Ratatouille: A Story of Identity Through Food

This week, the class focused on the relationship between food and identity. We kicked off the week with a reading from Food: The Key Concepts about the relationship between food and memory, which also contained a passage about vivid memories associated with special foods, which the reading referred to as people's personal madeleines. These vivid memories, per the reading, were often associated with childhood cuisine, and the cooking of someone's mother or grandmother. Some people have a crisp, memorable madeleine in their memory, ready to be shared, while others have their memories sparked by a flavor, or by an aroma drifting through the wind. These madeleines are a key part of one's personal identity; if they were raised on Cuban cuisine, cooked by family members who came from the island, they will identify as Cuban, even if they had never been to Cuba. Following the theme of forming one's identity through cuisine, we then watched the Chef's Table episode about Alex Atala, the world-renowned Brazillian chef who put his country's cuisine on the world's culinary radar through his restaurant, D.O.M. Atala found his identity through a personal culinary journey; when he was about twenty years old, he left Brazil on a one-way flight to Germany, following his desire to join the German Punk scene. In order to acquire a visa, he began working in the restaurant business, eventually going to culinary school, where his childhood experiences of hunting and fishing in the Amazon made him a natural. Despite enjoying his time in Europe, the impending birth of his son made him realize that his Brazillian culinary background was quintessential to his personal identity and that he wanted his child to have the same background. Atala also wanted to share his Brazillian background with the world, which led to his opening of D.O.M, where he uses ingredients that are from Brazil almost exclusively. The reading and the film reminded me of one of the finest chefs in all of France, Remy. Remy the Rat is the main character in Pixar's Ratatouille, and he has a highly developed culinary sense for a rodent. Remy's journey in Ratatouille inspired my question du jour; How does Ratatouille show the relationship between cuisine and personal identity?

Remy the Rat comes from a family of rats, where his advanced sense of smell is used to search for rat poison in the garbage that the pack collects, but he cannot stomach the waste that they scavenge for. He believes that food is more than just a source of fuel, which puts him at odds with his father, whose only interest is finding any source of calories for the pack. In pursuit of greener culinary pastures, Remy sneaks into a nearby home to read Chef Gusteau's cookbooks and watch the Pixar equivalent of the Food Network. He experiments with various flavors, learns to eat slowly to appreciate the food, and expresses a desire to become a chef. When the homeowner discovers that there are rats in his home, the pack flees, and Remy ends up at Gusteau's restaurant. Separated from his family, Remy is able to fully develop his culinary tastes, and he develops his identity as a connoisseur of food. Just like Chef Atala struggled with his identity as a Brazillian, Remy struggles with his identity as a rodent.

Alfredo Linguini, on the other hand, has no culinary skills to speak of. He starts off the film as a klutzy janitor, who accidentally spills a pot of soup. Rather than bringing his mistake to the attention of one of the chefs, Linguini decides to try to salvage the soup by using random ingredients. Remy is horrified by Linguini's absolute lack of culinary knowledge, and he manages to fall into the kitchen as he expressed his disgust. Once in the kitchen, Remy put on his figurative chef's cap and went to work, turning Linguini's garbage stew into a delicious meal. In return, Linguini provides Remy shelter, and by some twist of fate, Remy is able to control Linguini like a marionette. This twist of fate allows Remy to become the head chef he always wanted to be. Remy brings Gusteau's restaurant back to its former glory, much to the chagrin of Chef Skinner, who wants to create a line of frozen meals using Gusteau's name. Skinner values profit more than anything, and he doesn't identify with the quality of the cuisine as Remy does. 

At the end of the Film, Remy is tasked to cook for the influential and judgmental critic Anton Ego. Remy, having already shattered previous assumptions of what a chef should look like, and what fine cuisine should be, chooses to serve the critic Ratatouille, a peasant dish. Remy knows how powerful the flavors are in this dish, and goes on to craft his masterpiece. In a turn of heart, his father's pack decides to help Remy run the kitchen (and hold the health inspector hostage), as Remy managed to show his father the true value of cuisine. Anyways, Ego takes one bite of the Ratatouille, and the astounding flavors unearth a vivid flashback to his mothers cooking. The critic had come from humble origins, and Ratatouille happened to be his Madeleine, which led to the wistful, fleeting memory of his mothers vegetable stew. The food was so good that Ego asked to be introduced to the chef behind it. When introduced to Remy, and when he realized that a simple rat had cooked such a powerful dish, he was forced to question his identity as a critic.

In the process of questioning his own identity, Ego realized that a great chef can come from anywhere, and that it wasn't up to him to decide who has the potential to be a chef. He also came to appreciate simple peasant dishes far more than he had before, as he dropped his elitist persona in favor of tasting simply delicious cuisine at its face value. In his final review of Gasteau's restaurant, he discussed how critics are challenged when faced with something new, and how the culinary world is forced to change when the new experiences are incredible. This is where Remy is most similar to Chef Atala; he was uncompromisingly himself, and he forced the culinary world to make room at the table for him due to his expertise in the kitchen. 

In conclusion, Ratatouille is a perfect example of finding one's identity through food in pop culture. The story of Remy learning to appreciate flavors and culinary arts while fighting to maintain a unique identity is similar to the story of Chef Alex Atala. Remy is also similar to Atala because they both instilled a newfound appreciation for a type of cuisine to their homeland. Due to Remy's efforts, his family no longer settled for whatever garbage food they could find, which is a lesson that many American families could learn from the film. Ratatouille also addressed the powerful effect that personal Madeleines have on someone's personal identity, through Ego's vivid flashback brought on by the film's namesake dish. Ego's character dramatically changed when he came into contact with his madeleine, and he appeared to have found his true identity, which is someone who loves tasty food. The fact that he loves a peasant dish also works to fight the idea that delicious food should be reserved for the wealthy and the elite. Everyone has a lesson to learn about the importance of food for their identity, and this film gives an excellent lesson on the subject.

By: Josiah Colby

Word Count: 1253