The Menu: Bon Appetit

Note: Before you continue reading this post, there will be spoilers ahead that somehow reveal the plot of this movie. So, if you haven't watched the movie, you can watch and come back to read my post.

The Menu has caught my attention recently. And I have to watch this movie twice to understand the meaning behind this movie. Like the name, the movie introduced you to a fancy dinner with many delicious courses that are only for the rich people. Whoever wants to enjoy the cooking of Chef Slowik must pay $1,250 per person. The guests are also special. They are food critics. They are food lovers. They are Hollywood celebrities. They are investors. They all have a lot of money. Everyone was so special and powerful. They are about to enter an island where the restaurant, Hawthorn, is located and have a nice dinner which turns out to be their last meal.

Source: IMDb

The Menu contains many layers of meaning. Through each food that Chef Slowik serves the guests, it represents seven sins that each guests has committed. When I watched the movie, I immediately remembered movie "Seven" by David Fincher. Each murder in "Seven" is each sin in seven deadly sins. Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, and Pride. The food looks nice and delicious. But it contains the punishment that each guest has to suffer later on.

In this post, I will analyze the real meaning behind each food and how it tells us about the seven deadly sins.

Now, sit back and enjoy your meal!

Amuse Bouche and The Island.

Like the name, Amuse Bouche is the appetize for the guests. It is made from cucumber melon, milk snow, and charred lace. I can imagine that when eating it, there will be a sense of sweetness inside their mouth. The dish calms the guests when they taste with no worry at all. It is like sweet at the beginning. Then, the Chef serves The Island. It is a combination of every organic things on the island, which I believe Chef Slowik is trying to honor the island. The Island also tells the guests that every course they taste will be organic and 100% from the island. So, with two welcome dishes like that, how the hell can they have a doubt on their dinner?

Breadless Bread Plate.

I was surprised with this course because it has nothing. No bread and only savory accompaniment. I don't know what those savories are made of but if you look at the dish, there are a various kinds of sauces. I am not so sure what they are. When the guests taste them, it is strange that they said the dish is delicious. Only if I can try it. Before serving this course, Chef Slowik told them a story about bread and indicated that bread is only for the poor. Meanwhile the guests are rich and powerful, so they will never understand what it's like to be poor and how precious it is to have a loaf of bread to eat. So, since the bread is for the poor, it is obvious that the guests won't be served bread. Only food for the rich. It's funny because for the first time, they feel unsatisfied and not enough. They want more. It's exactly what Breadless Bread Plate is trying to say. It means they are never hungry before and beg for food. Now, they have to ask for more bread like three rich guys do. They want the waitress to serve them more. But she denies and whispers into one guy's left ear. "You will eat less than you desire and more than you deserve." What I understand is that when you desire for more, you won't get anything and if you just sit still, you will get what you need. When they are rich, they want more and no one can stop them. With this dish, it is a slap right into their faces because in Hawthorn, they are not the owners.

Breadless Bread Plate is the first sin. Greed.

Memory.

It's named after Chef Slowik's childhood when he stabbed his father's thigh with a pair of scissors after seeing him abused Slowik's mother on Tuesday. But it's actually taco because it's taco Tuesday. That makes sense. It's made from house-smoke Bresse chicken thigh al pastor, and tortillas made with heirloom masa. There was a pair of scissors on the chicken thigh, which can relate to Slowik's father's thigh. The highlight of this dish is the tortillas. On each tortilla, it is engraved a picture of something that tells about the guest by the laser machine. They are the dark secrets of guests that they wanted to hide. When their secrets are shown in front of them or another way to say is that Chef Slowik has known everything, they begin to react angrily. They feel offended. Three rich guys with illegal business documents. The food critics with the restaurants they wrote bad reviews and shut down. The old couple with the cheating of her husband. The celebrity with his most disappointed movie. The food lover with his humiliation when he took the picture of the food without permission. Chef Slowik triggers their anger and exposes their real person from the inside. Another thing is the pair of scissors stabs directly into the chicken thigh. It looks like stabbing directly into someone's heart. Ouch, it hurts. The guests are now in pain inside their souls.

Memory is the second sin. Wrath.

The Mess.

Well, this course is my favorite and yet, a scary one. It's made from pressured cook vegetable, roast fillet, potato confit, beef jus, and bone marrow. Before serving The Mess, the cooking team lays out a white sheet on the floor and Chef Slowik introduces to the guest his sous-chef Jeremy Louden, who is the creator of "The Mess." Jeremy wants to be great like Chef Slowik so he works for him. But Chef Slowik says that Jeremy can never be great like him even though he is talented. He describes the role of a great chef like him suffers from a lot of pressure to please everyone with his courses in order to get the recognition of people and the critics. The chef can make some mess too even if the food is perfect. Chef Slowik asked if he wanted to live like that and have his life. Jeremy said no. Then, bang! There is a big mess in front of the guests. (You have to watch the movie to understand that scene.) The Mess indicated that there are people who are jealous of him, want to have his positions, and want to have him. They're ready to do anything even if they have to make a mess. Chef Slowik has to teach them a lesson by reminding them who they are and where they are standing. Each person is an individual. No one is the same. Why do they have to be like other person instead of improving themselves to be different from them? It's really meaningful.

The Mess is the third sin. Envy.

Palate Cleanser.

This is not a dish. It is tea. It's made from wild bergamot and red clover tea. There is nothing special about this tea. The purpose of it is for cleansing the guests stomach before they enter the next dishes. If only drinking tea, it's not worth the money that the guests pay for this experience at Hawthorn. Once again, Chef Slowik has to put on another show. The guests will look out the window and there is Mr. Doug Merrick, the owner of the island. Chef Slowik reveals that Merrick questioned his menu and wanted to have substitutions. It touched Chef Slowik's ego because he is a chef and he knows what he is doing. Merrick can have money to control everything but he can never control the creativity and the talent of Chef Slowik. Since Merrick has committed a sin, Chef Slowik has to teach him a lesson by making him like a fallen angel in front of the guests. Chef Slowik also confronts the food critics for their negative reviews of other restaurants which were offensive and unfair for the cook. And he turned to the old couple for coming here to eat eleven times without remembering what was the last dish they had at Hawthorn. They are lazy to acknowledge what is good inside each food, lazy to observe the savory of each bite they put inside their mouths, and lazy to understand the work of the cook. Merrick questioned Chef Slowik's menu because perhaps, he saw his food too simple or too complicated without knowing why Chef Slowik cooked them. Or the food critics don't care about the story behind the food and pay attention to the bad side of it. They are all lazy.

Palate Cleanser is the fourth sin. Sloth.

Man's Folly.

Chef Slowik's introduces another sous-chef of Hawthorn, Katherine Keller. Katherine tells everyone a shocking story that Chef Slowik used to lure her to have sex with him but she refused. He didn't fire her but not saying anything for eight months. Katherine explains that Chef Slowik has the right to do so because he is the man. Then, Katherine takes out a pair of scissors and stabs into Chef Slowik's thigh and hugs him. She punishes Chef Slowik for his desire of love. The way she punishes is exactly like Chef Slowik used to do with his father. It is not the end. Later, Chef Slowik ordered every male guest to run away to escape in 45 seconds and restaurant staff will run after to find them. When the clock starts, the male guests run like a wind. They don't care about others despite some of them come with their female partners. But if there is a scenario that they actually escape the island, will they come back and save others? They want to leave the island as quick as possible. They desire to survive because they know that soon, they will die. Meanwhile, the female guests go inside and eat Man's Folly. It is made from dungeness crab, fermented yogurt whey, dried sea lettuce, umeboshi, and kelp. It looks like soup. The course represents the foolishness of men when they only think for themselves without minding other people's feeling. Especially women's. They only care about the fun they have but when it comes to trouble, they will try every way to get away with it. Man's Folly. What a cliche!

Man's Folly is the fifth sin. Lust.

Tyler's BS.

Tyler is a big fan of Chef Slowik. He loves his food and wants to meet him. He comes with his girlfriend, Margot, who I will mention later because she has an important role in this movie. Throughout every course, Tyler keeps giving compliments. He keeps eating and eating. When Margot says something not nice about Chef Slowik's food, Tyler gets angry. He really doesn't care about what Chef Slowik said at the beginning of the dinner. "Do not eat. Taste. Savor. Relish. Consider every morsel that you place inside your mouth. Be mindful. But do not eat. Our menu is too precious for that." The courses at Hawthorn are for taste. But Tyler eats like he never ate before. He tries to show Margot that he is a food expert that knows everything he puts inside his mouth. He thinks what he is doing will get the attention of Chef Slowik but he is wrong. Chef Slowik despairs him for not following what he said before. Since Tyler is too smart and understands food, Chef Slowik somehow can see the "potential" inside him and offers him to be one of the restaurant staff. He gives Tyler the cook uniform, write "Tyler" on the shirt, and tells him to cook anything he wants. Finally, Tyler makes a dish called Tyler's BS (I want to keep it clean but I think you understand what I mean). It is made from undercooked lamb, inedible shallot-leek butter sauces, and utter lack of cohesion. Chef Slowik of course doesn't like Tyler's dish. Then, he whispered something into Tyler's ear and that makes him cry. Later, the audience will find out a shocking thing. Tyler looks thin but he's always hungry. He loves food and ready to pay too much money to enjoy every delicious food. But he doesn't mind to understand the food and it is offensive to the cook and to Chef Slowik.

Tyler's BS is the sixth sin. Gluttony.

Cheeseburger.

This course is not in the menu. However, it is a request from Margot, the girl who I mentioned before. Margot is an outsider in this dinner. Every guest comes to Hawthorn is special and Chef Slowik has them in the menu. But Margot is different and an obstacle in the plan of Chef Slowik. She doesn't like food, which is a big surprise because every guest comes here love Chef Slowik's food. Margot even says that directly to Chef Slowik without fearing that it may hurt his feeling. She understands she is not an ingredient in Chef Slowik's special course and she does not belong here. So in order to get out of here alive, she thinks of a course that touches Chef Slowik's ego. It is Cheeseburger. Margo finds out about this course when she goes to his office. There is a photo of him cooking a burger on the wall. It is his first job and he looks happy. Margot thinks that cheeseburger must be his proudest dish ever because he puts it on the wall. Now, when he is a famous chef with so many great courses, a cheeseburger will always be his best one. Margot wants him to make her a cheeseburger without all those fancy ingredient. Just beef, American cheese, onion, and side fries. Chef Slowik agreed. When Margot takes a bit, she must admit that it is good. It's exactly what Chef Slowik wants to hear. She asks for a to-go back and leaves the restaurant. It turns out cheeseburger is a punishment for Chef Slowik. He commits a sin when he has a high ego. He put himself on first, even before his food. And just like that, he loses to a girl who just wants a cheeseburger. He doesn't understand the need of a guest and how to satisfy them.

Cheeseburger is the seventh sin. Pride.

S'more.

This is the last course of the night. It is made from marshmallow, chocolate, graham cracker, customers, staff, and restaurant. To end the night, it is a desert. A biggest desert ever. Chef Slowik is right. Things have to be cleansed. There are too much dirty things inside each person. So in order to begin a new start, it has to be burned to cleanse all the bad aura and begin a new start.

Conclusion.

The Menu definitely one of the best movie in 2022. The story, the cast, and the direction are amazing. No doubt. It brings me the best movie experience ever with many delicious food that I know for sure that I will never have the chance to eat. I don't know if what I share with you about this movie is right with what you think or not. But I believe that each one of us will have a different view on this movie. Highly recommend.