Kids Cuisine

Some of my daughter’s first finger foods included fresh-baked French baguettes and fresh produce from the Cours Selaya market in Nice. Her first ice cream was a dreamy dark chocolate Berthillon, a type of ice cream that can only be found on one small island in Paris. Some of her first restaurant meals were at sidewalk cafes in Paris, Cannes, Monte Carlo and Carcassonne.

But at the age of 4, a former resident of France who has already been to six countries, she had never been to a movie theater before Saturday.

I know it sounds bizarre, but I suppose we were so busy traveling, giving her two new siblings at one time, moving, and coping with the general insanity of life that it never happened. I am so pleased that her first movie experience was Ratatouille. It’s almost like we waited for the right movie to come along.

The first time I saw a preview for this movie, I knew it was “the one.” I didn’t even pay attention at first, but then I caught a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower and I saw the title and I was instantly in love. A movie about cooking? About France? For kids? Could it really be?

My daughter is already programmed (brainwashed, really) to get excited when she sees the Eiffel Tower. I’m not sure she even remembers seeing it in person, as she was only 1 when we lived there. But when an image of the Eiffel Tower appears, we would tell her that it is in France, where she used to live. In typical 4-year-old fashion, she molded that into believing she used to live IN the Eiffel Tower. We’ve tried to correct her, but she won’t have it.

So every time the Eiffel Tower appeared on the screen, she screamed, “Mommy! Mommy! The Eiffel Tower! I used to live there!” I’m sure she was very annoying, but she was having a blast.

The movie itself was fabulous! I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed a children’s movie so much. It certainly exceeded my expectations, which were simply that it was, well, a movie about cooking and France for kids. That’s enough for me. But you’ve just got to love any children’s movie that features a glass of red wine in most scenes, or explains each kitchen staff position, or teaches children about a true love of fine cuisine.

Even more so, I love that my demographic, the foodie francophile mommy, has such impressive buying power. Ratatouille is the number one movie in theaters. Tres bien!

Scenes from “Ratatouille,” © Disney Pixar.