Did you know that a real luxury restaurant inspired “Le Menu”, the gastronomic thriller released in theaters at the end of last year? We tell you which restaurant it is!
The food thriller The Menu, released in theaters last November, tells the story of a couple who travel to a remote island to dine at one of the hottest restaurants around, along with other selected guests. on the pane. A restaurant like no other led by Chef Slowik (Ralph Fiennes), the scene of surprises as surprising as they are radical, which has the particularity of being inspired by a real luxury establishment!
For Le Menu, the production team was inspired by several famous establishments, and in particular one in particular: the Swedish restaurant Fäviken. Located in the municipality of Jämtland, it was run by chef Magnus Nilsson between 2008 and 2019. Now closed, Fäviken was ranked in the top 10 of the best restaurants in the world in 2012 by the prestigious Zagat guide.
In an interview with the Bon Appétit website, screenwriter Will Tracy says he felt a strong feeling of claustrophobia within the walls of Fäviken, which he then wanted to transcribe in Le Menu. “There’s something relentless about all these tasting menus. You can’t leave”he says. “You are held hostage by a story they tell you for hours.”
To concoct the very “claustro” atmosphere of the Menu, Will Tracy was inspired by this very special culinary experience at Fäviken, but also by his time in a chic restaurant in Norway, located on a private island. “I’m a bit claustrophobic, and when we sat down to eat, I saw the boat leaving the dock”he recalls. “It was a small island. And I realized: God, we’re stuck here for four hours. What if something goes wrong?”
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Fäviken is not the only establishment that has inspired Le Menu. El Bulli, renowned Catalan restaurant designed by chef Ferran Adrià, Thomas Keller’s French Laundry located in the Californian town of Sonoma, and the work of René Redzepi, chef of the Danish restaurant Noma, also contributed to creating the film carried by Anya Taylor -Joy and Nicholas Hoult.
To be complete, we will specify that if the main restaurant which inspired Le Menu is therefore Swedish, the one we discover on the screen is presented as being located in Norway (like the one visited on a private island by Will Tracy). And that the film was shot… in the United States, precisely in Savannah, in the State of Georgia.
An excerpt from the “Menu”: