Creating an Oscar-Worthy Dinner with Film Archivist Carol Hopp 2024 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. We’re still working with a full list of ten nominees, and Hopp has pulled the impossible off yet again. You’ve got just under a week to prepare your Oscars party menu, so don’t leave it to the last minute!
You can also check out her 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 menus.
Drink: Water, Tomato Juice, French Wine
Anatomy of a Fall was full of nervous energy and Hopp points out that “[It] seemed to me that there was a lot of drinking in the film”. She concluded that one’s preferred drink of choice would match the energy of the film, perhaps water (if you don’t want to burn yourself out early and want to stay hydrated), French wine (including fake for those who don’t want to get drunk or even buzzed), or tomato juice (perhaps to bring up that theme of the colour red being prevalent in the film for… obvious reasons…).
Appetizer: Yuk Gae Jong
In honour of Past Lives, Hopp suggests the Korean traditional dish yuk gae jong: a spicy beef soup. Character Nora points out that this is her husband’s favourite food in the film, so it feels appropriate to include here.
Appetizer: Smoked Oysters
Maestro is heavily indebted to the memory of Felicia Montealegre, so Hopp wanted to bring up her final words in the film — Felicia remarking that she can smell fish. To match Felicia’s prestige and class with her final words, Hopp is putting what she calls a personal favourite — smoked clams — into her Best Picture menu.
Side: Apple Salad with Tasted Almonds and Croutons
For the first time since Hopp has shared these Best Picture menus with us, she has combined more than one film into a single dish (perhaps to make the dinner easier to eat in its entirety). So, here’s an apple salad with a few included ingredients. The apples are inspired by Killers of the Flower Moon as there are apples throughout the film, and, more appropriately (as Hopp pointed out), this is an Apple TV+ production. Makes sense to me.
Hopp recalls what Oppenheimer star Emily Blunt said about Cillian Murphy’s process for the film, including eating nothing but almonds on set to get thinner for his role. Hopp suggests toasting and slivering the almonds and then tossing them into the salad.
Finally, Hopp recalls Mother Agnes in American Fiction and how she likes “her sandwiches made with white bread and the crusts cut off”. You could do the same (by including sandwiches in your dinner), or do what Hopp suggests: have this quote represent croutons in this salad. Add whatever greens and other fix-ins you desire.
Side: Potato Salad
There are many kinds of food found throughout The Zone of Interest, from the apples left for those stuck in Auschwitz to find, to the numerous feasts of the wealthy and fortunate. Hopp thinks a general menu item that can match any household is a simple German potato salad (which also is found in the film at one point).
Main: Barbecued Chicken
This may take a second to figure out, but the connections are there. Hopp has brought up the partial homonym found between Barbie and the act of barbecuing (or a “Barbieque”, which seems on point, and also loosely suggests star Margot Robbie’s Australian heritage and how barbecues are called… you guessed it). So, have some barbecue chicken in your Best Picture meal, because there had to be a main course of some kind (and it’ll go nicely with the salads and other parts of the menu).
Dessert: Cherries Jubilee/Cherry Ice Cream
Who could forget the radiant sequence from The Holdovers involving cherries jubilee? Of course, we would also remember what a fire hazard that would be, and Hopp even reminded us that this version of the dessert in the film “ended up being cherries and vanilla ice cream lit on fire”. If you want something a bit simpler, “How about just cherry ice cream?” That works, too.
Dessert: Eclair
It’s important to celebrate Poor Things’ Bella Baxter’s self-discovery and independence. What is the first thing she buys? Chocolate eclairs, Hopp recollects. How more fitting can the end of your Best Picture menu be than the taste of what’s to come?
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 Toronto Metropolitan University, 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.