A spate of pictures on the big and little screens have been lauded for their realistic depictions of restaurant life. Most recently, “The Menu,” a dark satire of fine dining, is set in a remote temple of modernist cuisine run with military precision by a famous chef, while “The Bear” captures the chaos of a scruffy Chicago sandwich joint down to the last backed-up grease trap, Sharpie that doesn’t work and tight-quarters command. (“Behind you!”)
Those and many past movies and TV shows about restaurant culture involve a food critic, a job I’ve performed around the country for three newspapers and Microsoft.
How accurately is my profession depicted? To find out, I opened a bottle of wine, fired up YouTube and cable, and reviewed the fictional reviewers.
The Menu (2022)
Dinner in hard-to-access places for way too much money? Check and check. (Think Noma, in its home in Copenhagen or its Yucatán pop-up.) Exclusivity is the selling point for the 12 diners in this horror movie starring Ralph Fiennes. He plays Julian Slowik, a talented and mercurial chef who’s invited some restaurant stereotypes — a trio of obnoxious tech guys, a rich White guy and his bored wife, a young sybarite who lets nothing get in the way of a grand meal, an arrogant critic — for an unforgettable dinner on an unnamed island.