The Hundred Foot Journey- A Dieter’s Torture

Today my friend Christy and I went to lunch and since our children, at least mine and most of hers are away on school trips we decided to do the decedent thing of going to an afternoon movie. I have not been to the movies all summer, mostly because there has not been anything I was dying to see, but now good movies are starting to come back out.

We went to see Helen Miren in “The Hundred Foot Journey” a food movie if ever there was one. I am thankful for a couple for a couple of things. First, that we went directly from lunch to the movies, that way I was full and not tempted by the regular movie treats and also that I was full and not seduced by the food being portrayed on the screen. The second thing I was thankful for was the lack of smell-a-vision.

If Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey had ponied up for installing the completely doable technology to make the smells of the foods that were being cooked at the appropriate times in the theatres the movie could have been renamed, “The ten thousand calorie journey.” In order to cover the extra costs of smell-a-vision the producers could have sold the companion cookbook and even the mail-order complete frozen dinner service for all the foods they cooked in the movie.

Clearly Steven and Oprah have not learned the successful marketing circle that Disney so beautifully mastered by making a toy, a book and a ride at Disney World as well as dress up costumes to match each movie they put out.

It’s not too late for the producers to throw together an around the globe eating tour to take lovers of the movie and eating to Paris and then to India and back to wherever in France the movie was shot. Cooking lessons could be included as well as language courses so regular ‘ole Americans could understand the many parts of the movie that were not translated into our native tongue.

As a professional weight-loss expert I do not recommend seeing this film on an empty stomach. The number of beautiful food related minutes in the movie are too great to test the will power of most mere mortals, let alone anyone who is trying to actively drop a few pounds. But for all lovers of food and the visual arts it is a film worth seeing. I think I need to see it a second time and take notes about the actual dishes. This first time I just let the calories flow over me. Of course I was craving both French bread and Curried Goat at the same time after the movie was over.

The one thing I wish I had was the list of ingredients the star used in his Indian inspired omelet. Please, please let that recipe get put on the Internet so I can make it at home. Not only did it look delicious, but also it did not seem too far outside my healthy eating regime. This movie was pure food porn and I feel dirty for loving it so much.