"Nothing in this kitchen is unplanned": Food as performance in Mark Mylod's The Menu

Cooking transforms raw food into cooked food and raw materials into an edible culture. It is a performance art that requires skill. This paper analyses a multi-genre film, The Menu (2022), and how food plays a performative role. The setting is a restaurant where the dining space becomes a site of performing food. A satirical horror-thriller, The Menu presents the efforts of the chef to prepare the food relished by the customers. But what happens when they fail in their purpose? The theatrical experience of the film draws from the social experience of food, especially the satire on haute cuisine served in posh restaurants. Food is not always what is eaten; the paper looks at the inedible elements in the food that contribute to the performative quality of the film. Thus, this paper contributes to establishing the performative aspect of food through factors associated with culinary experience.