Those who have seen Matilda, the film based on the classic book by Roald Dahl, will never forget the scene in which the boy Bruce Bogtrotter (played by actor Jimmy Karz) is forced as punishment to devour a gigantic chocolate cake. The image of this 1996 film has inspired thousands of recipes at the request of viewers who wanted the dessert to come off the screen so they could take a bite. Just like in another of the scenes in which the protagonist prepares some spongy pancakes for breakfast. What would they taste like if they were real? The answer is in Taste Film, an experience that unites cinema and gastronomy in London, to bring the menus of some film classics straight from the screen to the table.
Watching films with all five senses was what film studies professor Amy Fernando had in mind when she came up with the Taste Film project. “I wanted to live the scene, share it and get closer to the characters.” The experience is already a success and films such as Pulp Fiction, Ratatouille, The Hunger Games and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, among others, have appeared on its menu. “You are no longer just part of the audience, but you become another participant in the feature film.”
The Refinery Citypoint and Parlor Kensal are the two restaurants where the immersive viewings of this project are currently taking place. Reservations can be made for midday or afternoon and all meals have a vegetarian version. The price varies between 80 and 100 pounds, depending on the film.
One of the most popular proposals that sold around 20,000 tickets last year was Alice in Wonderland. Through a menu designed with a vibrant color palette straight out of the Tim Burton film, attendees had the opportunity to drink from the bottle marked with the slogan “Drink Me” and savor the cake labeled “Eat Me.” In addition, they enjoyed the tea party with the eccentric mad hatter, thus following in the footsteps of the protagonist of the story.
“People already have an emotional connection with these feature films, which I think is one of the main reasons for our success,” explains Fernando, the founder of Taste Film. Perhaps the experience cannot be defined in a better way than as Alice herself does in the pages of Lewis Carroll's book: “I am sure that if I eat or drink something, something interesting will happen.”
