Monday, September 15, 2014

Dreaming of France - 9.15.14


Dreaming of France
meme created by An Accidental Blog
join this week's round and add your link here

Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to my blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it. Maybe we can all satisfy our yearnings for France, until we get there again.

~*~

The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014)
Directed by: Lasse Hallström
Written by: Steven Knight
Based on book by: Richard C. Morais

Starring:
Helen Mirren as Madame Mallory
Om Puri as Papa
Manish Dayal as Hassan
Charlotte Le Bon as Marguerite

My rating: 4

Per imdb:
The Kadam family leaves India for France where they open a restaurant directly across the road from Madame Mallory's Michelin-starred eatery.

Neat-o trivia bits from imdb:
The upscale restaurant in Paris is actually Georges at the top of the Pompidou Centre although renamed in the movie apparently as a fictional restaurant.

My two-bits:

Cute drama/romance flick with beautiful scenes in France (a couple in Paris) and camera footage of mouthwatering Indian and French cuisine presentations.

Most definitely a feel-good film overall.

Take a peek:



CHECK out the book version:

The Hundred-Foot Journey
by Richard C. Morais
Amazon | Goodreads

"That skinny Indian teenager has that mysterious something that comes along once a generation. He is one of those rare chefs who is simply born. He is an artist."

And so begins the rise of Hassan Haji, the unlikely gourmand who recounts his life’s journey in Richard Morais’s charming novel, The Hundred-Foot Journey. Lively and brimming with the colors, flavors, and scents of the kitchen, The Hundred-Foot Journey is a succulent treat about family, nationality, and the mysteries of good taste.

Born above his grandfather’s modest restaurant in Mumbai, Hassan first experienced life through intoxicating whiffs of spicy fish curry, trips to the local markets, and gourmet outings with his mother. But when tragedy pushes the family out of India, they console themselves by eating their way around the world, eventually settling in Lumière, a small village in the French Alps.

The boisterous Haji family takes Lumière by storm. They open an inexpensive Indian restaurant opposite an esteemed French relais—that of the famous chef Madame Mallory—and infuse the sleepy town with the spices of India, transforming the lives of its eccentric villagers and infuriating their celebrated neighbor. Only after Madame Mallory wages culinary war with the immigrant family, does she finally agree to mentor young Hassan, leading him to Paris, the launch of his own restaurant, and a slew of new adventures.

The Hundred-Foot Journey is about how the hundred-foot distance between a new Indian kitchen and a traditional French one can represent the gulf between different cultures and desires. A testament to the inevitability of destiny, this is a fable for the ages—charming, endearing, and compulsively readable.


 
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