Life Imitating Art. Or Is it the Other Way Around? Feasting on a Tasting Menu with the Star & Director of Tasting Menu the Movie!

Eddie & actress Claudia Bassols of Tasting Menu.

When you're a food writer in Hollywood, sometimes the worlds of food and film collide. Such was the delicious case with my magnificent meal at The Bazaar by José Andrés at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills. On that night, I had the pleasure of dining with actress Claudia Bassols and director Roger Gual of the new foodie-focused film Tasting Menu.


Tasting Menu director Roger Gual.

The bite-sized synopses: A couple, Rachel and Marc (Claudia Bassols & Jan Cornet), booked a table one year in advance at a crazy famous restaurant Chakula with extremely tough to get reservations—paralleling real life and defunct elBulli restaurant in Spain—now find themselves estranged and separated but still intending to dine together at this last night of the world renown establishment. With a mélange of misfit characters, from dueling investors in competition for Chakula's star chef Mar Vidal (Vicenta N'Dongo) to a suspicious lone diner named Walter (Stephen Rea), this multi-cast, multi-course, multi-storyline plot unfolds with an elaborate meal as the backdrop.

In real life, my modernist dinner at The Bazaar with my dinner companion Claudia Bassols was also epic. We indulged in the restaurant's "Jose's Favorites Tasting Menu" which included 20 courses of creative Spanish accented creations and 3 dessert courses.


Philly Cheesefake but still super delicious!

One of my faves was a masterful take on the Philly Cheesesteak that erupted with molten cheddar upon beaching the puffy "air bread." Topped with shavings of rare cooked Wagyu beef, this course was the highlight of the tasting menu.


Oxtail between buns. Like nature intended.

The Oxtail Buns made with watermelon radish, cilantro and steamed buns, was moist, meaty and a perfect bite of savory oxtail.


Cheers to croquetas!

Claudia gravitated to the foods of her Catalan roots favoring the plates of Croquetas de Pollo, Olives and Manchego Bread. Director Gual loved it all as a food filmmaker should.


Dungeness crab done The Bazaar way.

Tasting Menu hits theaters Friday, April 18th. Check out the trailer below.