The Ethos of Babette’s Feast – a WCW post.

My friend, Randy Elrod, has a wonderful blog entitled Ethos – A Cultural Watercooler. On Wednesday, he hosts “Watercooler Wednesdays.” Check it out. His question this week was, “What is your favorite restaurant.”

Anyone who knows me knows that the life of food, the sacrament of the meal, the joy of wine and conversation and great friends often converge into my favorite perfect moments. I suspect you can relate. Randy’s daughter Lauren came over last night and were talking about this very topic and the film Babette’s Feast, which I cannot recommend highly enough. (Both Lauren and the film!).

In case that you were not a film afficianado in 1987, and I know I wasn’t since I was in the first grade at the time, I’ll give you a little backstory. The author of the story, Isak Dinesen also wrote the story that inspired the film Out of Africa, another of my favorites. Babette’s Feast won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 1987.

The film is a beautiful story of a legalistic religious sect in 19^th century Denmark that is transformed by the addition of a Babette, a famous Parisian chef and political refugee. The religious community is characterized by an asetic lifestyle, devoid of pleasure, joy and passionate spiritual experience. Instead, their world consists of suspicion, bitterness, a worship of purity at all costs and a lifeless faith. 

Babette’s professional background is kept secret from her new employers upon joining the community. The sisters who employ her as a domestic are the daughers of the now deceased pastor and leader of the religious community, and therefore, charged with leading in his absense. The relationships in the community have suffered from unhealed old wounds, misunderstandings and a spirit of judgementalism.

In a beautiful turn of events, Babette has the opportunity to create a “perfect moment” of her own, a feast celebrating what would have been the 100th birthday of the sisters father for their small community. While the guest allow Babette to proceed, they are also deeply suspicious of Babette’s character and faith as they see exotic foods delivered to the house where she serves. They suspect accult practices. Much to their suprises, instead, she invites them into a transcendent meal of sublime pleasure and sensory engagement in a way that turns their theology on its head, as it serves to unite and connect in ways that the religious spirit never could. Through the vehicle of food, she offers them Life. Which is what the symbolism and sacrament of the Meal is all about. Absolutely brilliant. 

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My ideal of a favorite meal and moreover, my theology of the meal (and i believe there is one!) has been profoundly shaped by this film. The meal(s) I’ve had that resemble Babette’s Feast the most have taken place in Colorado at The Black Bear Restaurant, outside of Colorado Springs in Green Mountain Falls. By all appearances, it is an unsuspecting cowboy bar in an uninspiring town. If I didn’t know better, I would say that the element of surprise was not entirely unintentional. 

After walking in the door and passing the small bar, complete with neon beer signs, pool table and old-fashioned cigarette machine, you enter a log-walled dining room with a huge fireplace, almost out of proportion. The tables are covered in white cloths with china and Reidel classes on the tables. Such a juxeposition of all the visiual elements.

From there on, buckle up for a five-star dining experience, highlighted by Chef Victor Andrew’s private, gold label Kobe beef and rare Italian wine, nestled between the other seven courses on the Menu Gastronomique. It will change your life. The only thing I can image that would beat this would be something involving the name of Thomas Keller.

I think this is my favorite restaurant because it is an experience in the truest sense of the word! It has all the elements: it takes takes your from where you are to somewhere else entirely, and when it brings you back to where you started you leave a different person.