Food and Films: when eating is living, loving, dreaming

"Pizza, Spaghetti, and Mandolin": this stereotype has long been associated with Italians in films. However, Italy is far more than this cliché suggests; its cuisine is a symbol of global excellence, rich and complex.

This is vividly illustrated in the film Eat, Pray, Love, where the protagonist, Elizabeth Gilbert, played by the charismatic Julia Roberts, indulges in the pleasures of the Italian table to rediscover a lost sense of happiness and authenticity.

Liz arrives in Rome and orders an "Italian" coffee (although in the original English version she asks for a cappuccino), savours a diplomatico, discovers fried zucchini flowers and other traditional dishes such as carciofi alla giudia, prosciutto with melon, and eggplant parmigiana—and, naturally, pizza.

In this film, food serves as a means of self-discovery; each dish the protagonist enjoys rekindles the joy of eating, nourishing both body and soul. The emblematic scene in which she enjoys the plate of spaghetti with tomato sauce with Beethoven's music in the background is a hymn to the wonder that Italian cuisine provokes.

Your bar can also become a refuge for those who need a break that speaks to the spirit, eating a tasty cream krapfen with a fresh juice that not only nourishes, but rejuvenates.

In The Great Beauty, which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2014, director Paolo Sorrentino also narrates beauty through food, using it as a metaphor.

It's a symbol of excess, mirroring the protagonist Jep Gambardella's sophisticated yet fragile existence, played by the magnetic Toni Servillo. The film recalls the opulence of materialism with an abandoned plate of orecchiette with turnip greens floating in a fountain.

But it is also a food that brings us back to our origins and rediscover the simplicity of when we were children, like a plate of minestrone. To remind us of our essence, Sister Maria feeds solely on roots because "roots are important".

In The Great Beauty, shared meals abound—at parties, around tables with many people—because food has the power to bring us closer, to make us laugh, and to lift our spirits.

Eat, Pray, Love and The Great Beauty show us that food is culture, love, relationship, art, an opportunity to create bonds and to celebrate the beauty of everyday life.

In your restaurant, like a director on a film set, you're not just serving a meal; you're participating in the unfolding story of your customers' lives.