The intersectino of film, food and wine at Napa Valley Film Festival

By cbadmin on November 17, 2016

Ten up-and-coming Napa Valley chefs presented dishes inspired by their favorite films, such as “The Tourist,” “The Parent Trap” and the 1990s hit, “The Goonies,” to guests and patrons at the Napa Valley Film Festival on Thursday, Nov. 10. Among those who enjoyed the event were actress Madeline Zima (“Californication,” “Cinderella Story,” and others including the film, “I Am Watching You,” which showed at this year’s festival) and actor Joel David Moore (“Six Feet Under,” “Angel,” “Providence,” “Boomtown,” “Boston Public,” and others), who joined Food Network celebrity chefs Tyler Florence and others to discuss all things food- and film-related.

“We are excited to have such a wonderful selection of innovative chefs and winemakers presenting their interpretations this year,” said Carole Horst, deputy managing editor of “Variety,” and host of this year’s event. “It is inspiring to see how these chefs bring together food and film in surprising ways. I feel like because food culture is more mainstream now, we are now seeing a wild mixing of different cultures and flavors. It’s no longer uncommon to taste Thai flavors mixed with macaroni and cheese — the old rules are gone.”

And according to Tyler Florence, different influences and innovations are not confined to the kitchen.

“I have young children, and it is amazing to see how they are now watching YouTube instead of how we might have watched cable or TV,” said Florence. “My kids might come to me and show me someone doing something completely new either in film or with food, and it’s often filmed on their iPhone and uploaded to the Internet. There are all these new food shows that are popping up in social media feeds, and I think that’s really remarkable — at the end of the day it’s eyeballs and impressions that really matter, and now you are having all these influencers that bypass the normal channels. As for food, we are now going back and trying to nail ‘simple and perfect,’ food executed cleanly and dispersed in a manner that is inclusive and accessible.”

Another of the panelists at the event, the San Francisco Chronicle’s “Inside Scoop” columnist and food editor, Paolo Lucchesi, agreed that the world of food is changing.

“I think we are seeing a lot of Bay Area restaurants trying to figure out new business models,” said Lucchesi. “Rents are going up, there is a chef shortage and the minimum wage is going up, too, so you have all these factors that are increasing the cost of doing business. There will need to be some changes, but I don’t think anyone has the answer yet on how that will work, so there are a lot of people trying a lot of things. For example, we are seeing a lot more fast casual, ticketing (purchasing the meal before dining), serving one fixed-price menu, but I don’t think anyone has figured it out yet.”

Beyond innovation, food trends and the complications of the restaurant business, most participants came to relax, and enjoy some tasty food paired with local wines, with the added twist of them being paired with some of their favorite films.

“I am a human being, so I have this nasty habit of eating,” joked Zima. “There are so many parallels between food, wine and film: A good chef or winemaker is trying to create an experience, and that’s exactly the same thing with storytelling and filmmaking. When it’s a really good meal it creates a really good memory, and that’s the same with movies and stories. And, oh my God, I can’t wait to try what’s being paired with ‘The Princess Bride’ because it’s one of my favorite movies of all time. I watched it recently and every single second of it is flawless. It’s magical.”

Two local chefs, Ethan Speizer and Josh Balague, who met while cooking at Oenotri, were tasked with matching a dish with the movie Zima loves.

“We grew up with that movie and probably watched it 50 times,” said Speizer. “There’s that one scene with Miracle Max when he’s saying that his favorite thing to eat is the mutton, lettuce and tomato sandwich, so we did a play on that, creating a variant of Som Tum, with a green papaya salad from Thailand served with lamb.”

Other dishes included a quail-egg-infused Venetian tartare, served with local fig and crispy taro created by Caitlin Suarez, a CIA Greystone graduate and executive pastry chef at Johnny’s in Calistoga. Suarez’s movie inspiration was “The Tourist.”

“I have been to the same hotel in Venice where that movie was filmed,” said Suarez. “I sat in almost the same restaurant seats that the stars of the movie sat at and one of the most popular dishes on the menu is tartare, so it just made sense. This dish also takes me back to that time, too.”

Excellent art, food and wine can allow us to drop our daily concerns and just sit back and enjoy the craft and passion of others.

“Food and film are nice ways to escape for a few hours,” said Lucchesi. “And we can all use that sometimes, maybe especially now.”