"The Taste of Things" (Original French title "La Passion de Dodin Bouffant") is a 2023 French culinary romance based upon the 1924 novel by Marcel Rouff "The Life and Passion of Dodin Bouffant, Gourmet." Directed by Vietnamese-French filmmaker Trân Anh Hùng and starring former couple Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel.
In 19th century France, famed gastronome Dodin Bouffant and his live-in cook, Eugenie Chatagne, have danced in a culinary pas de deux for the past 20 years bringing delight to Bouffant's guests. The two have also been not-so-secret lovers in the same duration. Bouffant is determined to make Eugenie his wife, but she has been hesitant, enjoying her life where it is. In addition, Violette, Eugenie's assistant, brings her young niece Pauline for day and Dodin and Eugenie are immediately taken in by the child's spark of culinary talent.
The Taste Of Things provides examples of:
- The Apprentice: Pauline. The child impresses both Eugenie and Dodin with her palate and eagerness to learn and the two adults approach Pauline's parents to apprentice under Eugenie. Her parents are hesitant at first but after Eugenie's death and Pauline's willful demeanor, Dodin brings her aboard.
- Child Prodigy: Pauline, in a way. One taste of a sauce and she can immediately rattle off the exact cut of meat, herbs, and spices used. She missed the cognac, but given she is a child, she can be forgiven for not picking out the taste. This immediately endears her to Bouffant, who takes her under his wing after Eugenie's death and he treats her as an equal during his search for a new head cook.
- French Cuisine Is Haughty: Played straight and subverted. The food in the film is made for the upper-class Dodin and his socioeconomic peers and friends. Plenty of foie gras, veal, cream, and wine flowing with one scene with Dodin and company chowing down on ortolan (handkerchief covering and all). However, we see Eugenie, Violette, and Pauline enjoying the same food in the kitchen, signifying that class does not separate Dodin and friends from the kitchen staff. A central dish in the film, pot-au-feu, is known to be a humble dish of boiled beef and vegetables created to sustain peasants and Dodin plans to present that as the main dish to the Prince of Eurasia.
- Food Porn: The whole film is dedicated to lovingly documenting the whole process of creating a meal, not just the final product.
- Foreshadowing: Eugenie's fainting spells and deteriorating physical appearance hint at her death midway through the film.Eugenie: I'm in the summer of my life. And when I leave, it will still be summer.
- Passed in Their Sleep: Eugenie
- Reality Has No Soundtrack: The film lacks a musical score, instead fully leaning into culinary sensuality by making each act of cooking the soundtrack. Punctuated by the sounds of the French countryside with a touch of a yowling cat in heat.
- Snails and So On: The film is a love letter to French cuisine.
- Student–Master Team: Dodin and Pauline are in the early stages of this by the end of the film to the point that Pauline is by his side taste-testing applicants' dishes.
- Supreme Chef: Eugenie's culinary prowess is implied to be very well-known. Pauline shows she has the palate and passion of becoming one in the future.
- The Disease That Shall Not Be Named: Eugenie's ailment is heavily implied to be cancer. The time period in the film means that the diagnostic tests and equipment are not available to the doctor to make an accurate diagnosis and he's as much in the dark as everyone else.
