Ashley R. Sims
Professor Giron
MLS 598
6 September 2017
Food, Memories, and Racism in The Hundred-Foot Journey
Lasse Hallström’s The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014) follows Hassan Kadam (Manish Dayal) and his family who are forced from their home and restaurant in India leading them to a village in France. They face many challenges as they move into a foreign city and open a restaurant across the street from one of France’s most prestigious restaurants. Food makes memories is the theme of the film. In this paper, I will argue The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014) presents the Kadam family as the “other” while the film displays the importance of food to the narrative as it represents memories, family, love, and culture. The filmmakers are able to achieve this through the use of food motifs, cinematography, characterization, sound, and the narrative.
The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014) mirrors the French belief that French culture is superior to any other culture. Leland Ware writes, “a major component of French culture is the conviction that its culture is superior to those of all non-Europeans…since the beginning of Western civilization, Europeans have regarded Asian and Middle Eastern people as an alien and threatening “other”” (185). When the Kadam family arrive, residents stare at them and some are overheard asking others if they know who they are. After buying the run-down restaurant, Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren) states the family’s restaurant “can’t be called a restaurant” because the mayor (Michel Blanc) told her “it is a fast food or ethnic.” The mayor warns Madame Mallory that “these people are different they are not French” and to be careful because he has heard some bad things about them from the villagers. Even though the villagers do not know the Kadams they use stereotypes to deem them as bad people.
The narrative pins the “other” against the superior French. Papa (Om Puri) buys the restaurant 100 feet across from a Michelin-starred restaurant, La Saule Pleurer, owned by Madame Mallory. La Saule Pleurer is lavish and expensive. Hassan and his brother tell their father not buy the restaurant stating, “the French don’t even eat Indian food. They have food of their own, it is famous all over the world.” They believe the French will not be interested in Indian food because it is not traditional placing the French cultural superior to their Indian culture. Madame Mallory becomes threatened by the family’s restaurant, Maison Mumbai, and tries her best to sabotage them by buying all of the produce they need in the market as well making several complaints to the Mayor.
A.R. Rahman uses diegetic and non-diegetic sound in The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014) to distinguish the “other” from the French. The score and soundtrack match the culture that is bringing shown on screen. Whenever the Kadams are shown in their restaurant they are playing Indian music to create an Indian atmosphere and give their customers a taste of their culture beyond its food. Also, the score is made of Indian drums and stringed instruments when the Hassan and his family are on screen. When Madame Mallory, Marguerite (Charlotte Le Bon), or La Saule Pleurer is shown, the score is of classical music with violins and pianos. Every time La Saule Pleurer’s doors open loud Indian music interrupts the classical music being played in the restaurant because the restaurants are close to each other. Hassan is seen cooking French sauces while there is a classical score to symbolize the different style of cooking he is engaging in. The French dishes are viewed as clean, classic, and elegant whereas Indian dishes are viewed as bold, spicy, and loud. The score and soundtrack mirror the cultural perception of food and culture.
While Hassan loves cooking Indian food, he would like to transition from cook to chef because he wants to be well respected and learn outside of Indian cuisine. He believes he must be classically trained in French cuisine as it and the French culture is held superior to Indian food and culture. According to Helene A. Shugart,
“Like food, otherness is metabolized, converted and utilized by the body in order to realise itself and its potential fully. While this is an important rationalization of the desire for and consumption of otherness, establishing as it does both the need to do so and the integrity of privilege, no less important is the way in which the Other is contained in the films, qualifying the Other’s mobility and ultimate restoration to a distant time and place” (87).
After being trained and contributing to La Saule Pleurer receiving its second star, Hassan moves away from his family and the restaurants to continue his culinary experience. After eating an Indian dish, Hassan realizes how much he misses his family and friends as they are important to his life as a chef and returns to the village. Hassan finally receives the respect he was looking for but was not happy because he was missing family, love, and tradition in his life.
The food motif represents memories, love, and family. Through the use of close-ups the cinematographer, Linus Sandgren, is able to highlight the food at the market and ingredients used in the kitchens. The food is always bright green, red, and orange, especially at the markets. The bright colored food is shown when Hassan is close to his family. Therefore, the bright vegetables and fruit represent love and family. Once he leaves the village in France, the close-ups reveal food that is dark. The dark food mirrors his depression from missing his family. The sea urchin is a food motif to represent Hassan’s mother. In the opening scene, there are several close-ups of food as a young Hassan and his mother chase a man selling sea urchin. The night of her death, Hassan’s mother says, “sea urchins taste of life, life has its own flavor… hidden in that shell, raw, beautiful life” while they are cooking together. As this is his last memory of his mother, the dish with sea urchin becomes his favorite thing to cook. This is the last meal he prepares in the film as well.
Hassan’s mother is the one who taught him to cook. Hassan says he “was taught how to taste” and he received an “education of all the senses.” His mother told him, “to cook you must kill, you cook to make ghosts.” She also explains that spirits live in ingredients. Species and cooking remind Hassan of his mother and the time they spent cooking together. This is why he is passionate about becoming a chef. When he begins cooking at La Saule Pleurer he struggles and is nervous. Then he begins cooking with his mother’s spices. He enhances the 200-year-old recipes of the restaurant. Here food is tied to love and life. Dishes are not good if they are not made with love and this is why Hassan struggles at first. He remembers what his mother taught him and starts to produce amazing dishes.
Madame Mallory is characterized as a tough businesswoman willing to do anything to get another Michelin star. Christy Lemire writes, “she’s all sharp angles, piercing looks and biting quips” (rogerebert.com). The mayor says she is “stubborn as an oz.” She takes pride in her restaurant and makes sure the exquisite dishes are made with the freshest ingredients. She is stern because she lost her husband and the restaurant is all she has. Therefore, she keeps it running for the legacy of her husband. Her memories of her husband are at the restaurant and the food reminds her of him. Like Madame Mallory, Papa Kadam is characterized as stubborn as he is determined to have a successful restaurant in the village. He is very protective of his family and their legacy. Papa is dedicated to the restaurant for the memory of his wife who died in the fire at the restaurant set by protesters in India. Madame Mallory and Papa are brought together because of their common love for food, their restaurants, and Hassan.
Madame Mallory’s chief, Jean-Pierre (Clément Sibony) mirrors the ugly and dangerous bigotry from the world that is aligned with the French thoughts about the “other.” Benard Beck writes, “all very amusing and a set-up for a comic feud, but it soon becomes the occasion for truly ugly and dangerous bigotry from the world around the two eateries, where hatred of outsiders has dire results” (72). Jean-Pierre constantly makes rude comments about the Kadams and their culture. He complains about the smell of curry coming from the window and he also says they were at the store buying cat food for their curry. Then Jean-Pierre and his friends spray-paint “France pour les Français” which means “France for the French” on the outer wall of Maison Mumbai before firebombing the restaurant.
Lasse Hallström’s The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014) challenges France’s history of treating “others” as inferior and with disrespect. Through the Kadams, the film reveals how many immigrants are treated by the dominant group and have to fight for equality. The filmmakers use of food motifs, cinematography, characterization, sound, and the narrative to represent the different cultures and the importance of food to the characters’ lives. With the love of family, food, and memories two cultures that clash are brought together.
Bibliography
Beck, Bernard. “Intruders: New Neighbors in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and the Hundred-Foot Journey.” Multicultural Perspectives, vol. 17, no. 2, 2015, pp. 69-72. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/15210960.2015.1022444. Accessed 4 Sept. 2017
Lemire, Christy. “The Hundred-Foot Journey Movie Review (2014) | Roger Ebert.” RogerEbert.com, 8 Aug. 2014, http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-hundred-foot-journey-2014. Accessed 5 Sept. 2017.
Shugart, Helene A. “Sumptuous Texts: Consuming “Otherness” in the Food Film Genre.” Critical Studies in Media Communication, vol. 25, no. 1, 2008, pp. 68–90. Taylor & Francis, doi:10.1080/15295030701849928. Accessed 4 Sept. 2017.
“The HUNDRED-FOOT JOURNEY: USES FOOD TO BRIDGE CULTURES.” American Cinematographer, vol. 95, no. 6, 06, 2014, pp. K1-K2, FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals Database; Performing Arts Periodicals Database; Screen Studies Collection, http://login.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/docview/1540464380?accountid=4485. Accessed 5 Sept. 2017.
Ware, Leland. “Color-blind racism in France: bias against ethnic minority immigrants.” Washington University Journal of Law & Policy, vol. 46, 2014, pp. 185. Business Insights: Global. http://bi.galegroup.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/global/article/GALE|A403916279/4e1078b7262b4b0c3ba338925639d869?u=asuniv. Accessed 5 Sept. 2017.
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