The Bear, Triangle of Sadness and the Menu

Cheeseburgers of authenticity

One of my students in my Food on Screen class pointed out that in The Menu and Triangle of Sadness, a cheeseburger and fries stands in for authenticity against the decadence of the jaded palates of crazy Russian oligarchs and slightly pedophiliac finance guys along with suicidal foodies and boorish tech bros. In the first film, the sex worker played by Anna Taylor Joy escapes the fine dining death cult by ordering the chef, played by Ralph Fiennes who has lost the joy of cooking and eating to make her a cheeseburger. In Triangle of Sadness, Woody Harrelson, captain of the doomed yacht doesn’t escape death, but does evade projectile vomit and diarrhea inducing food poisoning by not eating spoiled octopus and choosing to chow down on a cheeseburger instead.