Chus With Their Mouths Open

When Chef Chu of Taipei, Taiwan, cooks for his family every Sunday, it's quite an elaborate event. In fact, during the course of this 1994 classic food film, Eat, Drink, Man, Woman, the chef prepares more than 100 recipes for the ritual of this weekly family dinner he shares with his unmarried adult daughters.

“It's so about family,” says celebrity chef Sara Moulton, author of several cookbooks, including Sara Moulton Cooks at Home. In April her new 20-episode cooking show series, “Sara's Weeknight Meals,” made its debut on over 200 public television stations.

When Chef Chu cooks at home for his daughters, Moulton notes, he prepares an elaborate meal that goes way beyond what most of us would cook. “It just reminds you about Chinese flavorings. When the middle daughter cooked for her boyfriend, for instance, she took the classic flavors of ginger, garlic and scallions and threw them into the hot oil in the wok. Then, later, she added sesame oil and chii paste — ingredients that are good to have on hand.”

As Moulton notes in her cookbook, a home-cooked meal is a great gift, as is sitting down together to eat it. A favorite meal for her own family, included in the book Sara Moulton Cooks at Home, is “Ants in a Tree.” It combines the classic Chinese flavorings, plus ground pork, cellophane noodles, and chicken stock, napa cabbage and soy sauce. Moulton says, “Every so often I rediscover it, and my family says, ‘Wow, we love this. Why don't you cook it more often?’”

For the podcast with Sara Moulton and Gail Bellamy, plus Asian recipe ideas, visit www.rhflicks.com and click on the podcast icon.

RH executive food editor Gail Bellamy interviews food experts about their favorite movie food scenes that inspired beloved recipes.