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INTRODUCTION

Food in movies and television plays just as vital and important a role as any of the human characters. It gets a styling of its own and is crucial in bringing stories together; it’s present during pivotal scenes to communicate emotion; it serves in framing place, time and the general zeitgeist; and it ingrains itself in the viewer’s memory forever.

I, for one, can’t remember the names of my best friends from elementary school, but from that same era, I can vividly remember the abandoned jellies and cakes in the lobby scene of Jurassic Park. And the feast of takeout hurriedly plated (and taken credit for) by Mrs. Doubtfire after she sets fire to her blouse. And the platter of delicious finger food extolled by Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast. And the neon-colored pies flung across the table in Hook. (As a matter of fact, that’s about all I can remember from that movie.) I’m willing to bet that you, too, harbor some movie-food memories from childhood, be it Kronk’s spinach puffs from The Emperor’s New Groove or E.T.’s Reese’s Pieces. The foods we see on screen stay with us—and we crave them forever.

It’s no surprise, then, that we often want to eat what we see on screen. We can’t help but associate the food with the characters and their lives. In fact, food in movies and television is a powerful form of subliminal advertising.

Almost two decades after Sex and the City debuted, lines at New York City’s Magnolia Bakery still snake out the door thanks to the cupcake shop’s prominence in an episode of the TV show. Katz’s Delicatessen has a wooden plaque commemorating the famous “orgasm” scene from When Harry Met Sally … (see here). Seabass was nearly fished into extinction after its mere mention by Richard Attenborough’s character in Jurassic Park. Patrons at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando reportedly cried upon taking their first sip of Butterbeer. It’s the food of fiction made tangible, confections seemingly out of reach now available at a location near you.

Food and movies are both sources of diversion, comfort and togetherness, and they constantly inspire one another. They inspired me back in 2016 to create Binging with Babish, a web series in which I try to accurately recreate the foods of film and television. I had always been curious about the foods of fiction, and unwittingly spent my entire life cultivating a deep-seated love of both cinema and cuisine. When the two almost accidentally came together in my kitchen, I knew that I had found my calling. Energized by the tantalizing cross-section of passion and play, I’d come home almost every night after work and experiment in the kitchen late into the night, leaving a trail of dirty dishes and ruined aprons behind me. The effort has paid off: Binging with Babish has become my full-time job, has introduced me to a host of new experiences and people (including the love of my life), and at the time of this writing, has garnered more than 40 million views. It seems that many others share the same passion for food on film as I do, and it’s a continuing joy to share with them the creativity, spontaneity, and fantasy that goes along with it.

This book is all about bringing that delicious fiction to life and manifesting our food fantasies in our very own kitchens. Cooking these recipes is one of the most accessible ways to experience firsthand what the characters are seeing, smelling, and tasting. There’s something undeniably special about cutting into your first Big Night Timpano and seeing the layers stacked with wild Italian abandon. Some recipes are offerings of exhaustive accuracy, such as the Confit Byaldi from Ratatouille (see here), while others are spiritual homages to their source material, like the French Toast from Kramer vs. Kramer (see here). No matter which dishes you try for yourself, I hope they help you bring your favorite movies to life.