Ratatouille
Pixar's Brad Bird has outdone himself with Ratatouille, earning a well-deserved Oscar for best animated film.
The film's unlikely lead is a young rat named Remy, who is drawn to
create taste sensations as he observes the late, great Chef Gusteau do
on television.
His dangerous attraction to the kitchen of the country home he and his
extended rodent family inhabit leads to their discovery and flight down
the river.
Remy finds himself in Paris, at Gusteau's restaurant. Much of
the movie takes place here, where we learn how the back-of-house
operations work.
To save a pot of soup from awkward youth Linguini's unskilled
additions, Remy risks life and limb, nearly ending up drowned in the
Seine. A highly unusual and hilarious collaboration between the two
would-be cooks leads to Linguini's training by Collette, a beautiful
and gifted cook.
While Linguini garners undeserved fame, unscrupulous Chef attempts to
market frozen fast food with the late Gusteau's image and reputation.
The biggest challenge comes when Anton Ego visits to critique
the resurrected restaurant. They serve him peasant dish ratatouille;
and it has a revelatory effect on him. This is a Disney film; so all
ends well. But it is also a Brad Bird film; so how every one of the
complexly interwoven story lines resolves is not so predictable.
Key Lessons from Ratatouille:
- The importance of proper food handling.
- The barriers to women in haute cuisine.
- The many ways to create community.
- What happens when differences within a family cause a split, and how love can overcome the divide.
- The ability of even the humblest creatures to live a hand-crafted life.
And of course the film centers on the theme of cooking as a creative act. As Chef Gusteau says,
"Great cooking is not for the faint of heart. You must be imaginative,
strong-hearted. You must try things that may not work. And you must not
let anyone define your limits because of where you come from. Your only
limit is your soul. What I say is true: anyone can cook - but only the
fearless can be great."
An excellent analogy for life.
Try a ratatouille recipe like the one in the movie
