Spaghetti On Film

This is the night… We give you our top 5 ZENB favourite spaghetti moments. 

With our headline act this month being the launch of our tasty new shape Spaghetti, we thought we would combine two of life's most enjoyable pleasures, and give you our very own ZENB top 5 favourite spaghetti moments on the big screen, surprisingly spaghetti appears more than you think! Is Spaghetti just a passing extra, does it play an important part in the movie's plot, is it more than just food? Let us know your thoughts! 

1. Lady and the tramp 

Let's start with undoubtedly the most obvious and famous spaghetti moment that really has stood the test of time, 1955 Lady and the tramp hit the silver screen and has remained iconic ever since. It’s also pretty difficult to single out another moment in the entire Disney collection that’s more charming and well simply just romantic, than when the loved up pups pull each other accidentally into a kiss when they slurp up the same bit of spaghetti. It’s all set under a starry sky, there’s music, and a dish of the best spaghetti in town. Would this have worked with any other food? I think not! Set with a big bowl of our new ZENB Spaghetti, this movie is definitely worth a re-watch… for old time sake. 

2. The Apartment 

Who doesn't love American actor Jack Lemmon straining spaghetti through a wooden tennis racket preparing a dinner in the 1960 classic movie The Apartment. The director, Billy Wilder, after working with Lemmon previously on the smash hit ‘Some Like it Hot’ let Lemmon completely improvise this scene, with his line ‘ you should see my backhand’ becoming one of the movies most famous. I guess you now know what to use if the kitchen colander goes missing! 

3. Cloudy with a chance of meatballs

Based on the original book written in 1978, Cloudy with a Chance Of Meatballs is a heart warming story of a young scientist, Flint Lockwood, who invents the FLDSMDFR which ends up producing ‘cloud based’ food (Yum!) Naturally though, it all goes a bit wrong for Flint and when a spaghetti tornado threatens the town, his new mission is to work out a way to shut the FLDSMDFR down! This movie is fun, with quirky humour, suitable for any age, and who’d have thought Spaghetti could also transform into a movie villain? In the words of Flint, ‘Mamma Mia!’ 

A nice idea for a movie night, whip up this ZENB Meatball recipe and get cozy on the sofa with the whole family. 

4. Elf 

If you have a yearly viewing of the Christmas classic Elf then you know exactly what we are talking about, and well if you haven't seen it put it as number one for this Christmas. In this one particular famous spaghetti scene, Buddy the Elf proceeds to make himself a breakfast consisting of spaghetti topped with sweets galore! Sprinkles, marshmallows, M&Ms.. you name it! 

As a child this looked tasty and simply the best idea, and well as an adult it still does! He then grabs this sweet and savoury concoction and shovels it into his mouth with his bare hands (perhaps I would upgrade and use a fork now). It's funny and ridiculous, like the entire film to be honest but it can be enjoyed by the whole family and is happily watched over and over again. 

5. Tampopo

A popular Japanese movie made in 1985, about a truck driver who stops at a small family-run noodle shop and decides to help its fledgling business. The story is a light comedy that focuses around the relationship between love and food…

In a humorous and rather silly restaurant scene there is an unexpected ‘Spaghetti’ interplay... A woman is instructing a group of younger girls on the ‘polite’ way to eat spaghetti, demonstrating the ‘correct’ ways of holding the fork and spoon, twisting the spaghetti politely and silently into your mouth. Across the restaurant, and quite taken by the elocution lesson is a man with his own plate of spaghetti, attempting to follow the teachers instructions he tries to eat his own spaghetti, however, he grows impatient and simply starts to scoop the spaghetti into his mouth and slurp it loudly. At first the group of women are shocked by this loud rather messy method, but when they realise that his way is more effective they all abandon the lesson in favour of slurping, including the teacher!

Obviously the next question to ask is ‘how do you eat your spaghetti?’ - maybe one for another ZENB top 5 list?!…