Nominees for Best Use of Food in a Film in 2007

Tinseltown is abuzz. Top designers are working overtime dressing the actresses, and ballots marked with X's are pouring into the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, all for Sunday's Academy Awards. Among the categories, Best Picture ... Best Original Screenplay ... Best Use of Food in a Film ...

Oops. They've forgotten that last category -- again! Don't they know that a great food scene can be the most powerful part of a movie? Mindful of that, we decided to announce our own awards: The Sauteed Celluloids. Here are our picks from 2007 for Best Food Film:

"Ratatouille"

Kudos to the filmmakers of this animated movie, which follows the culinary aspirations of a rat who manages to triumph in the world's most demanding food town: Paris.

"Ratatouille" successfully re-creates an authentic restaurant kitchen and hired star chef Thomas Keller to create the most sublime vegetable sculpture ever to grace the silver screen. So, boo to those who think animated films shouldn't be nominated for Best Picture. Bravo and bon appetit!

"Eastern Promises"

In which crime doesn't pay, but the image of a perpetrator's rose-petal cake is priceless. The elegant trans-Siberian restaurant in the film may serve the most stunning Russian fare in London, with a succession of dishes rivaling any layout in Gourmet magazine -- even though the blue-eyed proprietor, Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl), is really the head of a notorious crime family. This mild-mannered monster is as fastidious at decorating the delicate rose-petal cake for a 100th birthday party as he is masterminding a cover-up of hundreds of bodies.

In one scene, he sweetly offers the naive midwife Anna (Naomi Watts) a spoon of borscht like her papa used to make, but maybe we understand why the duplicitous hero Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen) keeps his fork to himself.

"Juno"

Thank goodness this is only a movie. Should a pregnant teen really be eating all that? Few healthful items pass through the lips of Juno (Ellen Page), a pregnant 16-year-old with an otherwise level head on her shoulders. She has decided to deliver the baby into the loving arms of a more age-appropriate, nutritionally knowledgeable mom.

Although the slang-speaking pubescent brags to her best friend that her solicitous stepmom won't let her eat red M&M's or stand in front of the microwave, Juno remains, after all, your typical teen, piling cola, fries and chips onto her lunch tray.

"The Bucket List"

Director Rob Reiner tells a story of how two men -- polar opposites played by Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman -- change each other's lives after each is given three to six months to live. Edward (Nicholson) is a demanding multimillionaire, who orders anything he wants to eat and will travel anywhere in the world to get it, while Carter, a mechanic with no regrets, hasn't ventured an inch from his soul-food roots.

On their trip around the world to complete their "Bucket List" (i.e., all the things you want to do before you kick the bucket), Edward introduces his new friend to black walnut ice cream in Hong Kong, Champagne, Beluga caviar and oysters on the half-shell on the French Riviera.

"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"

Julian Schnabel based his film on the memoir of the same name by Jean-Dominique Bauby. Suffering from a stroke that left him paralyzed and unable to communicate, Bauby summoned his memory to re-create the world that he had once indulged in.

He fantasizes a Tom Jones-like bacchanal in Paris, including an exquisite oyster on the half shell with a sip of Champagne, a taste of perfectly grilled sole with a squeeze of lemon and a glass of Chablis, and a magnificent steak with bearnaise sauce spooned over it, accompanied by perfectly prepared pommes frites. And, to finish, an assortment of ripe, runny cheese and a slow sip of sweet wine.

Simple roast chicken

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 50 minutes

Resting time: 15 minutes

Yield: 4 servings

Adapted from "Bouchon," by Thomas Keller, and as seen in the film "Ratatouille."

1 whole chicken, 2-3 pounds

1 tablespoon coarse salt

Freshly ground pepper

3 sage leaves

2 teaspoons thyme leaves

Dijon mustard

1. Heat oven to 450 degrees. Sprinkle chicken and its cavity with the salt and pepper to taste; truss with kitchen string, if desired. Place chicken on a rack in a roasting pan; roast until juices run clear, 50-60 minutes.

2. Remove from oven; add sage and thyme to the pan juices. Baste chicken with the juices; let rest 15 minutes. Carve chicken; serve with pan juices and mustard on the side.

Nutrition information per serving: 263 calories, 55% of calories from fat, 16 g fat, 4 g saturated fat, 89 mg cholesterol, 0 g carbohydrates, 28 g protein, 1,497 mg sodium, 0 g fiber
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