Food and Film: Culinary Cinema
by Mary Nyiri

Working as a trial attorney in the District of Columbia meant not much personal time. The exception was Friday which often meant films. Films provided nourishment for brain cells totally depleted of all things not related to law. The Berlinale has combined the intellectual feast of film with fine food for corporal nutritional needs.

In the program for Culinary Cinema (Kulinarisches Kino), you can watch a film and then have a wonderful dinner tribute to the film prepared by a famous chef. While enjoying dessert, live discussions of the film with the director and actors as well as an interview with the chef are held on stage in the front of the Gropius Mirror Restaurant. The motto for this fifth year that the Berlinale celebrates food in film is “Give food a chance.” Make that “give Culinary Cinema a chance”! Combining my taste for creative cooking and wonderful wines with fun films, I chose the film The Ways of the Wine (El Camino del Vino) followed by dinner prepared by German chef Sonja Frühsammer.