The Film Experience

Manuel here with some culinary news courtesy of Jon Favreau and his box office hit Chef ($45 million worldwide gross!)

In a new interview promoting the Blu-Ray release of the film, Favreau mentioned he's toying with the idea of opening up a restaurant inspired by the film. “I love sharing the food with people, so that they could see that food really is as good as it looks,” Favreau told Yahoo movies about the restaurant. “It’s not the wisest business venture, but for me it’s a way to let the movie live on and connect with the fans.” Not since Ratatouille has a foodie movie made me so crave the various dishes in front of me. Favreau's idea of letting the film live on and connect with the fans sounds like the type of menu and drink options that movie theaters like the Alamo Drafthouse (where you can get Death Becomes Her-inspired cocktails tonight over at Yonkers, for example) and the Nitehawk Cinema (where you can get Boyhood inspired queso!) here in NYC have been toying around for a while now. If you've seen the film, you know opening up an El Jefe restaurant seems like a rather no-brainer idea. I mean look at this!

Box office smashes associated with large corporations have been doing this for ages; at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter you can have butterbeer at Three Broomsticks, while at Disney World you can finally be their guest at well, Be Our Guest restaurant which opened recently. In all these endeavors the focus has been on the ambience, rarely on the food which is why Favreau's idea might be a more salivating enterprise. It makes me think of all the 2014 indie food tie-ins that could still come to be: wouldn't you love to grab a Mendl's courtesan Au chocolat from A Grand Budapest Pop-Up Patisserie? Or enjoy a chocolate cake at an Under the Skin inspired diner? I would caution anyone trying to open a Snowpiercer entomophagy protein bar stand, though.

What other movie-themed or inspired restaurants would you like to see come to life? Would you be willing to trek it out to LA to get a taste of Favreau and celebrity chef Roy Choi's venture?