Movie RX
Dr. Benjamin prescribes movies that help and heal through his own experiences or the experiences of others.
Movie RX
Ratatouille (2007) ft. Chef from x86ed
Join us on Movie RX as I, Dr. Benjamin, sit down with the renowned Chef from the x86ed YouTube channel to unpack the enchanting world of Disney and Pixar's "Ratatouille." Are culinary trends just pretentious or a true mark of skill? Chef and I dissect the fine line between genuine culinary craftsmanship and superficial cooking fads. Our discussion also pivots to the challenges faced by women in professional kitchens, focusing on Colette's powerful monologue and gender inequality in the culinary industry. Critics—are they friends or foes of the restaurant world? We scrutinize the role of critics and the impact of their reviews on the industry.
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Hello and welcome to MovieRx, where I prescribe entertainment to one movie at a time. I am your host, dr Benjamin, a doctor in the same way as Dr Feelgood. I help make you feel alright, how's that?
Speaker 3:Sounds great.
Speaker 2:That works. Yeah, okay, I can go along with that then. As you hear, today I have my first guest on. Movierx is returning. He is the man behind the 86 videos on YouTube and TikTok and everywhere else. Today I have Chef. Welcome, chef.
Speaker 3:Hey, how's it going? Great Good to be back on.
Speaker 2:I am really happy to have you back on. It feels like it's been forever. It's only been a few months, but uh. But yeah, I've been like I have to have chef back on, so oh yeah, I'm really excited to talk about Ratatouille also.
Speaker 3:Oh dude, it's going to be great.
Speaker 2:So, honestly, I caught this movie accidentally the first time I watched it. It was, I think it was like on in the background or something, when I was at my dad's house and uh, and, and the little bit I caught, I was like, okay, I have to watch this movie, Um, mostly because my dad called it rat patootie. How long ago was this? Oh, I don't know it's. It's probably been like 10 years. I would say, um, maybe 12.
Speaker 3:I just recently rewatched it. Um I the first time I saw, saw it. It was only a couple years old at the time, so there was a lot of stuff in there that I totally forgot about um right as as it happens, you know when you've seen a movie and then you wait like 15 years yeah, I loved it.
Speaker 2:This is around around where I like to talk about kind of the my general, the technical aspects of it, and and I mean of course it's Disney and Pixar the animation is immaculate, as they do, as they do, the way that they do their music and stuff like that is is, I mean, it's always just perfect. Uh, but really what drives this one? I think it really is the story, um, and a little bit the humor, but humor. But basic movie info on this one is that it's a Disney and Pixar production released in 2007. It was directed by Brad Bird and Jan Pinkava I don't know how to pronounce her last name.
Speaker 3:I don't either.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it stars Brad Garrett, lou Romano, patton, oswalt, which.
Speaker 3:I didn't know he was in that. Yeah Well, he's Remy, Like I don't know why he's the last name on the poster names because it's like no, this is a huge story about Remy.
Speaker 2:Now, the IMDb description usually is not great. This one I don't feel like is too bad. I mean it's it's a very basic description. It's not really something that grabs you too much. But a rat who can cook makes an unusual alliance with a young kitchen worker at a famous paris restaurant that sounds about right it is, it is just I feel like there's a little more to it than that, but that's a good general overview.
Speaker 2:So tell me, tell me what it is that that? How did you feel about the movie the first time you watched it? Like, about the time that this came out, you would have already been into your career as as a cook, uh, and I think you probably would have been on your way to uh onto being a chef. Yeah, so the the first time I way to uh onto being a chef.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so the the first time I watched it, the movie came out in 2007. And, like I said, it was a couple of years after that, so I'd only been cooking at the time, cause I started around early 2008. And then I saw the movie in 2010. I was a line cook at the time, working, uh, working at a family restaurant and you know that's. There's a lot of microwave stuff and and it's not, it's not the most prestigious, it's like short order stuff.
Speaker 3:But watching that and seeing the, you know the way that they were able to capture kind of the bustling of the kitchen and the fact that they didn't really show a lot of the actual um cooking, like there. There were scenes when it was relevant but there was no like overt, like showing a rush or anything like that. Right, and it was more about the stories of the characters and I thought it was a really awesome concept with with you know, the whole concept of anyone can cook and then having having a rat in there. And then you know some of the scenes where, like, linguine wanted to say something but he knows that it's nuts, he knows that he's crazy, that they won't accept it, and I I don't know.
Speaker 3:My general impression of it was it is a really good, feel-good movie and there it had some. It had some elements in there that that are kind of I don't want to say dark, but really deep, really heavy, that they were willing to put in there, and that's something you don't really see in a lot of uh kids movies right, well, and I mean there were, there were some pretty heavy things in there, like, uh, almost like I felt like they were putting in some statements, uh, that I know that we have on our points of interest.
Speaker 3:Um, and I'm really kind of excited and I'm not. I'm not going to go into detail about it, but one that's not on there that really caught me was the scene of remy's dad showing him the rats in the window. And you know, I I saw that and when I, when I watched that, you know he was making a statement to his kid, but that was like, that was pretty like, if you think about it, pretty graphic, considering the main character is, like you know, a rat that you're supposed to develop these like emotional feelings for and then seeing that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's just go ahead and expand on that. Tell me about that. Yeah, let's just go ahead and expand on that, tell me about that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it's. It's really interesting because the reason why, like his dad is actually coming from a good place Um, you know, he was raised a certain way and learned things a certain way and it's kind of almost a statement on the status quo Like this is where this is why we don't trust humans. That was essentially the message in seeing that and all the the rat poison and all of that kind of stuff, and he was very he was looking out for his kid. He didn't want his kid to end up in that window. So, even though it seems you know you want to root for Remy, there's also like it kind of it kind of explores this risk that he's taking. Right, if he does this just because he likes to cook, he's literally risking his life and I don't know. I just found that kind of deep.
Speaker 2:Right, it's almost like he's giving up a part of of who he is, you know, because, cause, I mean, a normal part of a rat is to his self preservation, safety, uh, uh, secrecy, you know that kind of stuff staying, staying where you're where you're at the least risk. But he, he has this dream. It's almost like it's a testament to him wanting to move outside of himself in pursuit of a dream that he doesn't even know what that dream is. You know, like he knows there's something that he wants to do, that's more. He just doesn't know what that more is, and so he pursues that, that feeling, not even knowing what it's supposed to be. Uh, and, and I don't know, I think, I think that that's pretty powerful, is that? I mean, despite where he comes from, you know? And? And he's risking a lot, not just safety wise, but also his family, his friends. Their judgment says a lot about, you know, I mean they're every time he comes across them. They're like, you know, come on, man, like we're rats Like this is ridiculous.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but he, he risks those relationships to pursue something that he loves, even though he doesn't know what it is. So, and that can be pretty powerful too. It also shows a little bit about how sometimes we can be held back by those that are around us, that we keep around us.
Speaker 3:Good intentions are not.
Speaker 2:Are not always positive. Now I have I have a whole list of characters here, on our, on our prompt here, so there's a ton of characters that I had a hard time leaving any of them off.
Speaker 3:I mean, they're all very well developed. I really do like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they, they, they put a lot of work into a lot of these characters Gusteau, remy Linguini, colette, anton, ego Skinner. I mean, I even had a hard time not putting the front of house guy on there, the maitre d'.
Speaker 3:Oh really.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because he has his own personality in there too, and it's pretty incredible. I mean really is, as far as these go, the first one we meet with any sort of gusto is gusto we learn. We learn about his, uh, his philosophy, the way that he does things in the kitchen, uh, and and, and the way he, he develops his food.
Speaker 3:There's actually there's a fan theory about gusto as well. I don't know if you've if you've heard that, uh, my wife's actually the one that originally told me and I explored it and I and I was like you know, there there's one scene where it's it's kind of hard to see it, but his concept of saying everyone can, anyone can, cook. Essentially there it was implied that it's possible that, um, he was implied that it's possible that, um, he had a rat under his head too, is the way the fan theory goes. And so how gusto? That's why gusto developed the whole, like anybody can be a cook, you know, I don't know how true it is, but it is really interesting that it's uh it kind of gives you another.
Speaker 3:Take on it, you know it's fun like the hair that he pulled out of, uh, gusto's hat, you know, was that gusto's or was that? Or was that one of the rat's hairs, or was that a Gusto rat? Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:That's interesting. Okay, that one I can accept a lot more than I was preparing myself. Anytime there's fan theories brought up, I'm always like bracing myself for that. Jar Jar Binks is a Sith Lord thing and I'm like screw you Like. I'm not going to listen to that, but I like that one. That one's not so bad.
Speaker 3:I will say um, on an on another note, just talking about the gusto character himself, Like one of the things that I noticed is that he actually represents a, a type of he's could tell, like the way that they they show him and demo him, even though even though when they show him it's a figment of remy's imagination right every time they see him he's, you know, he's about being a good person and making sure everything's the best quality and having like a love for the food and wanting to bring people joy and all of that, whereas like Skinner is like the exact opposite of that.
Speaker 2:Yes, uh, the commercial chef, you know kind of thing. No, I, I, I can get along with that. I always feel like that Gusteau is is kind of you, that there's honor given to the food. You know that that there's respect for, for the craft, honor given to the food. You know that that there's respect for, for the craft, what you're doing in front of you, um, that's one of the things that I always really admired about the way that you do your work is is that, is that there's that respect there.
Speaker 3:I think that's the difference between somebody because I'm actually working on a video about, uh, pretentious like cooks that are pretentious and I'm not talking about them being pretentious people but doing pretentious things and there's a couple of like really good celebrity chefs who, even if I have respect for them, sometimes they get into a little bit of pretentiousness. And one of the things that I think is important with that is there's a fine line or there is a line drawn when I think pretentiousness is kind of creating the food without that respect but still trying to make it fluffy and frilly and, you know, wanting to be the best food but not not really feeling that passion towards it. When you do it like basically kind of um, doing it for well, essentially doing it for the wrong reason, doing it because you want it. Like basically kind of um doing it for well, essentially doing it for the wrong reason, doing it because you want to impress somebody right more so than you know.
Speaker 2:I just want to make something amazing almost, almost like um uh well, goldschlager, it's an alcohol with gold flakes in it. There's no reason for gold flakes to be in it. It doesn't add anything to the flavor of the food or of the drink. It's not.
Speaker 3:I mean, you can buy gold leaf and add it to anything. Yeah.
Speaker 2:You're doing it simply for the prestige of saying that you did it Essentially.
Speaker 3:Looking at you, Salt Bae.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like putting what is that? Truffle oil comes in a bottle that big and it's like 15 bucks or something like that, putting that in everything.
Speaker 3:And it's cut with olive oil. Anyway, it's not even the real thing.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, that kind of thing, yeah, see, and and your respect for that food, uh, and and not just the, not just the food itself, but also the craft.
Speaker 2:And that was one of the problems that I had with one of the characters, linguini. Remove the fact that this is a Disney movie and that we have talking animals and things like that. There's a few moments where he's not talking, where Remy's not talking, but Linguini is talking to Remy and he's he's talking to an animal that doesn't talk like he, like it's a person, and then he discovers that this animal understands him a little bit crazy in the real world, right, and he's acknowledging that it's crazy, like they, like he would in the real world, but yet he still opts for taking an animal and putting it on his head, to puppeteer him, to cook over the idea of why don't I just learn how to cook, learn your craft? That that was another thing that had me connect you with Gusteau was the was that you just know your craft, you know your food, you know the, you know the flavor profiles, you know how to put things together and and when you didn't know, you learned. And linguine doesn't do that.
Speaker 3:I actually had a weird takeaway watching the movie the second time, and the takeaway was that linguine actually represents a type of entitlement that comes with uh, one of one of the things that I had wanted to touch on, which was the entitlement of somebody that is being born into something like, you know, a famous actor having a kid and that kid just having access to those things, even if that kid can't act might be a great chef, you know, but can't act, but keeps getting these roles because of his namesake and where he came from. And you know there's the. I feel like linguini kind of embodies a lot of that because he is gusto's son or related to him, I'm not, was it son? I can't remember oh, yeah, I remember there being a blood relation.
Speaker 3:But you know, and outside of that association he's, he's just some rando you know, and he, he likes the idea of cooking, but then he kind of gets all of the trappings of being an awesome chef without actually being able to do it himself right, and you would think, being puppeteered for that long a period of time, you would develop those skills by watching yourself do it right you, but I mean, that's neither here nor there, but it's just something I noticed.
Speaker 2:No, it's good stuff Now. Now, like going more, more formally I suppose, into our uh points of interest here. The the very first one, and we've kind of talked a little bit about it the exploring that not everyone can be great but greatness can come from anywhere. I, I like how, how that evolved into that over time, because in the very beginning of the movie it's just anyone can cook and yeah, well, that's great and wonderful and everything. I suppose I think that with enough training anybody really could cook. Now, having them to have good taste, that's the challenge. I think that's where the might might need to be a thing.
Speaker 3:but it actually goes into um what? Just sorry, I didn't know you're good just super briefly, the version of that saying that I have is that all chefs are cooks but not all cooks are chefs, and it's kind of that same concept like anybody can cook, but not everybody can be at that level.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:You know, like there's a level that I'm I will be lucky if I ever see it, because of what I need to do to get to that level I don't have the ability or resources for, like, I can't go to France and cook under the greatest chefs and learn, you know. So there's a skillset that I'm never going to have, or I'm not going to get as close as I would be. You know, it would take me three, four times as long to do it.
Speaker 2:No, I like that, like it is the same concept. You know, not everyone can be great, but they but greatness can come from everywhere, anywhere. You know every chef is a cook, but not every cook is a chef. I think normally something that kind of goes on in your line of creation and everything like your videos usually tend to focus on how the difference between a chef and a cook is that leadership aspect. A lot of the time I don't think that's something you can teach is how to be a leader. I mean mean, I suppose you can, you can learn some tricks and things like that, but but I think even then, leaders who aren't born to lead, I think you can really kind of tell. But yeah, no, I really liked that. I like how, how you correlated that with something that I've heard you say, uh, numerous times before.
Speaker 3:It almost reminds me of, like, what you were saying. It almost reminds me of, uh, of the way that people talk about genetics and bodybuilding, where they say that, you know, anybody can look really good, but if you don't have that like top tier, one percent genetics, even you could. You could take all the roids in the world and you're still not going to look like, you know, uh, johnny shreve or ronnie coleman, you know, because they're just that good they're, they're genetically gifted and they had all of these other things. So I think that you can teach leadership skills to anybody, but how much they absorb, how they execute that, their personality and a lot of things that they they naturally have, may not, uh, may not may not come as naturally.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree with that. This is one of the ones that I was really looking forward to getting into Women's role in a kitchen. You have marked down Colette's monologue about having to fight for everything in a system designed to keep her kind of in her place, sort of thing. I've actually got a soundbite for that. I'm going to go ahead and play that.
Speaker 1:No, you listen. I just want you to know exactly who you are dealing with. How many women do you see in this kitchen? Well I, only me. Why do you think that is? Well I, because Hout Wazine has an antiquated hierarchy built upon rules written by stupid old men, rules designed to make it impossible for women to enter this world. But still I'm here. How did this?
Speaker 3:happen.
Speaker 1:Because? Well, because you, Because I'm the toughest cook in this kitchen. I worked too hard for too long to get here and I am not going to jeopardize it for some garbage. Boy who got lucky Got it, Go home.
Speaker 2:I love that scene.
Speaker 3:That was really good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the way that, uh, I mean she's stabbing those knives through his sleeve, uh, his his coat sleeve, and and, uh, it was slowly pinning him to the table, Um, and he just doesn't know what to say, Cause he, he starts off that conversation trying to be like super cool and and suave. He's all like you know, I just want you to know. And she's like boom, no this is not happening.
Speaker 2:So, uh, first off, I I kind of want to, I kind of want to ask you, uh, what's your opinion on Colette kind of representing women, uh, in a kitchen as as a character? Um, because I I haven't worked in a lot of kitchens, but I feel like there's a lot of Colette's in kitchens.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'll get, um, I'll get more specifically into like female chefs, um, but Colette actually represents something. I really wish my, my wife, was actually here for this part, like that she could weigh in, because having that perspective is really, I think, important and it's missing in not just this industry but overall. And the thing is, is that the, the way that my wife puts it is that the problem, the problem with females in any industry is they have to be two or three times as hard as any man that's there and they, you know, aren't always allowed to show emotions. They can't admit that they're overwhelmed, they can't have normal breakdowns Like a guy can, can have a breakdown in the walk-in or whatever and and talk about it and like brush it off and whatever.
Speaker 3:But but women are really treated on this other level where if they do anything there, you know they can be seen as emotional or you know they they aren't given the same opportunities or they're given less pay and I think that overall that is absolutely not cool. And there's there's a lot of times in the kitchen where uh front of house doesn't treat. They'll look right past the uh female chefs and try to find a male chef and talk to them. You know, even though somebody might be standing right next to me, that's a woman that is completely more qualified than me to answer that question. And a lot of times when you see these successful women, you will notice that there is this, this, uh, obviously in Colette it's, you know, slightly exaggerated for for what the message is, but you will notice there's a lot of women that have that kind of hardness about them because, you know, so many industries are male dominated.
Speaker 2:Because they have to.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Um, you know they, it's, and that is very true. Uh, I mean, in a lot of industries even, it's a lot of the time, it's ignored. Uh, but even even in industries that are female dominated, you look at a lot of those industries, but you look at the leadership, and it's the leadership is all men, um, and so you have, uh, you have, you know, an industry that is primarily women workers all vying for these upper positions, that it's like you know they're, they're fighting so hard to get there, um, just to run into this block, that a lot of the time men are are picked for those, those positions. Um, so I mean, and it happens all the way from you know, your, uh, your your saucier, to your sous chef, to your, you know, to your chef, but, but I mean it, it happens in the whole restaurant, like I mean, how am I, I really, I really do, like how they really punch it into your face with Colette's attitude. I love it, it is so.
Speaker 3:Oh, absolutely. I thought that was a really great scene and, um, yeah, also. Um, you know, I want to add something. Something that I always say when any kinds of things like this come up is inevitably you're going to get a comment somewhere, whether it's on your uh channel or in your uh comments on podcasts, like, well, I'm a female chef owner or whatever. And the way that I say, the way that I see this is you know, there are literally billions of people on earth, right. Way that I say, the way that I see this is you know, there are literally billions of people on earth, right.
Speaker 3:Anything that we say, there's always going to be going to be exceptions there's always going to be female business owners or female managers, sous chefs, all of that. Who's the sous chef on hell's kitchen? I forgot her name. I like her. Oh, I know her name. Until I go to say it, it's not yeah what is it? I don't remember.
Speaker 2:Find it really quick, tough as nails, though actually she was always one of my favorite parts of uh hell's kitchen when I'd be watching. Uh, I'd always love it when he would go get all the different orders and stuff like that, take them into the kitchen, start shouting them out and everything and then, like you can see her running from station to station and making sure, christina, I knew it was Christina, yeah. She's, she's, kick ass.
Speaker 3:man Like yeah, and she's not just the sous chef there, but she's like in charge of his whole brand.
Speaker 2:Right, you know like it's pretty awesome position. Yeah, but again, I mean, is that an exception? I mean you, you definitely, you definitely see successful women in. You know the kitchen industry, but again, it is the amount of work that is applied I think is a lot of the time not equal. I really liked how, how they, they muscled that in a little bit. I don't, I don't know that it was subtle at all.
Speaker 3:Definitely not.
Speaker 2:But I do love. I mean, if you're a kid, you just think oh man, she's mad.
Speaker 2:And you know, yeah, Again, that's another one of those things where it's like that's content that is made for grownups that is put into a kid's movie so that grownups can still get something out of the movie, which is why I'm not afraid to have kids movies on my podcast, even though I'm 40. So, um, but yeah, I, I really did love that part of the movie. It was something else in here that. Is this a fan theory or is this something that is, um, is, is this something that there's evidence for? You had a ego's? Mom is the old lady from the beginning.
Speaker 3:I think it's still a fan theory. I don't think it's like officially stated anywhere in there but it's still a fan theory. I don't think it's like officially stated anywhere in there, but it's um. To me it's one that makes a whole ton of sense.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Just in the simple fact of like, if you think about the dish that Remy made, that he made Ratatouille and everybody was like why are you like out of it, came out of nowhere, like, why would you make that dish, that specific dish, and you know all of the times that he, you know he would go in and she would be watching, you know Gasto's cooking shows and he had her books and things like that it seemed to me it's not a far leap to see that he found that recipe in her house. Oh yeah, it's not verifiable but it's I. I think, if you cause it's really a lot of the fan theory comes from when that picture, when he takes a bite of the ratatouille and there's that like warping and he's a kid again.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:That a lot of the structures in the house look the same in that scene as when, uh, you're looking around the house at the opening scenes of Remy.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Doing stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you're looking around the house at the opening scenes of remy, okay, doing stuff. Yeah, I'm. You know what I think might be. Might be what seals the deal on that what's up. If I'm and I'm gonna I'm gonna re-watch the movie now again just because of this. I'm gonna look, I'm gonna look around uh, that old lady's house for a bike that looks like his bike, because that was the whole premise of that scene. He fell off his bike and skid and skinned his knees.
Speaker 3:Right, so if that bike is there, that bike is there, then you know that that Pixar planned that like and anybody listening and watching. If you know more about this, it'd be awesome to get those in the comments as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that'd be. That'd be pretty badass. So we talked about the following your dreams, despite those around you not really supporting you. Now, what about the idea of using your gift to help other people? Initially, my thought on these two was they state very plainly I am a human that doesn't know how to cook. You're a rat that knows how to cook, but doesn't know how to be human. Initially, it comes off as like the symbiotic relationship of of what they do.
Speaker 2:Um that was exactly right, but after he gets schnockered with Skinner, he's passed out on the floor in the in the kitchen. Colette comes in and what does Remy do? I'm sitting here going. Well, you just leave him on the floor Like I mean, there's no reason to, you know, have him have to get up or whatever. But he's trying to, he's trying to help him out and so he gets him up, you know, pulls up his hair and gets him. So he's standing and all of that. And Colette comes in and he's trying to trying to play, play it cool. Well, while trying to play, play it cool, while while trying to help, you know Linguini further his, his relationship with Colette, right, how do you, how do you view the ability to use your your gifts to help others, uh, as it pertains to a kitchen.
Speaker 3:Well, unfortunately, um, and it's. It's been a lot less so nowadays, but I was for a long time really jaded in helping anybody after getting burned. You know, you get to be almost 40 now when you see something like see somebody on the street. There's so many times where you know you've seen people faking it.
Speaker 3:You know there was actually a family that got caught here where I live that were basically grifting and then they go out there with their kids help me, I need money and they had, you know, nice cars and everything like that and it was, and they got busted for it. And that kind of thing happens so often. You know, on smaller scales or individual scales, that I kind of got to where, like, I'm going to stay, I'm just going to do my thing. You know, I'm sorry, you need help, but everybody needs help, you know, and it was kind of a negative attitude that I had for a really long time. And then, you know, I started to realize that it's it's less about you know what it comes from being burned, and so then, if there's people that genuinely need help, you know, there's no reason why they should have to suffer because of somebody else being an asshole five years ago, you know. So today I'm more, I'm a lot less likely to be a jerk about it, and I think what it's really about because one of the things that I want to do I don't know if it's going to happen anytime in the future is I actually wanted to use what I know between marketing soft skills and cooking ability, to basically start a program to help felons develop a skill, and whether that counts for juveniles or actual felons, people that spend 15, 20 years in prison and they just need some help yeah, spend 15, 20 years in prison and they just need. They just need some help.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, especially after witnessing, um, what happened with a close family member they spent a year in prison and it was only a year and it was on an assault charge and they the way the system is set up is almost to bait you into doing something to get you back in there, right, because there's like the halfway house and I think then there's another step down from that before you're. You're kind of like let off, but having that felony on your record, like there's so many jobs, so many doors shut, oh yeah, and I think it's really not and I I truly believe that there is a lot of people out there that had they just had that one more chance after. You know like there's a really close friend of ours that is now a business owner. That was looking down, you know, possible 10 years, you know assault, a police officer and a DUI charge and all that Right, and now they're a business owner. They're very successful, they're doing pretty good and they just needed that one.
Speaker 3:You know just that nudge and that bump in that right direction, that right direction, and I think that using your skills to help others can be not handing out. You know things that you have, but giving them tools to develop those skills and do things on their own and it also will show like how badly they want it. That's pretty where, pretty much where I am on that.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. Well, and I mean even you yourself you've grown in your content creation and stuff like that in a way that I relish. You do a really great job, and the whole premise of what you do is utilizing your knowledge, your skills you know, the skills that you just had and the ones you developed and turning around and helping those that don't have the knowledge but have the curiosity. That, I think, is really something that you shine at is using your gift to help others, so good job.
Speaker 3:I appreciate that.
Speaker 2:I applaud you for that.
Speaker 3:I will say that I probably had a good 50, 60 videos up that didn't have any more than 10 views, right Sitting at 50 subs for a year and a half until it finally started getting traction.
Speaker 2:So yeah, you well you can, you can get it too. Yeah Well, I'm, I'm, I'm working at it. So, um, now the the last point of interest here that I really wanted to talk about. This one was yours, Ego the Critic came from humble beginnings, possibly poverty, to being an authority on the best restaurants in France, misunderstood and portrayed as an antagonist, and it would also be nice to touch on the role of critics.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:So tell me about that.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean the idea that he came from, like lower income, is the way that they have the emphasis on Ratatouille being a quote unquote peasant's dish.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that it was something that that the poor eats and him like having that knowledge and understanding, looking back on that and seeing you know then him eating that and that was something that brought him more warmth and comfort.
Speaker 3:It's not not a hard leap to say like, well, he, he didn't come from an affluent um family, right, you know, simple house, simple dishes, simple life, that kind of thing. And the the part about him now being an authority, it it's almost like he developed this sense of being jaded at the bastard today bastardization of food and the pretentiousness that I touched on earlier. And his antagonism comes from him wanting to really find that joy again and find something that he could really say is the best he wants from from what I saw, he wants to like the food, he wants to say good things, but after so many times of you know, crappy chefs making crappy food, you start to kind of develop the sense of like, well, this is never going to happen, I'm never going to find, you know that right that, that awesome gem almost, like you know, comes, almost like he becomes hostile about it just because he knows like he's gone through it so many times that he's like yeah, it's, this is just another.
Speaker 2:This is just another pretentious chef with a pretentious dish and trying to impress me, and it's going to be just like everything else. Like you said, he's looking for a good meal, but after doing it so many times, he just expects that everybody's going to be just like everything else. Like you said, he's looking for a good meal, but after doing it so many times, he just expects that everybody's going to disappoint him, and that essentially turns him into a pessimistic, nasty critic.
Speaker 3:I don't know if you have a clip of this specifically, but one of the ones that really stood out, which got me thinking of this concept with ego, was when he ordered perspective oh, dude I don't know if you have that or not I know he's like you provide the food and I'll provide the perspective.
Speaker 2:I love that little, that little exchange. There was perfect, because I love how the maitre d was like. So what would you like to eat Like?
Speaker 3:I don't get it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a that was really good. And Peter O'Toole's voice for ego I, that's intimidating, even even as a cartoon does a really great job. The critics thing Um, your commentary on critics is kind of what uh is more aligned with with uh, my active ingredient in this and I don't know, I guess I don't really want to, I don't really want to mess with that too much before uh, before we get into it with yours, but uh, what? What was it that you wanted to talk about?
Speaker 3:as far as the role of critics, Well, as far as the role of critics go there, there's some things that are exaggerated in the movie, and it's not to knock the movie specifically, but there's a couple of things like, for instance, one bad review isn't going to take a Michelin star away. You know he's not a Michelin inspector, right, and most of the time it is a rolling out of food reviews and customer reviews and kind of a mixture of those over a long period of time that start to bring a restaurant down. You know, if, if everybody loves the food and a critic comes out with a bad review, it doesn't kill the restaurant at all, right, people, people are just like well, that guy probably just had an ax to grind or something like that. It's when it happens multiple over multiple times, uh, mainly the impact that they have. Now I could see well-known magazines, um, that have like food sections making a good review.
Speaker 3:Uh, the one of the restaurants I worked at actually did get a good bump in business because they ended up in one of the top restaurants in the country for like pizza and burgers and stuff. I mean, granted, it was like they were like ranked like 25 out of 100 or something like that, but still just how even having their name on there was was a big bump. People don't go out of their way to go to other, to a restaurant like that, but they see that name and it's like in marketing, right, they see the name, it sticks in their head. Then one day they're making a trip from California to you know wherever, to Iowa or wherever they're going, and they're like hey, we're in Nebraska. There was that one place that we went to, that, uh, that we saw like why don't we go there and check it out? You know, and that's that's how you end up getting that increase through tourism.
Speaker 2:Although I do think that there is. I've met people that it's almost like their family vacations are destinations to go find places that are restaurants that people have been on, like TV and stuff.
Speaker 3:So Franklin's is like that in Austin.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like I mean, there are people that that's how they do their family vacations, is that they go to famous restaurants that are famous because of being on a show, I mean there's, there's been a couple of times where I've been like God, I kind of want to make a trip, just so that I can try it out, you know. But I mean, did you even know that was a thing that there's, that there's like a culture of people that they just do destination. I don't know what you call that destination dining.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean a lot of it, a lot of the people that would come in that that had that attitude. There wasn't as many families, but there was definitely a lot of couples and people that I mean I can kind of count anniversaries depending on how far out they're coming, but there's definitely people that they go out of their way to come and see the place. Uh, a lot of it, a good chunk of it, I'll say, comes from people that had a restaurant, say, since okay, so I live in texas, so a restaurant that opened in houston and then that restaurant. Those people move somewhere like new York or Arizona or something like that. There are some really diehard fans of that restaurant that will now make a trek and drive several States away, whether it's once a year or whatever just to eat at that place again and to see everybody.
Speaker 3:So I think a chunk of it comes from that. And then there is some people that they're just like. You know, I want to visit the restaurant I saw and, uh, you know, diners, drive-ins and dives, you know, and stuff like that. That's like um hell's kitchen would be another example.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've actually talked about you know how I would drive all that way just to go to hell's kitchen If I felt like I could if I felt like I could justify it like I want to do that, but I also want to find some other things, so that I I'm not telling people, yeah, I'm driving all the way to cause it's in California, isn't it?
Speaker 3:Uh, there's one in California and then I believe they have one in Vegas, the. I think the California one is the one that's actually just open all the time to the public, right, the other location in la and the one in vegas, I think, are more like sound stages and a lot of the people that end up there the reason why they're celebrities is because, like, I know a guy that knows the guy and then they kind of come in and eat for free right as part of the show. But yeah, la has the, I believe has the, the restaurant one.
Speaker 2:That's like mimicking. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I see, and I even that one I'd kill, I'd kill to go to, but I I feel like I'd have to find another reason to go to LA. So I don't know, maybe one of these days I'll I'll head out that way for, like, a YouTube convention or something like that.
Speaker 3:But next time we head out to GDC I'll give you a ring.
Speaker 2:Oh, there you go.
Speaker 3:I mean like a do a whole thing.
Speaker 2:It's awesome. This, this part of the, this little segment of the show, uh, now that we're starting to get down towards the end of it, um, this, this is what I call the active ingredient, and it's it's it's where we talk about, uh, the overall meaning behind the movie that affected you, uh, the, the individual thing that that really stuck out to you, that made a difference in your life, that maybe changed your perspective a little bit, that was healing for you. Um, do you have, do you have, an active ingredient in this movie?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would say that the I touched on it in the beginning, but but the concept of you know, greatness can come from anywhere, and the whole concept of Remy as the rat having this skill and just needs a way to express it.
Speaker 3:You know there's a lot of relation there with, like, how I feel, and you know the drive is all about, you know, finding the mixtures, and the whole thing could be summed up with the scene of when he ate the piece of cheese and then he ate the what I think it was like a strawberry and then he tried them together and like the emotions and passion that he had just for enjoying that and being in the moment and kind of like enjoying the little things is something that I think is missing from a lot of people's lives.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's funny because that that, because of that scene, I have tried doing that. I find two things that everybody says are things that go really great together. I still don't understand the the nuts and cheese thing. Like I still don't get the nuts and cheese thing. I still don't get that. But I have tried doing that with some of the things, like some cheeses and fruits and things like that. I mean I don't get the sparklies and I don't get the colorful wavies and stuff like that in the darkness of my eyes or whatever, while I'm doing that with my eyes closed. I would love it if'm doing that with my eyes closed.
Speaker 3:Um, but I would love it if I got that.
Speaker 2:It'd make? It'd make cooking a whole lot simpler, wouldn't it? But instead, what it? What doing things like that, uh, kind of reminded me was to just take a take a moment to appreciate the things that you are doing. Like you know when, when you've worked a job that you only get like 10 to 15 minutes for lunch, you learn how to work food down and, and you, there is no substance to it. You are simply filling a hole so that you can get back to work.
Speaker 3:I know about that.
Speaker 2:And because of that, like it's almost like you lose that ability to really appreciate the things that you're eating. And that can kind of be applied to everything, especially in this day and age where everything is is instant, you know, everything is fast, everything is is uh faster. I think it's real easy to to not appreciate the things that that are around us in in the way that they need to be appreciated, and and I think that a lack of being able to stop long enough to do that has harmed the way that we are as people in general. So I I completely agree that being able to being able to take a moment just to just to savor you to use a uh, a food term just to savor the things around you a little bit, I think is is uh really important.
Speaker 3:Hey, you know you taught. You just touched on something I didn't think about till just now. I think that that could actually be a small part of what causes that adds to chefs and cooks being burnt out, because there are so many times where you're on the line, it's busy, you're not getting a break, so you just slap some kind of random sandwich together, go eat it over a trash can. Meanwhile you're making all of these like gorgeous meals and stuff for people and you start to like lose the the feelings that you might get or the things that you might experience that somebody else would experience, where they got to sit down and take the time to really enjoy their meal, have good company, you know good conversation and stuff like that. And since we were talking about flavors, I did one. This is an.
Speaker 3:This is a really good book it's called the flavor bible this has pretty much every single flavor combination and it goes into detail about all of that kind of stuff. So if anybody is listening, you don't have to be a cook or a chef to appreciate this because it'll just, it'll definitely up your game and when I'm not getting sponsored or paid from by them or anything, it's just a really good book that I love and I just wanted to share that.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. Yeah, now I'm going to have to go get a copy because I'm I'm still looking for those sparks and colorful waves. My active ingredient in this one actually had more to do with Anton Ego. So one of the one of the things that that listeners on my podcast will notice is that I don't I don't ever give any sort of a rating for the movies that I do.
Speaker 2:Um, I I consider myself a movie critic, but I'm not a modern movie critic, because everything now has to be quantified where it's, you know, eight out of 10 or four out of five stars or you know whatever. There has to be some quantity that is put with every kind of a review or anything, uh, involving movies, and I don't think that that's a good thing. I don't like it and I think that that by doing that because everything has to be quantified, now that that is, that is what has been so damaging to to the movie industry in general. In past episodes I've been super critical of a big critic website, rotten Tomatoes. They literally give a percentage value to every movie and in our very first episode about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the very first movie has so much meaning to so many people.
Speaker 2:But you ask Rotten Tomatoes and it is certified rotten. But how can that be when there's a whole generation of people whose heart ached to have that movie and remember it so fondly? And it's because everything has to have a number or a value attached to it? Now I mean, think about the old movie reviews, how it would be. You know, this person says that it's a great movie and you should go watch it with your family. You know, siskel and Ebert gave it two thumbs up and all of that. I mean that was the most quantity that you had was two.
Speaker 3:And some of those movies were terrible.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and some of them were really awful, but there wasn't really anything as far as. As far as quantity goes, no, no number attached, nothing like that, and I think I think that's been a big part of the reason why everybody is so hypercritical of movies. Now you know, there's all these plot holes.
Speaker 3:Well, there were holes to begin with, you know. Somebody else actually pointed out that they cannot name a single movie that is a big box office movie, that wasn't a remake, or right a spin-off of something that already existed or a recreation of yeah and I tried like I couldn't find it um remakes and sequels I mean, there are still some people out there that are making some original content, and a lot of some of those are even doing things that are based off of their own work.
Speaker 2:But no, you're right, like there's so many reboots now it's, it's ridiculous. I think that critics need to be, need to be a little bit more careful about how they, about how they push things into other people's minds. You know, we have a responsibility as critics to make sure that we are not giving people their opinions, that we are giving them our opinions. You know, keeping that free mind thing, that's what it was for me, and it was all because of Anton Ego, and actually I have a couple of sound bites that kind of brought that up for me. I'm going to play those quick.
Speaker 1:In many ways, the work of a critic is easy.
Speaker 3:We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment.
Speaker 2:That's very humbling. You're put into this place where you can damage somebody or something with your words. Look at how that can affect the food industry. I mean, have you had any struggles with critics and how they work?
Speaker 3:Mostly the biggest problem I've had isn't with direct critics, but the way that some these critic the way that some of these critical apps and websites work. The problem is that so many people are so willing to give a bad review, like on Yelp but not as willing to give a good one.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's like for every 15 or 20 bad reviews there's like one positive one Right, and you know it's usually somebody that really took the time to make it. But most, mostly, it's just people that are they get mad because this was wrong or that took too long or whatever, and then they just blast. You know they just blast the restaurant.
Speaker 2:And that's the only time they want to say anything. So I'm going to I'm going to end this and this episode a little bit different. I'm going to end this episode a little bit different. I'm going to end this episode by saying that I am going to give every listener that is listening right now a prescription, and that prescription is to go out and find somebody that is doing a good job and make sure to tell them hey, you do a good job. Now, this can be anybody at the gas station where you pick up your coffee on your way to work. Uh, this can be, you know, the guy that sits in the in the cubicle next to you. This can be wherever, like, I don't care who it is. Somebody who you see is doing something right and doing something. Well, tell them hey, you're doing a good job. Just do that and don't tell anybody that they're doing a bad job that day.
Speaker 3:That day. You can tell them tomorrow.
Speaker 2:Maybe wait a day, but take a day just to tell people that they're doing a good job. Thank you, jason. This was awesome. It was really good to have you back on again.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was awesome, can't tell you enough, I enjoyed it on again.
Speaker 2:uh, I can't. That was awesome. Can't tell you I enjoyed it? No, uh, I do. I do need you to plug your stuff because I I don't even know how to start.
Speaker 3:Go ahead well, you can find me everywhere, uh, lowercase x, 86 and um. Not as active as I'd like to be on x. I'm trying to fix that. There's actually some things I'm planning on with that, but but mostly it's YouTube, just at lowercase 86ED, and you can find all my content on there for YouTube.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. Now, if you've got a movie that's been medicine for you and you'd like to be on the show, you can email me at contact at movie-rxcom, or you can leave a voicemail or text me at 402-519-5790. A voicemail or text me at 402-519-5790. If anxiety has been keeping you from wanting to get on, you can always write me a couple of paragraphs and and uh, about a movie that's really moved you and I can read it on air. Uh, remember, this movie is not intended to treat or prevent any disease and we'll see you at the next appointment. Thank you.