If ‘Nonnas’ Made You Hungry, Here Are 6 Foodie Films That Seriously Deliver
From Favreau’s sizzling Cubanos to Juliette Binoche’s rebellious chocolate, these seven mouth-watering films will satisfy the food cravings Nonnas left you with.
Watching those Italian grandmothers work their magic in Netflix’s Nonnas left us with a growling stomach and immediate pasta cravings. There’s just something about watching beautiful dishes being prepared that feels different than any other screen experience. Along with making our mouths water, they’re doing something deeper — they’re showing us how food becomes an incredible vehicle for memory, family bonds, and identity. If you found yourself in the Kitchen (or on Yelp) after the credits rolled, here are some other films that’ll leave you planning your next amazing foodie experience.
Chef (2014)
Jon Favreau didn’t just direct this movie — he lived it, training with food truck legend Roy Choi before filming. When Chef Carl has his meltdown and ditches his fancy restaurant job to fix up a food truck, you’re right there with him. Those close-ups of the Cuban sandwiches and the decadent grilled cheese scene will surely leave you heading to the kitchen. The film nails that thing we all know but forget: sometimes the simplest food made with actual love tastes better than any fancy $200 tasting menu. Plus, Favreau and John Leguizamo’s kitchen banter feels like you’re eavesdropping on actual line cooks.
Julie & Julia (2009)
Leave it to Meryl Streep for nailing Julia Child’s warbling voice without turning it into a caricature. This movie’s genius lies in its parallel stories — Julia in 1950s Paris discovering French cooking while Julie Powell (Amy Adams) in post-9/11 New York tackles all 524 recipes in Child’s cookbook in one year. The epic food scenes will leave you craving beef bourguignon, even if you’ve never actually eaten it before. The film captures that weird truth about cooking ambitious recipes — it’s never just about the food, it’s about proving something to yourself.
Ratatouille (2007)
Only Pixar could make us emotionally invest in a rat who dreams of being a chef. The attention to kitchen detail is next-level — they actually had chefs demonstrate proper techniques, which animators studied frame-by-frame. That moment when food critic Anton Ego takes a bite of ratatouille and flashes back to his childhood is so relatable. We’ve all had that weird food memory thing happen — one taste and suddenly you’re 7 years old at your grandma’s table again. The kitchen scenes nail that controlled chaos energy of professional cooking. And let’s be real — we’ve all secretly wished we had a tiny chef hiding under our hat when we’re staring blankly into our refrigerator.
Big Night (1996)
This indie gem stars Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub as Italian immigrant brothers with a failing restaurant. The entire film builds to a massive feast centered around a timpano — an elaborate pasta dome that’s basically the Death Star of Italian cooking. The movie absolutely nails the immigrant dilemma — do you water down your authentic food for American tastes, or stick to tradition and maybe go broke? The restaurant scenes feel so real, you can practically smell the garlic. But it’s the final scene that kills — no dialogue, just the brothers silently cooking and eating a simple omelet together after their blow-up fight. Fair warning: don’t watch while hungry unless you’ve got an Italian restaurant on speed dial.
The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014)
Produced by Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg, this film tackles the food culture wars when an Indian family opens a restaurant literally across the street from Helen Mirren’s Michelin-starred French restaurant in a tiny village. While occasionally veering into cheesy territory, the film does something smart by showing how both cuisines have their own complex techniques and traditions. The spice markets pop with color, and watching the young chef Hassan master both Indian and French cooking makes you reconsider that packet of microwave rice in your cupboard. It’s basically culinary enemies-to-lovers, and it works.
Chocolat (2000)
Juliette Binoche plays Vianne, a chocolatier who rolls into an uptight French village during Lent and scandalizes everyone by opening a chocolate shop. The mayor is NOT having it. This movie understands something fundamental about food — sometimes it’s not just nourishment but rebellion on a plate. The chocolate-making scenes are pure food fantasy —the tempering, the molding, the dusting. And Vianne somehow knows exactly which chocolate each person needs, like some sort of dessert psychic. Johnny Depp shows up as a river gypsy with questionable accent work, but we’ll forgive that because the movie makes such a compelling case for pleasure as a human necessity. The scene where the repressed villagers finally give in to chocolate temptation feels like watching a collective exhale. And let’s be honest — we’ve all wanted to live above our own chocolate shop at some point, right?
