Warning: Due to heavy symbolism they will be noted, and due to the various courses, the story will be split up into different categories.
Synopsis
The film starts on a dock where young Margot Mills waits with her date Tyler Ledford, a foodie who chastises her for smoking on the belief it ruins her taste budsnote . Seeing the boat arrive, Margot worries about how small it is, only for Tyler to tell her the restaurant only allows twelve customers and it’s $1250 per customer. The guests start to load up in the boat:
- A trio of businessmen, Soren, Dave, and Bryce, who have the boorish personalities of frat bros.
- Richard and Ann Leibrandt, an older couple, with Richard and Margot familiar with each other, and very uncomfortable at that.
- Lilian Bloom, the famous food critic who made the restaurant Hawthorn famous along with her editor Ted Feldman, who has to comment on everything but will always agree with whatever Lilian says.
- Famous actor George Diaz (Stage name Damien Garcia) and his assistant Felicity Lynn, who is basking in his old glory but is now desperate to stay relevant, who claims to know the head chef.
On the ride, the guests are served raw local oyster, mignonette emulsion, lemon caviar, and oyster leaf. Tyler starts by taking pictures of the food with his phone before explaining the dish to Margot, who only says she prefers just the oyster since she loves oystersnote .
Landing on the island they are greeted by the maître d’, Elsa, a Vietnamese woman who identifies everyone save for Margot, thinking she’s Tyler’s planned date Miss Westervelt, clearly not happy with the switch but gives the guests a tour of the island. But the Leibrandt couple decide to skip the tour since they’re regulars while Margot watches the boat leave.
Elsa explains how the cooks do everything on the island, fishing, farming, ranching everything from the dairy cows to the chickens and scallops. Everyone’s in awe save for Margot who finds it all insane. But then Elsa shows them the living quarters, which are a row of beds, lockers, and an open shower and toilets.
On the walk to the restaurant, Tyler spots the head chef’s cottage, which Elsa points out even the staff aren’t allowed into. The guests are brought to the restaurant, where they spot the 12th guest is an old woman sitting by herself with a bottle of wine. The restaurant has an open kitchen for the guests to watch and a view of the ocean. Tyler sits with his back to the window to watch the cooking and Margot sits opposite to view the ocean, keeping her back to Richard.
As soon as Tyler tries to pull out his phone, Elsa announces that while the guests can watch the chefs, they can’t take pictures due to the head chef’s requests. Tyler goes to try to start a conversation with one of the chefs about how he’s using a PACO jet for the cooking, but the chef reveals he knows Tyler’s name and asks him to let him resume working when he tries to speak with the head chef. Tyler’s impressed but Margot notes he never asked the chef’s name, but they see head chef Julian Slowik enter and Elsa tells him about Margot, who quickly glares at Tyler’s table.
AMUSE BOUCHE
The chefs start by presenting to each guest the appetizer, Amuse Bouche of melon pearls and milk snow. Lilian starts critiquing the meal, Felicity tries to do a goodbye toast before she starts her new job, Tyler breaks the photography rule, Soren and his friends are joking around, the old woman has the Sommelier pouring her more wine, and the Liebrandt couple are barely saying anything to each other.Margot decides to ask Tyler why the obsession, and he explains that he thinks people being fans of musicians and athletes are idiots whereas chefs play with life, especially Slowik making art of plants and animals at the edge of their life, calling it god-like.
FIRST COURSE
Slowik starts the night with a resounding clap getting his staff’s attention before he starts a speech about what’s going to happen tonight, how they’ll do more than just eat, but savor and taste. The first dish is THE ISLAND, which are various plants from around the island served on rocks from the shore with defrosting sea salt and scallops. He says the people on the island aren’t important, but the nature on the island is timeless.Margot’s creeped out but Tyler is crying, moved by Slowik speaking. Tyler makes it clear he wants Slowik to like him, which Margot points out he’s being paid to serve him food, doesn’t matter if Slowik likes him or not. Ted continues to agree with Lilian, George tries to pitch a show idea to Felicity who is weirded out by the idea, Soren tells his friends about his at-home chef, and so on.
SECOND COURSE
After another clap, Slowik gives a history lesson on bread, how grain is farmed more than fruits and vegetables, and how Jesus taught us to pray for daily bread. It’s food for the common man, but Slowik says they aren’t common man and thus get no bread. They instead get quail egg sized bowls of various sauces and creams that go with bread. Felicity is mad since the Hawthorn restaurant is known for its bread, Lilian claims an emulsion is split, and Tyler is overhyping the food but Margot points out it’s an insult and refuses to eat. Elsa brings out a normal sized bowl of the “Split” emulsion to Lilian with Slowik smiling. Bryce tries to pressure Elsa into giving his table bread, with Soren saying they work for Doug Verrick, but she refuses and whispers into Soren’s ear one thing: “You will eat less than you desire and more than you deserve.”After Tyler knocks over a glass trying to eat from Margot’s plate, Slowik comes over and tries to pressure Margot into eating but she refuses to play his obvious game. While the young couple argue, Slowik goes to the old woman and quietly holds her, disturbing the guests.
THIRD COURSE
While waiting, Ann notices Margot eying the Liebrandt table and finds she looks like their dead daughter Claire, which Richard refuses to agree with. Chef claps again and tells them the next course is MEMORY, named after him remembering Taco Tuesday as a child and tells them the lonely woman is his mother Linda, a drunk for as long as he could remember. His father was the same, one Tuesday night beating his mother with a telephone cord, which Slowik stopped by stabbing him in the thigh with kitchen scissors, regretting not aiming for the throat.The dish has chicken thigh with kitchen scissors inside, with taco tortillas having unique pictures printed onto them to evoke memories. Lilian got pictures of restaurants she reviewed that all closed, Richard got pictures of him going on dates with younger women, Tyler got proof he broke the photography rule, George got a copy of the poster to his movie Calling Doctor Sunshine (“Dumb part, bad script. Fun shoot though”), the Verrick employees proof of them committing illegal tax crimes using invoices with fake charges.
Tyler begs to make this right, but Margot wants to send the food back. Tyler snaps his fingers at her like a dog, calling her a child for being “Ungrateful.” Margot tries to get an apology, but Tyler reminds her he’s the one paying. Margot tries to go to the bathroom, but finds a silver door, which Elsa says is “Something special.”
Margot opens a window to smoke, where she spots a chef walking into the forest with Victoria Secret sized angel wings before being locked in the bathroom with Slowik who wants to know why she isn’t eating, a very personal wound. Saying she’s not hungry, Margot finds the chef asking who she is before being warned she doesn’t belong at the restaurant. Margot is allowed to return to her table.
FOURTH COURSE
A tarp is put down with some decorations before Slowik claps again. Soren wants answers but Slowik tells him to sit back down as the chef Tyler spoke to, Jeremy Lowden, is brought out. Slowik says the dish is called “The Mess,” before explaining Jeremy’s whole life story, how he went to the best school, how he always wanted to work, before talking down to the poor man, saying he’ll never be great because nobody can go without the mess you make of your surroundings and inside of you. With tears in his eyes, Jeremy bows before putting a revolver in his mouth and pulling the trigger.Everyone starts to panic. Except Linda who’s too drunk to care, and Tyler laughs thinking it’s a show. Lilian goes into denial at what she sees as Jeremy’s body is wrapped up in the tarp and brought into the kitchen.
THE MESS is brought out, pressure cooked vegetables, roasted filet, potato confit, beef jus, and bone marrow (RIP Jeremy Lowden).
Slowik shouts “EAT!” and everyone tries to. Margot demands answers from Tyler, who ignores her. Richard decides to leave with Ann only to be told by Elsa there’s no boat and phone service to call for help, but when Richard refuses to stay, Elsa has the waiters hold him down while a chef cuts off his wedding ring finger. And Tyler is shown to care more about the food while everyone else is screaming in terror.
George admits to Felicity he lied about knowing Slowik to seem cool while Ann is given her husband’s wedding ring. Lilian continues to be in denial when Elsa brings Margot to the kitchen at Slowik’s request. Slowik insists Margot isn’t her real name and explains he wants to know where to seat her to proceed with the night. With the guests or the staff are the options, but Slowik makes it clear everyone in the building is dying. Margot finds this too arbitrary but Slowik gives her a timer with 15 minutes set for the next course. Slowik starts his staff with a resounding, “I love you all!”
They all respond in unison, “We love you too, Chef!”
Margot returns to her seat, where Tyler’s whining at not being brought makes her slap him, but he ignores it and continues to talk down to her.
PALATE CLEANSER
Everyone is shaking, but Dave and George try to talk about what to do before Soren grabs his chair and tries to break the glass, which is not cracking. Chef claps to serve bergamot tea to the guests while taking questions.After Tyler obliviously asks if it’s bergamot tea, George stutters before Soren demands to know what is going on. Slowik explains they are all ingredients in the menu.
Lilian destroyed livelihoods with her reviews and Ted enables her the whole time (A chef brings a mixing bowl of “Split” Emulsion), The Liebrandt couple have eaten at the restaurant 11 times in 5 years and can’t remember a single dish despite Slowik telling them what they’ll eat every single time. Linda is a drunk who can never be satisfied with his work and restaurant. When Bryce points out that Doug Verrick owns the restaurant, to which Slowik responds by turning on outside lights showing a man hanging over the water with the angel wings. Doug Verrick, the Angel Investor who bought the restaurant during COVID and the trio’s boss, would question the menu and request substitutions, the biggest Berserk Button for Slowik. The chef has the man slowly lowered into the water till he’s fully underwater.
The timer goes off, and Elsa brings Margot to Slowik’s office to give an answer. She tries to agree with Slowik, who tells her to stop lying. He decides she should stand with the “Shit shovellers,” since he can tell she’s a service industry worker like him. She’s an escort, who was hired by Richard to be a date. Slowik asks what made him rattle her, clearly seeing she doesn’t rattle often. Margot admits Richard had her roleplay as his dead daughter while he masturbated.
The two somewhat bond over how despite how miserable they are now, they did like doing their jobs.
FIFTH COURSE
Chef starts by having the guests and chefs stand outside, where Sous Chef Katherine Keller gives a speech about how two years ago Slowik tried and failed to seduce her twice. He didn’t fire her, but he didn’t look at her or talk to her for months and got away with it for being the star, the man. So now Man’s Folly is the next dish.Katherine stabs Slowik in the thigh with kitchen scissors like his dad, to which he apologizes to her. He says the male diners have the chance to escape with a 45 second head start, which Soren doesn’t hesitate to run. One by one all the men leave, though Tyler is forced to play along. Katherine led the women inside to eat the meal.
MAN’S FOLLY is Dungeness Crab, Fermented Yogurt Whey, Dried Sea Lettuce, Umeboshi, and Kelp, which Lilian gives a positive compliment with no criticism, sending Katherine to tears. The other women join in on the compliments. Though Ann asks if Margot really knows her husband, which she doesn’t deny. The compliments end when Katherine admits that the Menu needed an ending and she came up with it, being quite proud of it. The women start drinking more wine.
All the men are running far apart from each other, but are picked up one by one, even Soren who was trying to push a boat into the water. Ted is found last in the chicken coop, given a prize for lasting so long: A PASSARD EGG with Creme Fraiche and Maple.
While smoking, Margot admits her name is Erin and she’s from Brockton Massachusetts, where her mom lived in a trailer park. The men are brought back covered in cuts and bruises, save for Tyler who tries to eat the leftovers. Richard groans at seeing Margot and Ann becoming friends.
Seeing George so pathetic, Felicity admits she’s been stealing money from him, and he wrote a negative recommendation to her new job at Sony, which both know about the other.
The Truth
Suddenly, Chef wants to speak with Tyler in front of everyone. Why is he at Hawthorn? Tyler says he wanted to experience the food. But what was he told ahead of time?“And…That everyone would die.”
Slowik asks about the first date that was supposed to come, to which Tyler admits she broke up with him, and only brought Margot because there’s no seating for one. Realizing she was brought to die, Margot jumps over the table and starts beating Tyler before the waiters pull her off of him.
Slowik decides that since Tyler knows a lot about cooking, he’s a chef and needs a jacket and should start cooking (Linda actually says her only line of dialogue: “Such a handsome boy.”). Tyler stutters out he needs Leeks, Shallots, Butter and Lamb. He cuts haphazardly while everyone watches before dumping everything into a pan and cooking.
Slowik takes one bite and calls it bad. It is TYLER’S BULLSHIT, consisting of raw lamb, inedible Leeks and Shallots, and is incohesive.
Tyler is told people like him are the reason why there’s no mystery, and with tears in his eyes, something is whispered by Slowik and he walks to the back of the kitchen. Slowik declares Margot to be free and has her help the kitchen by getting a barrel for desert he claims Elsa forgot. Heading out, Margot sees that Tyler hung himself in the pantry, but gets over her shock quickly.
While Margot walks outside, George stutters to Slowik about one thing: Why is he there?
Slowik tells him he saw Calling Doctor Sunshine on a sunday, a day off he doesn’t get for months, and he did not enjoy it. He knows George didn’t direct it, but seeing him again haunts him to see an artist lose his purpose. Called pitiful, George agrees but tries to save Felicity. Slowik points out she went to Brown and has no student loans, so she’s dying.
At the smokehouse, Margot finds a knife and goes to check out Slowik’s cottage to find a way off the island, unaware Elsa’s following her. Inside, it’s the same as the restaurant, only a bed instead of tables. Trying to go through the silver door, Elsa reveals herself and takes the knife Margot placed on the bed.
Elsa calls her disruptive, but when Margot is confused on how anyone can want to die for Slowik, Elsa snarls she won’t be replaced before she lunges at Margot. They fight in the kitchen until Margot hits Elsa with the PACO jet, and struggles for the knife. Elsa cries that Slowik never said anything about a barrel before the knife goes into her throat.
Margot struggles to take the keys from Elsa’s body before getting into the silver door, finding a shrine of Slowik’s life. In no picture is he smiling. Not in the picture from Lilian’s article about him, not the photo of him with his wife and daughter, and definitely not where he sold Hawthorn to Doug Verrick. But the one picture where he is smiling is when he was a young man working as a line cook at Hamburger Howie’s in an employee of the month plaque. Spotting a radio she calls for help.
Margot returns with the barrel as Slowik brings Bryce a birthday cake Soren called in as a joke. Taking a seat, Slowik admits to Margot he is a monster. No, was, because tonight is pure and egoless. The pain is almost gone, since he feels no pain from cooking, and quotes Martin Luther King, Jr. about how freedom isn’t given, disturbing George.
A coast guard boat arrives, and Slowik has the room cleaned and the guests covered of all blood. Slowik tells them not to beg this man for help for 2 reasons. 1) that’ll get him killed and 2) why didn’t they try harder to fight back?
The Coast Guard, Dale, is brought in and he notes things seem alright, but when he asks George for an autograph (He’s a big fan of Calling Doctor Sunshine), he gets a note begging for help.
Dale pulls out his handgun, but it’s a Hope Spot, it’s a lighter which he uses on a candle on Margot’s table. He’s a chef after all. Slowik calls her out for betraying his trust, and he writes her off as a taker like the guests. He goes to prepare his final course.
FINAL COURSE
While everyone is near catatonic, Margot gets an idea. She stands up and claps her own hands, everyone staring at her in awe.- Margot Mills: I DON’T LIKE YOUR FOOD!
Julian Slowik: What did you say?
Margot Mills: I said I don’t like your food, and I want to send it back.
Julian Slowik: I’m sorry to hear that. What about my food is not to your liking?
Margot Mills: For starters. You’ve taken the joy out of eating. Every dish you’ve served tonight has been some intellectual exercise rather than something you want to sit and enjoy. When I eat your food it tastes like it was made with no love.
Julian Slowik: This is ridiculous. We always cook with love. Don’t we?
The Chefs In Unison: YES CHEF!
Julian Slowik: Everyone knows love is the most important ingredient.
Margot Mills: Then you’re kidding yourself. Come on, Chef, I thought tonight was a night of hard, home truths. This is one of them you cook with obsession, not love. Even your hot dishes are cold. You’re a chef. Your single purpose on this Earth is to serve people food that they might actually like and you have failed. You failed, and you bored me. And the worst part is…I’m still fucking hungry.
Slowik is taken aback that she’s still hungry, starving even, and offers to make her anything. All she wants is a cheeseburger, no deconstruction, no fancy bullshit, just a normal cheeseburger. Slowik promises to make her the best cheeseburger ever, and it’ll only set her back $9.95, and all Margot asks is if there will be fries.
And so, for the first time all night, Julian Slowik is cooking by himself as the customers (Except for Linda who has passed out drunk) and staff watch in wonder as he cooks with a smile on his face and fighting back tears two burger patties with two slices of american cheese each, and given a healthy amount of seasoning and onions. The double cheeseburger is brought to Margot, who is now sitting in Tyler’s seat as she takes a bite.
“Now that…Is a cheeseburger.” is all Margot says. Slowik is so happy he agrees. Margot asks if she can take the rest to go, and he agrees. So with a to-go box, Margot is allowed to leave, but she takes one last look at the customers who are looking at her somberly. When Margot looks at Ann, she motions for the girl who looks so much like Clair to leave, which Margot does with tears in her eyes.
Slowik returns to his Menu and has the customers pay the bill but gives a gift bag with a copy of the menu, the suppliers of the ingredients, housemade granola, and one of Doug Verrick’s fingers. Everyone pulls out their credit cards, though Ted uses the magazine card, and George pays for Felicity’s, noting he did promise she’d never leave.
As Margot escapes on the boat, Slowik declares that the people who are the ruin of his life will be his masterpiece. The chefs pour swirls of milk and chocolates and powder the ground with graham crackers. The guests are dressed in marshmallow jackets and chocolate hats as Slowik declares the final course is THE S’MORE, what he declares the greatest offense to the human palette. Yet despite everything it is associated with youth, because it’s transformed by fire.
Slowik grabs a burning coal and walks to the center of the restaurant, before declaring, “I LOVE YOU ALL!”
Everyone, staff and guests, despite tears in their eyes and a fear of dying, respond, “WE LOVE YOU CHEF!”
Slowik drops the coal and starts a fire with himself immediately consumed, while the fire spreads to the guests. The marshmallow’s turn black, the chocolate melts till it gets in their eyes, and finally the chefs crank up the gas till the restaurant explodes!
Margot watches due to the fake coast guard boat running out of gas, and decides to watch the fire burn while she finishes the burger, using the copy of the menu as a napkin.
