Spice of Life

With memories of all the delectable food I've been eating the past few days, I went out for food porn.

Movieland was showing "The Hundred Foot Journey" and a friend had recommended it with the caveat that it was wise to suspend disbelief before watching it.

Isn't that usually the way with a Lasse Hallstrom movie?

Besides, I wasn't seeking out a challenging film, just gorgeous scenery (the south of France), terrific acting (Dame Helen Mirren and Indian actor Om Puri whose sparring is a highlight of the movie) and lingering shots of food preparation that made my buttered popcorn seem woefully inadequate.

There were only six of us in the theater, just enough to hear other people laugh and groan when something happened, a vital part of theater-going.

The story of an Indian family (and the talented son who cooks) who flees their home and restaurant due to political unrest and lands in France to try the restaurant business there was drawn from what was apparently a best-selling book in 2010 by the same name.

Okay, I'll admit I'd never heard of the book.

Because it was set in France, the movie wisely met the one requirement of all French films: a female character who only wore dresses and rode a bike.

As one who has worn dresses and biked plenty of times, I'm not judging, just observing.

The family's restaurant, hilariously named Maison Mumbai, is across the street from a classic French restaurant that has one Michelin star and the film featured trips to a colorful market, bucolic scenes of the young Indian chef fishing in a stream and lots of fireworks on Bastille Day.

Make no mistake, there was also racial prejudice, senseless violence and dirty tricks, so it wasn't all soft focus la-la land stuff.

Best of all, there were two romances, the young (attractive and earnest Indian chef and bike-riding French sous chef) and old (uptight French widow and garrulous Indian widower) to remind us that food and love go hand in hand.

"Fine cuisine is not an old, tired marriage but a passionate affair," Madame Mallory tells her staff.

Amen to that in life and on the table.

After our young, handsome hero wins a second star for Madame and is wooed away to Paris to an innovative restaurant where smoke and molecular gastronomy dominate, he decides to come back to southern France where his family and the lovely sous chef welcome him back with open arms.

Because, we are told, food is memories.

Should those memories ever fail me, I've got years of posts to remind me of all the passionate affairs I've eaten.