This was a delightfully chaotic 12 months for meals on movie, whether or not on the small or the massive display screen. As a refresher, this 12 months noticed the return of Chef’s Desk and the debut of the much-maligned Jerry Seinfeld Pop-Tart film. There was a rooster haunting the satirical characters of The Curse, and Kristen Kish stepped into Padma’s sneakers as the brand new host of ol’ workhorse Prime Chef. Reba McIntyre’s newest sitcom, Pleased’s Place, is about in a bar; the Meals Community’s newest baking competitors is inexplicably set in Hogwarts.
However amid that chaos, there have been positively some shining popular culture moments that centered meals — and a few of these confirmed up in perhaps-unexpected locations. Right here now, 2024’s greatest meals moments on TV and in motion pictures, based on Eater editors:
Martha
This 12 months offered a dearth of documentaries scrutinizing staple figures of American TV, softening their topics into their most palatable or pitiable varieties. Then, there was Martha. The Netflix documentary casts Martha Stewart as greater than the sum of her profession’s elements, exploring the unglamorous realities of her working-class, Polish-American household, the fraught office dynamics behind her ascent to media mogul, and the scandalous affairs that marked her marriages. By way of all of it, she’s formidable and exacting, callous however candid. Most impactfully, Stewart parting the veil of her personal mythology (alongside together with her pushback in opposition to producers) serves as a reminder that life is supposed to be messy and unapologetically scrumptious. — Jesse Sparks, senior editor
Challengers
I don’t suppose I have to elaborate on why the churro scene from summer season hit Challengers is on our record of favourite meals moments captured on movie this 12 months. However for many who by some means haven’t seen Mike Faist as Artwork and Josh O’Connor as Patrick tensely share a churro, right here’s the clip. As an alternative, I’d prefer to take this time to remind everybody that Challengers additionally introduced us a pivotal scene that takes place at an Applebee’s. The informal suburban fixture is the unlikely setting for Tashi (Zendaya) and Artwork’s first sparks of romance, and to see them lastly make out in an empty Applebee’s car parking zone in opposition to metropolis skyline was a delight. It turned much more pleasant when we realized that the setting was chosen as a result of in actuality, tennis gamers on the town for the Cincinnati Masters, which is held within the suburb of Mason, Ohio, would eat at Applebee’s. Elite athletes in psychosexual love triangles — they’re identical to us! — Monica Burton, deputy editor
Scrumptious in Dungeon
I watch a lot of anime — and this is without doubt one of the most creative and sudden examples of the style I’ve seen. Also called Dungeon Meshi, this present is a grasp class in world-building, one which instantly sells you on a wild premise: {That a} group of adventurers, journeying by means of a dungeon in search of to avoid wasting a buddy, should eat the monsters and different fantastical creatures that cross their path not only for survival, but additionally for pure pleasure. The animated cooking scenes right here remind me plenty of the equally beloved present Midnight Diner: They’re lovingly rendered and narrated, which is much more exceptional contemplating they’re cooking up issues like mandrake and “treasure bugs.” Simply go along with it; it’s a delight. — Erin DeJesus, govt editor
Quincy
Quincy Jones was a peerless artist, so it’s no shock that when the producer and musician, recognized for such productions as The Wiz and The Contemporary Prince of Bell-Air died on November 3, followers turned to the 2018 Netflix documentary, Quincy, to honor his legacy. Produced by his daughter, actor and producer Rashida Jones, the movie particulars the composer and producer’s life — towering wins, well being challenges, private complexities, adoration of yoga, and all. I knew that an individual who lived such a colourful life needed to love foods and drinks (and Jones’s affection for cocktails and liquor is a core ingredient of the documentary), and located that the musician did, certainly, dabble within the hospitality business. In 2016, the frequent world traveler opened Q’s Bar and Lounge on the Palazzo Versace Dubai in Dubai, naming drinks for a few of his most celebrated initiatives, all of that are served in opposition to the backdrop of reside music. As outlined in Toni Tipiton-Martin’s Juke Joints, Jazz Golf equipment, and Juice, alcohol and music are inextricably linked in Black tradition. Jones, an aficionado of Black artistry, is a up to date — and perpetually cherished — instance. — Kayla Stewart, Eater.com senior editor
Nice British Bake Off
The most recent season of the Nice British Bake Off felt like a welcome return to type. It was filled with shows of real expertise (see Dylan and his prodigious knack for flavors and presentation and, nicely, nearly all the things). There have been contestants who have been an actual pleasure to observe. (I’m speaking about Nelly, clearly.) And with challenges that leaned wholeheartedly into British baking — noticed dick and all — there was little or no to be mad at. Dylan followers could disagree, however I’d go so far as to say that it was good to see the one that needed it probably the most — the one that most embodied the spirit of what it means to be a talented residence baker — take residence the title. — MB
Classes in Chemistry
Though it technically aired in October and November of 2023, the Apple TV+ miniseries’s import has grown exponentially this 12 months. Tailored from Bonnie Garmus’s 2022 novel of the identical identify and led by Brie Larson, Classes in Chemistry is a celebration of the subversive powers a cooking present host can wield — and have turned in opposition to her. Nearly just like the antithetical complement to Julia Youngster’s pleasant curiosity, Larson’s Elizabeth Zott begins as an excellent, assured lab tech chafing in opposition to the misogyny of the laboratory she works in. After quite a few challenges at work and within the strategy of elevating her daughter, Zott grows to be undaunted by the constraints others place on her work, her parenting, and her aspirations for the present regardless of the pointedly apparent racism and misogyny of the period. It’s an arresting examine in questioning all the things earlier than rolling up your sleeves to experiment for your self. — JS
The Apothecary Diaries
Calling this a meals present is stretching it barely, however on this anime that takes place in Imperial China, teenage apothecary Maomao makes use of her information of cooking up herbs (and her willingness to be a taste-tester for poison) to stand up the ranks of the palace’s pecking order. There’s tons of palace intrigue right here, however the plots are borrowed extra from Home — i.e., they often revolve round Maomao utilizing her powers of statement and medical information to unravel an in-episode thriller — than Sport of Thrones. It is a splendidly escapist present the place the educated, resourceful younger lady at all times wins, even when she has to swallow a bitter capsule or two alongside the best way. — EDJ
… and the worst (sorry, Chicago):
The Bear
I knew we have been in hassle with Season 3 of The Bear from the very first episode, which felt much less like an episode than an prolonged and really self-serious montage. And lo, issues acquired worse from there. It’s troublesome to select what I favored least about this season: was it the Fak household’s “hang-out” schtick, as contemporary as a fart in an elevator? Or the insistent flashbacks that supplanted precise narrative momentum? Or wait, perhaps it was its cameo-appearance deification of real-life cooks whose posteriors have already been exhaustively kissed (e tu, Thomas Keller?). It was all that, nevertheless it was additionally, maybe worst of all, boring. Tedious and indulgent, this season wasn’t a lot a bear as a shark, jumped. — Rebecca Flint Marx, Eater at Residence editor