Tran Anh Hung once shared that his perception of beauty "rooted deeply" from his childhood, in his mother's kitchen.

Therefore, for him, cuisine is one of the most primitive means to reach the roots of love and beauty.

Dodin and Eugénie have been cooking together for over 20 years, so their movements are like ballet, they don't need many words to understand each other and work continuously to prepare the dish.

The way Tran Anh Hung chooses dishes to treat the audience is equally unique.

These can be famous French dishes such as Vol-au-vent, Ambelopoulia, Pot au Feu, Bechamel... or dishes that show the diversity of world cuisine such as Omelette Norvégienne.

Vol-au-vent is a combination of a puff pastry crust and sauce spread inside the bread.

In the movie, the sauce for this dish is made from crayfish and other French ingredients such as wine, cheese, butter... The sweet, fatty, and rich flavor of the crayfish sauce blends with the crispy outer shell of the cake, creating an explosion of taste.

Chef Pierre Gagnaire - the film's culinary consultant - shared that he was most impressed with the Vol-au-vent scene.

Gagnaire believes the key to this dish is to keep the crust crispy from the moment it comes out of the oven until it is served, while mixing it with the rich sauce inside is even more complicated.

Making it is difficult, showing it on screen is even more difficult, however Tran Anh Hung filmed this dish perfectly, the sound of the crispy crust, the sauce flowing out when cutting... All the quintessence of this dish seemed to be displayed before the audience's eyes.

The next dish in the opening scene is Omelette Norvégienne, a dish created by American chef Charles Ranhofer.

The magic of this dish is the ice cream filling, the cake is put in the oven at hundreds of degrees, when taken out the ice cream still does not melt.

The egg white and brown sugar crust will stop the cream from melting for a short period of time, just enough to firm and caramelize the crust without affecting the cream.

Another specialty served by Chef Dodin is halibut with Bechamel sauce - the mother sauce of French cuisine.

Sweet, fatty flounder filleted and dipped in the famous Bechamel sauce is beautifully portrayed in the film.

We cannot fail to mention the "main character" - Pot au Feu stew, which is also the name given to the film in its home country of France. This stew originated as a dish for the poor, who would stew seasonal produce with available meat to eat for many days.

In the film, Pot au Feu was adapted by Dobin to suit the aristocracy. The main ingredients of Pot au Feu include veal, oxtail, beef shoulder, pigeon, beef marrow, sheep's milk, vegetables, garlic, parsley, celery leaves, leeks and many herbs such as cloves, bay leaves...

This dish is served with onion purée, which includes ingredients such as onions, French butter, champagne, beef and veal stock.

The broth of this dish is rich in meat juice, marrow, and herbs that can remind Vietnamese people of pho. Many culinary magazines also consider this broth to be the "ancestor" of Vietnamese pho.

Tran Anh Hung and the taste of nostalgia

The original title of the film The Taste of Things by director Tran Anh Hung was The Pot-au-Feu, a beef stew with vegetables in the French culinary tradition.