Edible cinema is a big new foodie trend to hit the UK, but what exactly is it? Writer Emily Steer goes to find out…
With a multitude of pop up, experiential events cropping up in London over the past few years, it has become increasingly difficult to sniff out the worthwhile from the try hard. Edible Cinema falls into the first gang because it has a pretty simple formula; great movie, plush cinema, and only one gimmick in the shape of food and cocktails paired to match various moments in the film. Guests each have a tray with 8 numbered pots containing a different taster course, which are a mix of mini cocktails and canapé-sized food. At different points in the film a number flashes up next to the screen, and the audience eats or drinks the corresponding course. Courses are used to match moments when there’s food on screen, or to heighten particularly visceral points of the film. It’s all housed in Portobello’s Electric Cinema, with gigantic cosy velvet armchairs, lampshades on side tables, chandeliers, and if you’re lucky enough to nab one, double beds in the front row.
This weekend they paired Terry Gilliam’s twisted Christmas film, ‘Brazil’, with the edible wonders of Soho House chef, Jake Rigby and Bombay Sapphire drinks master, Sean Ware. Anyone expecting Christmas cheer and delicious morsels would have been sorely disappointed, Brazil is about as cosy as a trip to the dentist without anaesthetic - although utterly brilliant, and very darkly funny - and the food was picked to match some of the more vulgar moments of the film (that chicken skin you’re nibbling on? Oddly reminiscent of the old lady’s skin being stretched out on screen).
It’s a marmite creation that I happened to love. It would be tempting to create a more crowd-pleasing menu, but the aim of this experience is to increase the audience’s sensory connection with the film, and they did this perfectly. They’ve previously run nights with Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’, and last Christmas showed the Eddie Murphy Christmas film, ‘Trading Places’. This is the first time the food has been quite so strange, but with a film as odd as Brazil, dainty cuisine and sweet flavours aren’t going to cut it.
Bombay Sapphire’s presence is gladly noted here, with a deliciously boozy cocktail on arrival - Bombay Sapphire, Creme de Violette, Maraschino and lemon juice - and three intense shot sized cocktails throughout the film. If you’re not into drinking, there’s a booze free option, but you might want the bracing kick of gin to take away the reminder that you just ate something resembling mashed up human corpse - a graphic mix of ham hock, jelly and pork crackling. Other courses included a delicious chocolate coated date with ganache which called to mind the squashed fly writhing around on screen, and a Bombay Sapphire Gin, Woodford Reserve, hazelnut syrup, chocolate bitters and cold brew coffee cocktail to match our central character’s burnt toast.
I’m not sure if it was the film, the food, the gin or all three that set my mind going, but I had some very odd dreams about Brazil that night (something about the end of the world, and apparently I have a raving crush on Jonathan Pryce that I didn’t even know about)...suffice to say, Edible Cinema sticks with you. It’s fun, daring, and most definitely worth keeping an eye on 2015. Not for the faint hearted.
Edible Cinema screenings are held at the iconic Electric Cinema in Notting Hill or the Aubin Cinema in Shoreditch, London. Click here for more info
Follow Emily on Twitter @EmilySteerAW