‘The Menu’: Every Subtle Reference to Real-Life Chefs in the Clever Restaurant Thriller
The Menu is a larger-than-life story about a chef who is fed up with his high-profile clientele. While the movie might seem completely fictional, there are a few nods to some real-life figures in the food world in the film.
What is ‘The Menu’ about?
The Menu debuted in 2022. It stars Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, and John Leguizamo. The movie follows a couple (Taylor-Joy and Hoult) who travel to an island for a dinner at a highly exclusive restaurant, run by famous chef Julian Slowik (Fiennes).
As the movie progresses, it becomes clear that all is not as it seems at the restaurant. Slowik shares that everyone invited was part of the reason he lost his passion for cooking. And he plans to make them pay.
Critics call ‘The Menu’ ‘brilliant and intricate’
The Menu is Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Many critics have praised the underrated movie for the way it balances humor and social commentary. “Splicing horror and comedy with skill and delight, the movie is a satire of class, privilege, and pretension that’s also at its core a supremely entertaining story,” Mashable‘s critic wrote.
The Metro Times called it “brilliant and intricate. The publication commends The Menu‘s commentary on art’s relationship with culture and the complications that can arise from that relationship.
The chefs that inspired ‘The Menu’s food
The story of The Menu is fantastical, but surprisingly, there are plenty of nods to real-world chefs in the movie. The movie utilized Dominique Crenn, the chef behind San Francisco’s Atelier Crenn, as a consultant. Fiennes even picked up some of his mannerisms for Slowik. For example, Crenn is known for creating menus in the form of poems — something Slowik does in the movie [per Uproxx].
Other references to chefs appear via the dishes. In one very memorable scene, Slowik and his group of chefs serve the restaurant’s guests s’mores. The creative way the dessert was set out was inspired by Chicago’s Alinea, where Grant Achatz works as the chef. For the movie, the crew took Achatz’s tabletop dessert and blew it up to cover the entire floor of the restaurant.
Another food item lifted from the real world was a goodie bag for restaurant guests to take home that contained granola — a staple at Eleven Madison Park, with the chef Daniel Humm.
The real-world restaurants referenced in ‘The Menu’
The Menu also used restaurant layouts and locations as inspiration. Chef Magnus Nilsson’s Fäviken is famous for sourcing its own ingredients, including catching its own fish — something we see in the opening scenes of the movie. There’s also a meat smokehouse in the movie, which is another nod to Nilsson’s restaurant.
Slowik’s restaurant in the movie is located on an isolated island, only accessible by boat. This is a reference to Willows Inn, run by chef Blaine Wetzel. Willows Inn was located on the island of Lummi and is only reachable by ferry.
