The menuwhich opened in theaters in November 2022 and started streaming on-line earlier this month, has acquired crucial popularity of taking the “Eat the Wealthy” tagline to its sinister and literal conclusion.
Directed by Mark Mylod, the satirical movie sees a bunch of diners boarding a ferry for a high-quality eating expertise on the $1,250 Hawthorn, a restaurant owned and run by a celeb chef performed by Ralph Fiennes. “Chef Julian Slowik worships on this place,” set decorator Gretchen Gattuso informed Artnet Information of the movie’s demanding antagonist. “His kitchen represents his church. It’s a non secular expertise for him and for all of the cooks who work with him.”
As such, the precise locations of worship impressed the kitchen design at Hawthorn. In reality, two sizable steel beams positioned on the again wall of the kitchen are supposed to evoke “a way of worship,” Gattuso mentioned.
![](https://news.artnet.com/app/news-upload/2023/01/the-menu-1-1024x433.jpg)
the kitchen set The menu, with steel beams forming a cross behind actor Ralph Fiennes, who performs chef Julian Slowik. Picture: Screenshot of The menu.
“Backlit, they created a cross form that you just see within the middle. It additionally serves as a symmetry piece that additionally displays symmetry with nature. It’s what drives our chef and the dishes he creates.”
One restaurant that was taken as some extent of reference was Spanish chef Ferran Adrià’s restaurant, El Bulli, in Catalonia, Spain, “the place there may be fixed experimentation with dishes and spices.” In reality, a wall of spices made up of a number of small bottles may be seen in The menuwhich is a nod to El Bulli.
![](https://news.artnet.com/app/news-upload/2023/01/the-menu-2-1024x682.jpg)
Aimee Carrero, Mark Mylod and John Leguizamo on set The menu. Picture: Eric Zachanowich. Courtesy of Searchlight Photos. © 2022 20th Century Studios All rights reserved.
A key ingredient of the fictional restaurant’s design is its open idea, which permits prospects to totally benefit from the eating expertise with out visible obstructions. Whereas this actually serves as a really perfect approach to shoot a lot of the scenes on one set, it additionally established a transparent juxtaposition.
On the chef’s facet is a superbly symmetrical format, full with marble counter tops and an open flame grill, which added “a harmful ingredient and matches with the story,” whereas the diners’ facet options an asymmetrical glass window that overlooks the close by coast. One facet is completely manicured, whereas the opposite is a bit off middle.
Additionally, “the supplies used for the set and ornament had been meant to really feel natural; one thing that was harvested and out there in nature.” The tcenterpieces featured natural mushrooms, whereas moss-lined wooden hangs from the ceiling.
![](https://news.artnet.com/app/news-upload/2023/01/the-menu-5-1024x431.jpg)
a course of The menu. Picture: Courtesy of Searchlight Photos. © 2022 20th Century Studios All rights reserved.
For the reason that movie was shot on coastal places just like the coast of Jekyll Island in Georgia, nature was additionally woven into the most important stars of the movie: the meals. The purpose was “to create dishes that mimic the island itself,” Gattuso mentioned; the outcomes had been true artistic endeavors.
Ethan Tobmann, The menuThe manufacturing designer for, he labored alongside chef Dominique Crenn of Atelier Crenn, a three-Michelin-starred restaurant in San Francisco, to carry these dishes to life, creating dishes that mirrored the narrative and character arcs of the movie. “Every ingredient integrated into the plates,” Gattuso added, “went by way of an approval course of.”
Meals stylist Kendell Gensler, in addition to the movie’s prop grasp, had to verify the dishes might stand up to the pains of filming, from high-intensity lights to lengthy hours.
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A standout dish is a tortilla roll that has been personalized for every visitor, the flatbread imprinted with graphic depictions of their deepest sins and secrets and techniques. “The tortillas had been a collection of picture shoots and graphics created by our graphic designer,” Gattuso mentioned. “They had been engraved with a laser utilizing edible ink on actual tortillas that the actors ate.”
After all, “the style of the meals wouldn’t be skilled on movie,” he famous, so the visible presentation of the meals needed to function “an extension of the dish itself.”
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