THE PLATE & THE REEL - OR WHAT IN THE WORLD DO FOOD AND FILM HAVE TO DO WITH EACH OTHER?

Consider this simple premise:  Food is film - Both tell stories, both are consumed, both trigger strong emotions, both are best in the company of family and friends, both are points of connection, and even life-forces—one on a plate, the other in a reel. 

Bringing these unlikely partners together for the sake of conversation, is really about how food and film perform critical roles in shaping us.   These “life-forces” stimulate our innate talents, abilities, passions, thinking, knowledge, and desires.  They are nothing less than expressions of our humanness and sense of self, and to see/watch something artistically designed for our pleasure—whether on a plate or on a screen—awakens  our aesthetic senses.  The Plate & The Reel communicates a love for beautiful things through visually stunning photography - in a words and picture style.

Food and film are intertwined with each other at the level of creativity and the human need for artistic expression, but for the sake of conversation, bringing these unlikely partners together gives us a chance to delve into my two favorite subjects, culture and identity.

FOOD AND FILM—Can you imagine a more magical combination for the human love of beauty and taste?  They both share color palettes—one on a plate and the other on a screen.  Both are nuanced, complex, consumed, and savored.  A great dinner is like a great film—remembered, thought of, enjoyed, and talked about often.  Essentially, the connection that brings food and film into  The Plate & The Reel is the sheer appreciation for the art in both and their shared cultural roles.

CULTURE AND IDENTITY:  as Herman Melville once said, “we cannot live only for ourselves.” Thus enters culture, a social construct that provides group pathways to connectedness.  Culture embodies values, attitudes and beliefs, which link us to ways of living and building a community.  People live through cultural identities passed down from generation to generation, fostering a link with ancestors and providing a sense of group belonging.  Being part of a generational culture gives voice to personal expression and profound connections.   

While food represents a culture’s core customs and ways of passing generational identity down, film circulates meaning through visuals or as they say in academia, representation (I like metaphor better) or images filled with meaning. In other words a duck is never a duck on screen, and because of human love and ability for metaphor, images always carry meaning and, ultimately, influence the construction of our attitudes, values, beliefs, and ideas.  It’s not the duck but what it symbolizes that impacts cultural identity.

Food is the essential ingredient in the transmission of culture and film the “messenger” in the construction of identity.  On another level, think of being in another country missing your homeland.  You can either find a restaurant serving your cuisine (may not be available) or watch a movie taking you inside of your heritage.

This blog will take you into the world of one magnificent Chef, Valter Nassi of Salt Lake City—a lifetime, big-hearted culinary artist and expert restauranteur

LAST THOUGHT:  Food and film are both points of connection and tools for the construction of identity and transmission of culture.  These two distinct mediums—one a necessity and the other art—shape and define our human experiences, and how we say who we are.

Thus begins The world of the Plate and The Reel. 🍽️ 📽️