The Menu (2022)
Judith Light: Anne
Photos
Quotes
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Chef Slowik : So once again, thank you for dining with us tonight. You represent the ruin of my art and my life, and now you get to be a part of it. Part of what I hope is my... masterpiece. And now our final dessert course is a playful twist on a comfort food classic: The s'more. The most offensive assault on the human palate ever contrived. Unethically sourced chocolate and gelatinized sugar water imprisoned by industrial-grade graham cracker. It's everything wrong with us, and yet we associate it with innocence. With childhood. Mom and dad. But what transforms this fucking monstrosity is fire. The purifying flame. It nourishes us, warms us, reinvents us, forges and destroys us. We must embrace the flame. We must be cleansed. Made clean. Like martyrs or heretics, we can be subsumed... and made anew.
Anne : [fearful submission] Thank you.
Chef Slowik : I love you all!
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Felicity : You can tell us. Are we all really dying tonight?
Katherine : It doesn't work if you live.
Anne : What doesn't work?
Katherine : The menu.
Felicity : Why not?
Katherine : It needs an ending... That ties everything together conceptually. Otherwise, it just tastes good, and who cares.
Lillian : I mean, really, you should have your own place. Right? And I could help you with that.
Katherine : I'm sure you could, Ms. Bloom.
Lillian : I could. I could. We, we would just have to talk about the, the, you know, the... the dying thing.
Katherine : Oh, everyone dying was my pitch, actually. I'm super proud of it.
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Chef Slowik : My loyal regulars. How many times have you eaten here in the last five years?
Richard : I don't know. Six or seven?
Anne : I think it's more than that, Dick.
Chef Slowik : Eleven. Eleven times. Most people consider themselves blessed if they eat here only once. Mr. Leibrandt, kindly name one dish you ate the last time you were here. Eleven times you take the boat out here where we introduce every dish every single time. We tell you exactly what we're feeding you. Please tell me one dish you ate the last time you were here. Or the time before. One. Please.
Anne : Cod.
Richard : What?
Anne : Cod.
Richard : Cod.
Chef Slowik : It wasn't cod, you donkey. It was halibut. Rare, fucking spotted halibut.
Anne : What does it matter?
Chef Slowik : It matters to the halibut, Mrs. Leibrandt. And to the artist whose work turns to shit inside your gut. I've allowed my work to reach the price point where only the class of people in this room can access it. And I've been fooled into trying to satisfy people who could never be satisfied. Starting with her. But that's our culture, isn't it? And my restaurant is part of the problem.
