Reservations Needed

When The Dark Knight was sold out, Chuck went home and watched a movie about food and romance. Here, he breaks it down for us.

by Chuck Nice

I had a moment this week to go to the movies, so of course I headed out to see The Dark Knight, starring Christian Bale. I had heard nothing but great reviews from everyone who saw the movie and even some who did not. I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one who had been told the movie was good, because the film was sold out. What is up with people trying to see a superpopular movie on a weekend? Don't they know that weekday afternoons are the time when theaters are empty? I couldn't believe so many people had the same idea to see the same movie at the same time as me. So I went home and watched No Reservations on DVD.

Here's a quick recap of the movie: Kate (Catherine Zeta Jones) is an overworked professional chef who loses her sister and has to take guardianship of her niece Zoe (Abigail Breslin). She meets a free-spirited fellow chef (Aaron Eckhart) who helps her find the joy of life and love again. It's basically How Stella Got Her Groove Back set in a restaurant. The most captivating aspects of the movie (for me) were the scenes that revolved around the restaurant. That's because I spent a significant amount of time slinging hash at some pretty decent eateries. Watching the film almost made me want to put on an apron again because the portrayal of the industry was based in Hollywood fantasy. Working in a restaurant is at best arduous, and you either truly love it or you're an actor waiting for your big break...so you're waiting to do something else. It's hot, physically demanding, frustrating, and often leads to heavy consumption of alcohol. I loved it!

I figured I would take a moment to talk about some of the fantasy moments that I found in the movie.

(1) Singing in the kitchen: Nick (Aaron Eckhart) loves opera and takes time out of the workday to have the kitchen staff join him in an aria. Listen, there is no singing in a restaurant kitchen; the staff is always under the pressure of time constraints. You might find a radio blasting during prep time, but if a chef tried to lead his crew in any rendition by Andrea Bocelli, he'd probably find a butcher's knife in his back.

2) Chefs who argue with clients: Kate leaves the kitchen to confront a man who doesn't like her cooking. Look, chefs want you to like their food, but they know that everyone has their own tastes, so they really don't care. If someone doesn't like their food they'll just cook them something else.

3) The staff gets to eat the food that they serve: Before each shift the staff in the film sat down to sample the night's dishes. This rarely happens. The staff meal is usually composed of leftovers or the cheapest thing in the kitchen (pasta). The only way the staff gets to taste what's on the menu is to buy it or eat the actual menu that it's printed on. 

In addition to the things that were errantly depicted in the film, here are a couple of things that happen that they did not show you.

(1) Most people make it hard for a waiter to like them. The majority of customers don't dine enough to know that waiting tables isn't as easy as it looks. They think that a waiter is a servant who is there to do their bidding, when actually they're there to perform a transaction that requires the customer's cooperation. If you're the kind of person who treats a waiter like a personal servant, be careful...you might just get an extra ingredient in your food that isn't in the recipe (yes, it happens).

2) There is a lot of drinking that happens in the restaurant industry. Chances are, the person waiting on you is either hungover or going to get drunk as soon as their shift is over. I won't even go into the amount of drug use that happens; the food prices may not be the only thing that's high in a restaurant.

The one thing in the movie that was spot-on was the fact that there is a lot of romance that happens in a restaurant...and by romance, I mean sex. Think of it as a gastronomical soap opera. People hook up, break up, and then hook up with someone else. It's understandable; It's a pressure-filled job where you work very closely with people who are often hired as much for their attractiveness as for their skills. So the next time you go out to dinner, just remember that a tremendous amount of hard work, skill, love, drinking, and sex went into that truffle-infused quail. That's what makes it so delicious.