This was a delightfully chaotic year for food on film, whether on the small or the big screen. As a refresher, this year saw the return of Chef's Table and the debut of the much-maligned Jerry Seinfeld Pop-Tart movie. There was a chicken haunting the satirical characters of The Curse, and Kristen Kish stepped into Padma's shoes as the new host of ol' workhorse Top Chef. Reba McIntyre's latest sitcom, Happy's Place, is set in a bar; the Food Network's latest baking competition is inexplicably set in Hogwarts.
But amid that chaos, there were definitely some shining pop culture moments that centered food — and some of those showed up in perhaps-unexpected places. Here now, 2024's best food moments on TV and in movies, according to Eater editors:
Martha
This year provided a dearth of documentaries scrutinizing staple figures of American TV, softening their subjects into their most palatable or pitiable forms. Then, there was Martha. The Netflix documentary casts Martha Stewart as more than the sum of her career's parts, exploring the unglamorous realities of her working-class, Polish-American family, the fraught workplace dynamics behind her ascent to media mogul, and the scandalous affairs that marked her marriages. Through it all, she's ambitious and exacting, callous but candid. Most impactfully, Stewart parting the veil of her own mythology (along with her pushback against producers) serves as a reminder that life is meant to be messy and unapologetically delicious. — Jesse Sparks, senior editor
Challengers
I don't think I need to elaborate on why the churro scene from summer hit Challengers is on our list of favorite food moments captured on film this year. But for those who somehow haven't seen Mike Faist as Art and Josh O'Connor as Patrick tensely share a churro, here's the clip. Instead, I'd like to take this time to remind everyone that Challengers also brought us a pivotal scene that takes place at an Applebee's. The casual suburban fixture is the unlikely setting for Tashi (Zendaya) and Art's first sparks of romance, and to see them finally make out in an empty Applebee's parking lot against a far off city skyline was a delight. It became even more delightful when we learned that the setting was chosen because in reality, tennis players in town for the Cincinnati Masters, which is held in the suburb of Mason, Ohio, would eat at Applebee's. Elite athletes in psychosexual love triangles — they're just like us! — Monica Burton, deputy editor
Delicious in Dungeon
I watch a lot of anime — and this is one of the most inventive and unexpected examples of the genre I've seen. Also known as Dungeon Meshi, this show is a master class in world-building, one that immediately sells you on a wild premise: That a group of adventurers, journeying through a dungeon seeking to save a friend, must eat the monsters and other fantastical creatures that cross their path not just for survival, but also for pure pleasure. The animated cooking scenes here remind me a lot of the equally beloved show Midnight Diner: They're lovingly rendered and narrated, which is even more remarkable considering they're cooking up things like mandrake and "treasure insects." Just go with it; it's a delight. — Erin DeJesus, executive editor
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