BRUNCH

One of the difficulties with Thanksgiving is deciding when to start eating. I feel a constant push-pull emotion of when might be the earliest time to actually dig in while performing a calculus to determine what level of negative judgment I might receive from suggesting such a time. It’s a fine balance that we are going to throw completely out the window in our fantasy world of Thanksgiving bliss.

Let’s immediately kick the party off with a breakfast classic: steak and eggs. We will take our inspiration from the best egg sandwich I have ever seen on screen, which comes from chef John Clasky (Adam Sandler) in Spanglish. The film is terrific, if not a little mid, but the egg sandwich is anything but, featuring bacon, lettuce, tomato, melty cheese, and a runny egg. Why not pair it with the medium-rare filet mignon eaten by Cypher (Joe Pantoliano) in The Matrix. His apathetic but hedonistic morals are perfectly aligned with our gluttonous spirit and celebration of food on this particular Thanksgiving Day. 

LUNCH 

Chef, starring Jon Favreau as Chef Carl Casper, is among my favorite films for foodies. The movie is essentially soft-core porn for my kind, and we could genuinely produce our entire menu from the meals featured in this movie alone. Instead, we will include only one of the many noshables he prepares: the grilled cheese. Cooked right on the plancha, the ooey-gooey and buttery delight features yellow cheddar, white cheddar, parmesan, and Gruyère cheeses on sourdough bread, providing one of several dream lunch fares. 

Our second option will be the burger from The Menu. Who knew that such a twisted film could show us one of the most delicious burgers I have ever seen prepared before my eyes. It is the simple and unpretentious joy that it brings to the chef de cuisine, Chef Slowik (Ralph Fiennes), and the lucky recipient, Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy), that makes my mouth water despite its relatively basic and straight-forward construct. 

For our final lunch option, we have Minny Jackson’s fried chicken, as featured in The Help. I’ve spent most of my life in the South, and I can’t imagine not including some southern soul food on our menu. After all, as Minny (Octavia Spencer) says, “frying chicken make you tend to feel better about life.”

AFTERNOON SNACK 

Aspiring sumo wrestlers, competitive eaters, and hyper-grazers need to take it easy every now and then while still requiring eating just a little something. For the awkward portion of the day between lunch and dinner (as if this concept exists on Thanksgiving), we will prepare some lighter options.

Ratatouille provides us with some delicious potato & leek soup from Remy’s (Patton Oswalt) and Alfred Linguini’s (Lou Romano) initial push into the professional culinary world that ultimately becomes the inspiration for their menu-to-be, as well as their eventual flagship dish for which the film is named.

Second, we will include a little sushi. Perhaps it is the tension felt through the sharing of the meal in Snowpiercer, or the rarity of its serving, but even without starvation as a motivating factor, I still want the delectable sushi prepared for the train’s elite.

Finally, I have to include the Taco Bell meal enjoyed by John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone) and Lenina Huxley (Sandra Bullock) in Demolition Man. I am already a massive fan of Taco Bell since it was such a big part of my adolescence, but the bougie, fine-dining version featured in the film would provide the perfect snack option before we get hit with our fantastic supper. In case you were wondering, there is an actual restaurant based on the one our heroes dined in. So, this one doesn’t have to be fantasy, you can actually experience it. It’s still on my bucket list, as long as they don’t stiff me on Fire sauce…

DINNER

It’s time for the main event. For our pièce de résistance, we are bringing in the show-stopping Il Timpano from Big Night. The film stars Tony Shalhoub and real-life culinarian Stanley Tucci as brothers running an Italian restaurant. Il Timpano — a layered pasta with tomato sauce, roasted vegetables, and cheese covered in a crispy dough — is a sight to see, and I recommend at least watching a clip of it being made (bonus points for just watching the film, to be honest). After cutting a big slice, we are going to smother the carbo-loaded present in the rich, red gravy from Goodfellas. The process of slicing the garlic with a razor blade, as well as just the entire process of making the Italian sauce, made cooking so masculine to me as a child. It fueled my juvenile desire for the pursuit of everything food related.

We aren’t stopping there, either. We are adding a little more protein with quail covered in a rich chocolate gravy with roasted asparagus, as seen in Chocolat. The birthday dinner of Judi Dench’s character, Armande Voizin, is beautiful to witness, and it really gets the old salivary glands going.

Lastly, we are adding the entire mysterious and colorful spread that we see when Peter Pan (Robin Williams) starts to realize who he truly is in the wonderful film Hook. Bangarang!

DESSERT

Dessert will be simple. We will get the pulse racing with a light, suspenseful, and “not so terrible” strudel. Just don’t forget to “wait for the crème.” No matter how thrilling the meal we witness in Inglourious Basterds is, there is no denying how amazing the strudel looks. To top it off, we are going to wash it down with the five-dollar milkshake from Pulp Fiction. Now, normally, a vanilla shake is not my go to, but Vincent Vega (John Travolta) just sells it so well.

LATE-NIGHT SNACK

Sometimes, no matter what we did to ourselves earlier in the day, we still need a little something-something later in the night. I think it has something to do with our aggressive approach to existence and vigorous life essence (or it could be something to do with stomach-stretching proprioceptors). Either way, we need a delicious nightcap to complete our circle of shame. Here we will turn to the night food market delights from Crazy Rich Asians. As I’ve traveled to some of the more remote locations in the world, I have found late-night “street food” is often the best I’ve ever tasted. Soups, bowls of laksa curry, and savory treats on sticks are just the things we need to fill in all the cracks and ensure we have plenty of delicious leftover options for the next week or so.