God of Cookery

That sounds like a possible title for a biography on Alton Brown, but its not. It is the title of movie from Hong Kong made in 1996. But it was recommended on AB's website sometime back. A week or so ago, I found a copy of the dvd.

Since Alton had recommended it, I had to watch it. Trusting his taste in films, I thought it just may be a good flick. I was amazed by it. First, being from 1996 the satirical look at celebrity chefdom is awesome and wickedly biting. Even more surprising, it is from Hong Kong.

The story is about Stephen Chow, celebrity chef aka The God of Cookery, who has a vast empire of restaurants, products and endorsements but there's one problem. He doesn't have much in the way of culinary skills.

Chow is ruined by his conniving business partner and ends up the street. While on the street, Chow meets some rival street food vendors and unites them to create a dish called "pissing beef balls." Oh, I can't explain! Just say the humor of the film is so bizarre at times. Not that I didn't thoroughly enjoy it!

Anyway, the new dish returns Chow to prominence. He then competes for the title of God of Cookery against the rival who overthrew him. The competition is an Iron Chef spoof.

By far my favorite part of the movie was the scene when Chow finds out the street vendor named Turkey who he helped with the "pissing beef balls" idolized him. She claimed to be his number one fan and received scars on her face from her devotion to Chow.


When I saw that I busted out laughing.

Even if that #1 fan thing hadn't been a part of the storyline, the movie was hilarious. If you can handle subtitled films and have a satirical streak this is certainly a foodie film to enjoy.

Thanks to AB's recommendation, I sought this movie out. I'm glad I did.