Weekend Cooking: Foodies at the Movies

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Sometimes a foodie needs a little break from reality. Here are two light, fun movies to help you escape into someone else's kitchen.

No Reservations stars Catherine Zeta-Jones as Kate and Aaron Eckhart as Nick. Kate is a driven restaurant chef who gets up at the crack of dawn to get the best ingredients at the markets to serve to her upscale New York City clientele. Her independent and self-sufficient ways are shattered when she suddenly becomes the sole guardian of her niece Zoe. In the meantime, the restaurant owner hires Nick to be Kate's sous chef. All this change may be too much for Kate to handle.

Although the plot is predictable, the scenes of the New York food markets are memorable and much of the movie revolves around the kitchen. The acting is good, and the plot is fun. Note that the special features on the Blue Ray disc include footage of Emeril Lagasse recreating some of the dishes from the movie.

The next movie is Baby Boom starring Diane Keaton. This has a similar setup but a completely different plot. The high-powered J. C. Wiatt has a corporate job, a boyfriend, and a killer instinct for business. When a distant relative dies and leaves her an inheritance, J.C. is dreaming of money. What she gets instead is a baby girl.

After J.C. decides to keep Elizabeth, her world turns upside down: she loses her job and her boyfriend leaves. In desperation, she moves to Vermont to start her life over. Things aren't going very well, until one day she decides to make fresh applesauce for the baby.

Diane Keaton and Sam Shepard are great in this romantic comedy. Of course, you know what will happen, but that doesn't take away from fun. The applesauce scenes didn't make it to the theatrical trailer.