Table of Contents | Notebook Issue 8: “Shoestring Spaghetti”

“Shoestring Spaghetti” is available via direct subscription or in select stores around the world.

Like a good dinner party, Issue 8 of Notebook—devoted to food on film—embraces a sense of delicious possibility. Inside, you’ll find meals aplenty. Alfred Hitchcock cooks up quiche Lorraine with his wife Alma Reville. Cultural luminaries like Esther Kinsky, Wesley Morris, Eileen Myles, and Robert Sietsema bring their favorite cinematic dishes to a potluck dinner (cup of coffee from My Dinner with André, meet The Turin Horse’s potato). Join filmmaker Courtney Stephens for a “power lunch” in her centerpiece essay on the late 20th century Hollywood dining ritual. Elsewhere, film experts (Simran Hans, Charlie Fox, and Vikram Murthi) sit down with culinary figures (chef Nick Bramham, stylist Olivia Somary, and butcher Dario Cecchini) for digressive dialogues about food films: for one, is garlic truly as good as ten mothers? Other delectable treats include: illustrated tablespreads by Alice Tye and Manon Cezaro, a devious comic by Liam Cobb, Elissa Suh on feral eating in feminist cinema, and food stylist Christine Tobin detailing the pleasures of preparing food for the screen.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Things a Filmmaker Should Know by George Miller

^{Creating characters through tetchy bites and defiant slurps.}

^{In 21st-century art, the question is no longer “Is it alive?” but “Can it be eaten?”}

The Notebook Potluck by Filipe Furtado, Jessica Kiang, Esther Kinsky, Sung Moon, Wesley Morris, Eileen Myles, Robert Sietsema, and C Pam Zhang; illustration by Manon Cezaro

^{Eight special guests dine together, each bringing a different cinematic dish to the table.}

^{In an original comic, pangs of hunger become unbearable for a host and his parasite.}

• Set Dressing and Storytelling with Food by Christine Tobin
• Gourmet Service in the Dark by Poulomi Das
• Cooking and Eating with Cast and Crew by Paz Encina, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Radu Jude, and Deepak Rauniyar

^{Shining a light on the labor of making, sharing, and selling food in the film world, both behind the scenes and in the theater.}

Eating is Not the Point: The Hollywood Lunch by Courtney Stephens; illustration by Alice Tye

^{A potted history of the “power lunch,” where deals are cut, dreams are realized, and myths are made.}

^{A trio of tête-à-têtes on food and film:}

• Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers by Nick Bramham and Simran Hans
• The Butcher by Dario Cecchini and Vikram Murthi
• Matilda by Charlie Fox and Olivia Somary

^{Inspired by Dante’s nine circles of hell, a descent into insatiable appetites, competitive eating, and edible extremity.}

The Alfred Hitchcock Dinner Hour, Revisited with photographs by Cal Bernstein; photograms by MUBI LAB

^{Reviving and expanding a 1963 feature in Look magazine featuring Hitchcock and his wife, Alma Reville, cooking in their kitchen and sharing recipes.}

^{Three bookstores specializing in new and used cookbooks spotlight rare gems from cinema’s early years, including a selection of unique celebrity recipes.}

^{The illustrated story behind moviegoing’s most prevailingly popular snack.}