Ratatouille-go round

Okay, so I'm on the Ratatouille band wagon-- this has got to be the cutest movie of the year, and certainly one of the best films about food ever-- No really, right up there with Babette's Feast and Like Water for Chocolate.

I love that in order to make the movie's kitchen so perfect, the animators spent SIX YEARS on "research"-- travelling to Guy Savoy, Taillevent, Tour d'Argent and of course the French Laundry.

"Oh we HAD to take cooking classes," one of them says.

I'm sure that four years into the process someone said, "Um.. yeah... I think I don't really remember how that truffled foie gras course looked at Taillevent. I think we need to do some more research..."

ANYway. Check out the QTVR of the animated kitchen on the official site. I'm counting six --SIX, mind you -- la Cornues. But Holy Moley, do they really have flames like that on the bottom?

I know, I know, I have an unhealthy obsession with La Cornues. Yeah. Well. Anyway. Enough about that.

Seriously though, the movie is a hoot, and for those of you who've missed the miles of ink on the celebrity chefs who've been involved, here's a link to an article from the NY Times, along with Thomas Keller's rendition of the titular dish.

One look at the parchment paper cover that they use for cooking the dish in the movie, and there can be no doubt about who it was that created THAT recipe!

Mrs. Glaze's Pommes d'Amour, whose blog offers an addictive look into life in the kitchen of Guy Savoy, also gave a peek into what it was like to go to the Parisian preview with Savoy himself.