repressed community of people. She quietly lives among them until she reveals her extraordinary gifts in the form of one phenomenal, grand meal. The meal and her kitchen virtuosity transform all who partake to a new appreciation of the delectable nature of life itself. The build up to the meal (most of the film) is delicious in and of itself as well.
