I just watched the movie for the first time last night! It was great.

Like water for chocolate

for me...but, the dark horse winner, coming up alongside in a oompah loompah-powered paddlewheeler to take the win.

I think I'll try a regular Wonka Bar this time.

an excellent film

Our Brett, he was at Per Se in New York City...3 months... He was just 20 years old then...an amazing experience for him...

just a perfect film, in every way. 10/10

1) "Big Night" is shot through with love for family, life and food.

2) The temperamental chef stuff gets old fast. I spent years working in bars and restaurants, in every position and role you can think of other than owner. I will take the stress of a kitchen over the stress of dealing with the public any day of the week. The shtick about treating servers like they are the enemy is horseshit. They are are on YOUR side.

The patrons are another story. Half of them are good folks. The other half have as their goal getting the most out of you as they can while paying the very least for it that they can. They create adversarial economics in the way they operate.

Also, I think creating additional unnecessary stress in a kitchen works against your purposes -- especially when the inherent sense of urgency creates natural stress on its own -- and there is no excuse for treating other people like garbage, especially when they work for you. Your job is to help your kitchen mates focus to make everyone's job easier.

One of the chefs I worked for was a CIA grad and used to get so worked up I thought he was going to stroke out before 45 years old. I told him one night after dinner that while it seems important in the moment, in the larger scheme of things what we were doing wasn't a matter of life and death. "No one in our dining room is in danger of starving to death tonight. We're not removing a lesion from someone's brain. If anything, the people that come here are so spoiled in their daily lives that being made to wait an extra couple of minutes is probably good for their character." He just stared in shock that I even said as much.