Creating an Oscar-Worthy Dinner with Film Archivist Carol Hopp 2022 Edition
Every year, we not only celebrate the Academy Awards, but we shout out a dear friend of ours: Toronto archivist Carol Hopp (from the Archives of Ontario), who goes the distance by curating an Oscar-worthy dinner each ceremony. The catch is that every food item has to correspond with a Best Picture nominee, and all nominees have to be incorporated. With a full ten nominees this year, Hopp had her work cut out for her. Of course, her menu is as clever as ever. You have a few days to prepare your Sunday feast, so let’s get right to it!
You can also check out her 2019, 2020, and 2021 menus.
Drink: Water
While the obvious menu items can be found in the film’s name (hopefully not together, because the thought of liquorice and pizza together sounds repulsive), Hopp went with an easier, more faithful choice: water. “Selling water beds was an important plot point of this film,” she confirms (and who wouldn’t quickly be reminded of the scene where the bed overflows?): “Besides, every meal should have water and it is cheap!” (we couldn’t agree more).
Drink: Orange Juice
Snack: Bag of Chips
A number of foods are eaten during Don’t Look Up, either through frantic binge-munching or triumphantly orchestrated final meals. Hopp went with some of the smaller food options to balance out the snacks and drinks, including orange juice and a bag of chips (“[a] pack of cheezies … will do”).
Appetizer: Chicken Salad
Appetizer: Eggs Benedict
Hopp blended two Power of the Dog food items together (chicken and salad) to make a lovely, healthy appetizer; part of her rationale was that she has “a good recipe” for this particular dish. Otherwise, you can go with eggs Benedict (for obvious, punny reasons).
Snack: Watermelon
Appetizer: Scrambled Eggs
Dessert: Milky Way Bars
You’ve got a few options for the 2021 version of West Side Story, ranging from watermelons (referring to the very ones that “fall out of the truck” in the film), scrambled eggs (“what Anita makes for Bernardo”), and milky way bars that can be found in “the supply room where Tony works”.
Drink: Alcohol (Virgin Variants Allowed)
Main: Chicken
Dessert: Chocolates
Nightmare Alley also has a few food options, but let us start off with some classic film noir inclusion of alcohol (obviously non-alcoholic variants work if you want to have an all ages or teetotaling affair), especially since alcohol is found everywhere in this story. A main that can be implemented is a nice chicken dish in reference to the geek at the start of the film. Lastly, on a more lighter note, Molly likes chocolates, and those can be tossed in to sweeten the mood.
Main: Shrimp with Peanut Butter Dipping Sauce
Considering that CODA involves fishing, a seafood option would make perfect sense. Hopp wants to incorporate father Frank’s eating of a peanut butter sandwich somehow, so she is going to merge the two together to make a shrimp dish with peanut butter dip.
Main: Burger, Fries, and Side of Peas
There’s a sequence in King Richard where the Williams family go for burgers and fries, but Hopp wanted to toss in frozen peas for a few clever reasons. Firstly, Richard Williams ices his hand with frozen peas after a fight scene. Secondly, the peas resemble tennis balls closely enough.
Side: Potatoes
Dessert: Turkish Delight Candies
Eating potatoes in honour of Belfast makes perfect sense (the central family can even be seen eating some here), but Hopp wants to toss in some good old Turkish Delight candies to resemble the scene where they are stolen from a store.
Dessert: Red Bean Rice Cakes
Hopp states that she “found a box of red bean rice cakes”, but why these Asian treats are more fitting are to resemble the titular vehicle in Drive My Car: a nice, deep red.
Dessert: Spice Cake
We wrap up this menu with a nice spice dessert, like a spice cake, to honour Dune. This firstly represents the much coveted Spice Melange. Hopp pointed out another final reason: a dessert is one letter away from the core setting of this epic (the smouldering desert).
We thank Carol Hopp for joining us with her annual Oscars menu again!
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from X University (formerly known as Ryerson), as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.