Walt Disney's greatest food movie

Hey guys,

How's it going with your blogging?
You may have noticed that I'm an enthusiastic and devoted Disney admirer. I just love love love Disney movies and their cartoons, animations, tales, ... Anyway, since I am such a great fan of Walt Disney, I decided to write about one particular Disney movie. Considering we've learned a lot about food this semester, I am going to emphasize on how food occurs in the film. So let's have a look at one of Disney's masterpieces: Ratatouille.

Ratatouille

The movie tells the story of a tiny rat who happens to have a highly developed sense of smell. The father makes use of his son's gift and obliges him to sniff at all the garbage first before the other rats eat it. The tiny little rat called Remy feels used, but can't really escape from his duty. One day he's accidentally seperated from his family. In the first place, Remy is really unhappy and sad about his loss. After a while, however, he realizes that this is his chance to finally pursue his passion. He finds himself in Paris' most eminent restaurant: Gusteau's.
After sneaking into Gusteau's kitchen, Remy tries to get an overview by watching all the kitchen staff from a cupboard. Remy catches Linguini, who's only duty is to wash the dishes, secretly adding random herbs and spices to a soup. On account of the rat's unique sense of smell, the animal tries to save Linguini's a** by adding some other herbs. Linguini, the dishwasher, spots the rat adding the ingredients, which is how they get to know each other:

As the rat is the one with the highly developed sense of smell and Linguini's not, they begin to work as a team. Initially, Linguini is quite sceptical and uncertain about cooperating with a rat, until one day Remy prepares French Omelette for both of them for breakfast. Mixing eggs, butter, cheese and herbs is not that simple for a tiny rat like Remy. Linguini realizes that Remy knows a lot about cooking and that his gift might be useful for him working at Gusteau's.

Wearing the rat under his hat, Linguini does the actual cooking while the rat guides him by pulling his hair. Their plan works perfectly until the chef notices that Linguini's not the one with the great knowledge of cooking. Though, the chef has no evidence to proof that Linguini is cooperating with a rat.
Linguini finds out he's Gusteau's son and therefore the legal heir of the restaurant. When he becomes chef of the restaurant, Linguini reveals his big secret. He tells the kitchen staff about Remy being the actual cook, whereupon his colleagues disappointedly abandon the restaurant and leave the successful duo behind...

Why the movie is called Ratatouille

One of the main characters of Ratatouille is the critic. Every now and then he pays the restaurant a visit in order to test their food and thereupon write a review. When Linguini finally takes over the restaurant, his goal is to serve a unique and delightful meal to the critic.

Linguini can't really think of something, but Remy (called little chef) has an excellent idea. They prepare Ratatouille! Ratatouille is a vegetarian dish and consists of zucchini, eggplant, pepper, tomatoes, tomato paste, garlic, rosemary, thyme, sage, onion and olive oil. Just look at the photo on the left where little chef is wearing a toque and pours sauce over the dish. Doesn't that Ratatouille look delicious? Do you think the critic will like the dish? If so, whom will the critic congratulate if the actual cook is a rat?



image source (1): http://www.tumblr.com/photo/1280/kafka-on-the-shore/150418645/1/hFiUi53rXqfamdswd9MGoXMF
image source (2): http://moviesfilmsmotionpictures.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/ratatouille-making-omelette-hd-desktop-mobile-wallpaper.jpg
image source (3): http://girleatsgreen.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/picture-21.png