"The Menu"

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the movie The Menu (2022) from a collectivist perspective, exposing the evils of capitalism in the culinary industry, ranging from the uneven distribution of food and food insecurity to unfair market practices. Molecular Gastronomy, a novel culinary trend, uses scientific methods in the preparation and artistic presentation of food. This trend has, however, been exploited by elite capitalists who seek such ornate experiences, build a market around it, exploit the working class, disparage their labor, and lose their sense of humanness, as observed in the movie The Menu, which depicts the same in a cold, satirical way interspersed with dark humor. This study further situates the film within Marxist theories of commodification and alienated labor, demonstrating how food becomes a site of class struggle under late capitalism. The exclusive dining space portrayed in the film operates as a microcosm of capitalist hierarchy, where access, taste, and value are dictated by wealth rather than need. By foregrounding the invisibilization of culinary workers and the fetishization of luxury consumption, the film critiques the transformation of nourishment into spectacle. Through satire and controlled violence, The Menu reveals the ethical bankruptcy of capitalist excess and the erosion of human relationships to food, labor, and social responsibility. The contribution of the study is one of critical synthesis rather than prescriptive solutions to the systemic inequalities that it maps, an attempt to link culinary history, molecular gastronomy, and Marxist political economy through cinematic analysis.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. The International Journal of Critical Cultural Studies, 2026 · DOI ↗