It's Golden Globes Time! 10 Best Food Movies Ever!

By David Latt

If cold weather traps you indoors for months each winter, you might run through your queue of streaming movies pretty quickly. Why not entertain yourself with a library of the best food-related cinema? A great food movie has to have well-detailed cooking and eating scenes, with good production values, casting, writing and direction. A great food movie has to make you hungry.

Here is my Top 5 list of great food movies. (Editor's note: The link to Nos. 6 through 10 is at the bottom of this list.)

1. "Julie & Julia" (2009). What a delight to watch Meryl Streep portray culinary icon Julia Child as she discovers the wonders of French cooking. Amy Adams does a charming job of bringing to life blogger Julie Powell who decides to give her life focus by making each and every recipe in "Mastering the Art of French Cooking."

Related: How did Julia Child's recipes change over time?


2. "Mostly Martha" (2001). The American remake, "No Reservations" (2007), lacked the warmth of the deeply moving and entertaining original German film. Martha is a chef who lives and breathes cooking. Watching her orchestrate the dinner service in the restaurant's small kitchen is magical. Then everything changes when her young niece, Lina, comes to live with her. Adding more stress, the restaurant owner hires a new chef, Mario, to help Martha in the kitchen. Mario loves life and Italian cooking. He attempts to seduce Martha with his handmade strands of spaghetti in one of the movie's most delicious scenes.

Related: How do chefs at Torrisi in New York's Little Italy handle kitchen stress?

3. "Ratatouille" (2007). A very different sort of chef inhabits the animated "Ratatouille," but one no less passionate about cooking. Like all great chefs, food speaks to Remy, a novice without formal training, who nonetheless is a quick study and applies himself with extraordinary focus. His father disapproves. The world rejects him. But nothing will keep him from his goal of having his own kitchen. Nothing except that Remy is a rodent.

Related: What foods make for a perfect Paris picnic?

4. "Big Night" (1996), directed by Stanley Tucci and Campbell Scott. Primo (Tony Shalhoub, before "Monk") and Secondo (Tucci) have a problem. Their Italian restaurant is failing because Primo is a purist and will only cook authentic Italian dishes. At the 11th hour, they are offered a lifeline: Prepare the meal of a lifetime for a big celebration and they will save their restaurant. The highlight of Primo's meal is a timpano. This soulful film will move you and make you very hungry, especially at the end of the film when Secondo makes Primo an omelet.

Related: How to make a simple and exquisite tomato sauce


5. "Like Water for Chocolate" (1992), directed by Alfonso Arau. Set in turn-of-the-century Mexico, the movie on one level is about a clash of cultures and the changing role of women. At its heart, the film is about the erotic power of food. But this is not just about sex; food is a metaphor for passion, for the irresistible forces of nature that lie deep within our beings.

Related: An easy way to make your own homemade chocolate

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Is your favorite missing? Check out the rest of David Latt's top foodie flicks list.

Zester Daily contributor David Latt is a television writer/producer with a passion for food. His new book is "10 Delicious Holiday Recipes." In addition to writing about food for his own site, Men Who Like to Cook, he has contributed to Mark Bittman's New York Times food blog, Bitten, One for the Table and Traveling Mom. He continues to develop for television but also is a contributor to Peter Greenberg's travel site and the New York Daily News online.

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