No character understands what it is to be a great chef better than Remy, the rat, who is furious that Gusteau’s image is being used to sell frozen food on American TV. But she eventually warms to the garbage boy, taking time to explain that getting the freshest produce requires a bribe and that the only way to tell if a baguette is fresh is by cracking off a piece and listening to the sound of the crust. The only woman in the kitchen epitomizes stereotypical French rudeness. There is the gruff cook who might have killed a man. The characters that inhabit Gusteau’s kitchen are drawn with precision, too. The curve of the copper-bottomed sauce pans, the steam from a pot of soup or even the way slices of leek fall off a knife are expertly rendered. The intricacies of wine service in the movie are but one detail dedicated eaters will appreciate. “So they concluded that the wine was too cold and were going to adjust accordingly.” “They had recorded that one woman took 10 minutes between her first sip of white Burgundy and her second,” he said. Lewis finally understood the intensity of high-level service. Gusteau’s is an amalgam of several restaurants in Paris, including Guy Savoy, Le Train Bleu and Taillevent.

TWO GOOD NOSES Filmmakers followed the chef Thomas Keller for some kitchen scenes. “As a former actor and dancer, I have spent a lot of time in restaurants, but I had no idea of that vast difference between France and America, and especially the three-star restaurants in Paris,” said Brad Lewis, the producer. Keller at the French Laundry in Yountville, Calif. The Pixar crew took cooking classes, ate at notable restaurants in Paris and worked alongside Mr. Remy teaches the lowly kitchen worker to cook dishes that impress even the powerful food critic Anton Ego, who is given voice by the actor Peter O’Toole.Īlthough the story line has its charms, the precisely rendered detail of a professional kitchen will appeal to the food-obsessed.

To get there, he teams up with Linguini, a clueless garbage boy at Gusteau’s, a once-great Parisian restaurant that has fallen into disarray since the death of its chef, Auguste Gusteau. Remy, a food-obsessed rat with an exceptional sense of smell, dreams of becoming a chef. The story is a classic underdog tale that leans heavily on Cyrano de Bergerac.

Rat from ratatouille