Hunger (2023 film)

Last updated

Hunger
Directed bySitisiri Mongkolsiri
Written by Kongdej Jaturanrasamee
Produced by
  • Kongdej Jaturanrasamee
  • Soros Sukhum
Starring
Edited by
  • Manussa Vorasingha
  • Abhisit Wongwaitrakarn
Production
company
Song Sound Production
Distributed by Netflix
Release date
  • April 6, 2023 (2023-04-06)
Running time
145 minutes
CountryThailand
LanguageThai

Hunger is a 2023 Thai drama film directed by Sitisiri Mongkolsiri and written by Kongdej Jaturanrasamee. It stars Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying as Aoy, a street-food cook who is invited to join the fine-dining industry under the tutelage of the infamous Chef Paul, played by Nopachai Jayanama, with Gunn Svasti as Tone, a supportive sous chef. The film was announced by Netflix in 2022 as one of its six upcoming Thai original productions, and was released on the platform in April 2023. [1] [2] The film received mostly positive reviews.

Contents

Plot

Aoy is the main cook at her family's street restaurant. She is scouted by Tone, the junior sous-chef of Hunger, a haute cuisine catering restaurant run by the celebrity Chef Paul. Dissatisfied with the direction her life since finishing high school, Aoy accepts the invitation and auditions alongside a culinary school graduate. Paul has the applicants cook fried rice, and hires Aoy for demonstrating more flair while cooking her dish.

In preparation for a private birthday party hosted by a retired general, Paul demands that Aoy slice and fry wagyu beef to exacting specifications. After many failed attempts, she walks out in frustration but returns and practices frying the meat all night until Paul finally approves. At the party, Aoy fries the meat in front of the guests, who include entrepreneur Tos, a business rival of Paul. As Aoy continues working with the relentless Paul, she faces the limits of her skills and studies more cooking techniques from Tone.

Hunger's soup specialist Tue is fired for stealing ingredients, forcing sous-chef Dang to pick up the slack for Hunger's next client, a family of three. When Paul tries the soup, he tosses it out and remakes it using cheap ingredients on hand, later explaining that he tasted shrimp in the original soup even though he warned his chefs that the client's young daughter had a shellfish allergy. Paul deduces Dang sabotaged the soup due to his jealousy over Hunger's younger chefs surpassing him. Dang stabs Paul with a knife and storms out. Aoy visits the hospitalized Paul, who opens up about the reason he became a chef. His mother was a maid for an extravagantly rich family, and she was forced to make restitution when he broke a jar of caviar. The incident made Paul realize that the rich view food as a status symbol, and he resolved to become a chef of such renown that rich people would debase themselves to have him cook for them. Aoy is distraught by her father suffering a health crisis, as well as learning that Hunger's previous client was a construction executive heavily in debt who killed his wife, daughter, and himself after they ate their meal.

Aoy and Tone leave Hunger after the group is hired by a government official to cook a great hornbill poached from a national park. Aoy is hired as the head chef at Tos's new restaurant Flame and grows famous, while Tone's restaurant struggles. A celebrity hires both Aoy and Paul to cook for her birthday party, which turns into an impromptu competition as the two chefs vie for the guests' adulation. In the end, Paul wins by serving bowls of hot soup, and he explains to Aoy that he won not because his food was superior to hers, but because his reputation made the guests desire anything served by him more. But a video of Paul cooking the hornbill is leaked by Tone and Paul is arrested. Tos admits that he and Tone conspired to use the party to destroy Paul and elevate Aoy; furthermore, the celebrity client picked Paul for her party first and only hired Aoy because of Tos's lobbying. Disillusioned, Aoy quits Flame. She is welcomed home by her family and resumes cooking at their restaurant.

Cast

Reception

The film received mostly positive reviews, with an 87 percent rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. [3] The Bangkok Post's reviewer Tatat Bunnag criticized the screenplay and dialogue, but concluded that "despite all the flaws, Hunger is still worth watching, especially for those who love intense drama and exotic settings." [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cantonese cuisine</span> Chinese regional cuisine from Guangdong

Cantonese or Guangdong cuisine, also known as Yue cuisine, is the cuisine of Guangdong province of China, particularly the provincial capital Guangzhou, and the surrounding regions in the Pearl River Delta including Hong Kong and Macau. Strictly speaking, Cantonese cuisine is the cuisine of Guangzhou or of Cantonese speakers, but it often includes the cooking styles of all the speakers of Yue Chinese languages in Guangdong.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thai cuisine</span> Culinary traditions of Thailand

Thai cuisine is the national cuisine of Thailand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chicken tikka masala</span> Dish consisting of boneless chicken pieces in curry sauce

Chicken tikka masala is a dish consisting of roasted marinated chicken chunks in a spiced sauce (masala). The sauce is usually creamy and orange-coloured. The dish was created by South Asian cooks living in Great Britain and is offered at restaurants around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Keller</span> American chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author

Thomas Aloysius Keller is an American chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author. He and his landmark Napa Valley restaurant, the French Laundry in Yountville, California, have won multiple awards from the James Beard Foundation, including Best California Chef in 1996 and Best Chef in America in 1997. The restaurant was a perennial winner in the annual Restaurant list of the Top 50 Restaurants of the World; the voting process has since been changed to disallow previous winners from being considered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marcus Samuelsson</span> Ethiopian Swedish chef

Marcus Samuelsson is an Ethiopian-born Swedish-American celebrity chef, restaurateur and television personality. He is the head chef of Red Rooster in Harlem, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">French onion soup</span> Soup based on onions and meat stock or water

French onion soup is a soup of onions, gently fried and then cooked in meat stock or water, usually served gratinéed with croutons or a larger piece of bread covered with cheese floating on top. Onion soups were known in France since medieval times, but the version now familiar dates from the mid-19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sous vide</span> Cooking method using prolonged low temperatures

Sous vide, also known as low-temperature, long-time (LTLT) cooking, is a method of cooking invented by the French chef Georges Pralus in 1974, in which food is placed in a plastic pouch or a glass jar and cooked in a water bath for longer than usual cooking times at a precisely regulated temperature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homaro Cantu</span> American chef and inventor (1976–2015)

Homaro "Omar" Cantu Jr. was an American chef and inventor known for his use of molecular gastronomy. As a child, Cantu was fascinated with science and engineering. While working in a fast food restaurant, he discovered the similarities between science and cooking and decided to become a chef. In 1999, he was hired by his idol, Chicago chef Charlie Trotter. In 2003, Cantu became the first chef of Moto, which he later purchased.

The kitchen brigade is a system of hierarchy found in restaurants and hotels employing extensive staff, commonly referred to as "kitchen staff" in English-speaking countries.

Eric Ripert is a French chef, author, and television personality specializing in modern French cuisine and noted for his work with seafood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moto (restaurant)</span> Restaurant in Chicago, Illinois, United States

Moto was a molecular gastronomy restaurant in the Fulton River District of Chicago, Illinois known for creating "high-tech" dishes which incorporate elements such as carbonated fruit, edible paper, lasers, and liquid nitrogen for freezing food.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">McDang</span> Thai food expert and chef

Mom Luang Sirichalerm Svasti, who is usually known by his nickname McDang, is a Thai food expert, chef, and writer.

The fifth season of Top Chef Masters premiered on July 24, 2013, with 13 award-winning chefs competing in weekly challenges to win the grand prize of $100,000 for their charity and the title of "Top Chef Master". Gail Simmons appeared as the new head critic for the competition. In addition, Lesley Suter, the food and dining editor for Los Angeles Magazine, joined the judging panel alongside James Oseland, Ruth Reichl, and Francis Lam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Triple-cooked chips</span> Type of deep-fried potato

Triple-cooked chips are a type of chips developed by the English chef Heston Blumenthal. The chips are first simmered, then cooled and drained using a sous-vide technique or by freezing; deep fried at 130 °C (266 °F) and cooled again; and finally deep-fried again at 180 °C (356 °F). The result is what Blumenthal calls "chips with a glass-like crust and a soft, fluffy centre".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying</span> Thai model and actress (born 1996)

Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying, nicknamed Aokbab, is a Thai model and actress, best known for her role as Lynn in the 2017 film Bad Genius. She is the first Thai actress to win the Screen International Rising Star Asia Award in New York Asian Film Festival in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saiphin Moore</span> Thai British chef & author

Saiphin Moore is a Thai British chef, businesswoman & author who is known for being the founder of the restaurant chain Rosa's Thai Cafe and Lao Cafe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moshe Basson</span> Israeli chef

Moshe Basson is an Israeli chef, restaurateur, and food folklorist. An early proponent of the Slow Food movement in Israel, he is the owner and head chef of The Eucalyptus restaurant in Jerusalem. He specializes in traditional regional cuisine, biblical ingredients, and the use of wild plants and herbs that he gathers himself on foraging expeditions in the Jerusalem hills. He is a member of the Israeli-Palestinian group Chefs for Peace and a two-time winner of the international Couscous Fest in Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mashama Bailey</span> American chef

Mashama Bailey is an American chef trained in French technique who is currently cooking Southern cuisine. In 2019, Bailey was awarded a James Beard Award as best chef of the southeast. In 2022, Bailey was awarded a James Beard Award as Outstanding Chef.

Duangporn "Bo" Songvisava is a Thai chef and restaurateur. She and her husband, chef Dylan Jones, own and operated Bo.lan, a restaurant in Bangkok's Thong Lo neighborhood. In 2018 Songvisava was profiled on the fifth season of the documentary series Chef's Table.

Hell's Kitchen Thailand is a Thai cooking reality competition television series based on the British series of the same name. To find the winner to be the head of the kitchen in a real restaurant, Heliconia H Group purchased the rights from ITV Studios. It's hosted by Chef Kwantip Devakula, Chef Willment Leong, Chef Aof - Nattawut Thamphan and Chef Pongtawat Chalermkittichai. It first aired on February 4, 2024, on Channel 7 HD.

References

  1. ↑ Brzeski, Patrick (October 11, 2022). "Netflix Unveils Slate of Six Originals From Thailand". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 29, 2023.
  2. ↑ Frater, Patrick (February 1, 2023). "Thai Food and Feuds on the Menu as Netflix Serves up 'Hunger' Drama Film — First Look Images (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved May 29, 2023.
  3. ↑ "Hunger". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved May 29, 2023.
  4. ↑ Bunnag, Tatat (April 21, 2023). "Undercooked". Bangkok Post. Retrieved May 29, 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.