How 'The Menu' got the horrors of high-end fine dining right
One of the world's most anticipated restaurants will debut this week, but it's even more ephemeral than a pop-up. In fact, the waterfront dining room and the meticulously prepared tasting menu have already dematerialized. To experience Hawthorne, you'll have to visit a movie theater.
The fictional restaurant at the center of the new thriller "The Menu," now in theaters, serves not only memorable plates — bone marrow and seared steak and freshly plucked scallops arranged with gels and foraged rocks — but also scathing commentary on class, idolatry and consumerism that extends far beyond the dining room overseen by the meticulous and malevolent Chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes).
Creating that world authentically, down to the procession of showy courses sometimes humorous, sometimes violent, took a team of A-list professionals, including an Emmy-winning producer and one of the most decorated chefs in the country.
Director Mark Mylod ("Succession," "Game of Thrones") describes his own palate as "primitive" and "peasant"-like, so he found the prospect of making a film about the unraveling of a top chef daunting, albeit fascinating.
"I knew very, very little about that high-end world of molecular gastronomy," he said. "A few years ago, that would have probably pushed me away out of fear, but instead, I went the
