Every Dish In The Menu & What They Really Mean (2024)

Every course served at the Hawthorn by Chef Slowik is deliberate, and The Menu dishes have a specific meaning behind them. The Menu is centered around a unique dinner experience on the island called Hawthorn, where twelve guests dine at an exclusive restaurant owned by celebrity chef Julian Slowik. The twelve guests consist of wealthy business people, celebrities, food critics, and others who can offer such an expensive restaurant experience — a stark contrast with the kitchen staff who live and work on the island with the Chef to earn their living and provide the service the wealthy minority has paid for.

As the name suggests, The Menu is structured around an actual menu cooked and planned by Julian himself. Every dish tells a story, with an overarching team which will eventually lead to the reveal of Chef Slowik's plan to kill everyone at the end of The Menu. Most of the courses are introduced by Slowik himself as the dishes are served and cooked in front of the guests, explaining the ingredients used and the significance behind them. Every dish is a commentary on the meaning of food, the food industry itself, and the wealthy clientele who frequent exclusive dining experiences.

Lemon Caviar Serve On Raw Oyster With Mignonette

The Only Dish In The Menu That Isn't Explained

The first of The Menu movie dishes is not served on the island, but is given to the guests on the way to The Menu's central restaurant, Hawthorn, after they board the boat. As the only dish without an explanation, viewers cannot be sure what the intended meaning behind this course is meant to be. However, The Menu may have hinted at Chef's plan and history in the sourness of the lemon. In fact, Tyler is enthusiastic and shares an unnecessary and possibly wrong explanation of the dish.

Audiences who are familiar with the dish and caught Tyler's pretentious explanation already had a clue about how his interactions with the Chef might go. However, given that Slowik does have a passion for making good food, despite the fact that it has been tainted by outside forces, it is possible this was meant to be the true final and genuine offering of his talents before his plan gets underway.

Amuse Bouche

The Early Hint That Chef Slowik Is In Control

Amuse Bouche is the first dish served to The Menu cast on the island. Before the dinner, guests are taken on a tour of the island and shown how all the ingredients for The Menu movie dishes are harvested and presented there. They are then taken to the restaurant where they are treated to the complimentary opening dish, a bite-sized treat made up of cucumber melon, milk snow, and charred lace.

Interestingly, Amuse Bouche is a dish that traditionally is not ordered by patrons but, instead, served depending solely on the chef's selection. Therefore, with this dish, The Menu is foreshadowing how the entire evening has been meticulously crafted by Julian, and at this point, the guests have no control. However, it is also a standard enough dish that it doesn't raise any suspicions early on.

First Course: The Island

A Metaphor About The Fleeting Nature Of Human Life

The various locations where The Menu was filmed were crucial to establishing the island, the setting of this artistic massacre. It is an ideal horror location as it initially seems like a beautiful and scenic, albeit ominous, place to have a restaurant only to become a prison from which there is no escape. The first course is also the first dish introduced by Chef Slowik, as he would do for all succeeding The Menu movie dishes.

From the seaweed to the fresh raw scallop, every ingredient of the dish comes from the island itself, as the name suggests. The Chef is clearly inspired by nature, particularly the ocean, and the entire ecosystem around them. This highlights the relevance of the raw ingredients compared to the fleeting presence of human life on the island, once again foreshadowing how The Menu will end.

Second Course: Breadless Bread Plate

A Veiled Commentary On The Guests At The Hawthorn

The second course is made up of no bread with only savory accomplishments, defined as genius by some guests but offensive to others. As Lillian Bloom suggests in her comment, the concept of the dish is rooted in class history, which is often highlighted through the privileged diners in The Menu. However, it is also possible that was not the intended purpose and was simply her own pretentious reading of it.

The first truly unusual offering among The Menu movie dishes, this plate of sauces suggests that none of the island's guests deserve bread. After all, they are not ordinary patrons, and as explained by Chef, bread and grain have always been the food of the impoverished throughout history. This was the first overt clue about Chef's uncommon plans and his disdain for his guests.

Third Course: Chicken Tacos With Scissors In It

The Threatening Dish With A Chilling Past

Julian calls this course "Memory." In his speech, Chef recalls when he used to eat tacos with his family on Tuesdays. One night, when his father came home drunk and hurt his mother, Julian stopped him by stabbing him with scissors in the thigh. This explains why the dish is served with a small pair of scissors in the chicken. Julian also mentions that this is a dish he has made since the beginning of his career as a chef. However, as with every one of The Menu movie dishes, these tasty tacos come with a dark twist.

The guests soon find out that the tacos contain personal and sometimes compromising pictures or documents of each guest. As such, the tacos expose the guests' secrets, like Richard cheating on his wife. Hilariously, Tyler's photos were of him taking pictures during the dinner. Not only that, but the personalized tacos also subtly reveal why Julian had chosen these specific guests. The food critic Lillian, for example, has caused many restaurants to close, with their picture shown on her tacos. They all represent why Julian has lost his love for his craft.

Fourth Course: The Mess

A Comment On The Futility Of Pursuing Perfection

Jeremy is Julian's sous chef, who serves a key purpose in one of The Menu movie dishes. The fourth course starts with Jeremy shooting himself: he will never be good enough to be at Chef's level, as explained by Julian in his speech. After his body is taken away, the guests are served pressure-cooked vegetables, roasted fillet, potato confit, beef just, and bone marrow.

During this course, The Menu quickly takes a darker, horror turn. It is now clear that, beyond the underlying hostile tone the chef and his team has towards the guests, there is a danger here as well. This is further emphasized when Richard's finger is cut off when trying to leave. The meaning of "The Mess" is simple and clear: the pursuit of culinary perfection to please strangers puts chefs under tremendous, sometimes lethal pressure.

Palate Cleanser: Wild Bergamot and Red Clover Tea

The Evening's Final Moments Of Normalcy

Tea is not only a good palate cleanser but is also a calming drink. It may be the most normal of The Menu's movie dishes, but this is only to ensure that the guests remain calm for the next part, even after witnessing Julian shoot himself. During this dish, Julian offers his guests his chance to ask him questions, as the tea represents the last moment of the calm before the storm.

In this case, he explains that the guests represent ingredients to a bigger concept, foreshadowing the end of The Menu and the Chef's intention of killing everybody. He explains why he despises every single one of them. In that way, the "palate cleanser" is a darkly ironic bit of comedy that fits wonderfully into the tone of the movie, with Slowik acting as if this is a calming and helpful addition to the evening while also taking it as an opportunity to let the diners know that they are going to die.

Man's Folly: Dungeness Crab, Umeboshi, Yogurt Whey, Kelp

A Culinary Exploration Of Male Insecurity

For the sixth of The Menu's movie dishes, everybody is invited to leave the restaurant and step outside on the island. This dish is not introduced by Chef Julian but by sous chef Katherine. In her speech, she recalls how she turned Julian's advances down, which made him ignore her for eight months. Chef Slowik gives her the opportunity to discuss her mistreatment as a way of penance while also allowing Katherine to stab him with kitchen scissors.

As for the course itself, it is called "Man's Folly," and is only served to the women. As the female guests are led back into the restaurant, the men are given the opportunity to escape, showing how willing they are to run away and selfishly abandon their close friends, bosses, or significant others. At their tables, from the dungeness crab to the fermented yogurt, the women feast on this representation of the pretentious insecurities of toxic men. Made with mostly ingredients from the sea, it also symbolizes the futility of trying to escape.

Passard Egg: Hot-Cold, Sweet & Savory Soft-Boiled Egg

A Traditional Gourmet Dish

This special dish is offered last as all the men attempt, and fail, at escaping. It is an egg with crème fraîche and maple. The singling out of Tyler against the other men in this sequence suggests what will happen to Tyler in The Menu next: he does not try and escape and is not exactly like all the other guests. Contrary to the others, it is revealed later that Tyler knew the dinner guests would die from the beginning.

Curiously, the Passard Egg is a typical dish served at gourmet restaurants. It's given as a reward for the last man to be caught trying to escape — found by the Chef's staff hiding inside the island's chicken coop. Apart from this hilarious connection, serving a fancy soft-boiled egg to the man who gave his best efforts at an essentially futile task adds insult to injury. Even though it was most likely a delicious dish, the genital symbolism is clear.

Tyler's Bulls**t

Terrible Lamb Cooked By An Even Worse Human Being

Although this was not initially included among The Menu's movie dishes, in a twist, it is revealed that Tyler knew he and whoever he went with was going to die and, despite this, had knowingly brought Margot with him. Tyler sees himself as a connoisseur and was willing to die and allow others to die in order to get an exclusive dining experience. However, Slowik shows that, despite Tyler's passion, he hasn't observed anything about the art of cooking.

Julian humiliates Tyler, making him cook while everybody is observing him and calling his food of undercooked lamb and inedible sauce terrible. He has thus ruined the art of cooking. After Julian whispers something in his ear, Tyler leaves to hang himself. Although viewers do not know what was said to Tyler, it can be imagined that Chef's disappointment in him and his humiliation led to his suicide.

Birthday Cake

A Surreal Moment Of Levity

As Margot is allowed to leave at the end of The Menu, it becomes clear she is different from other guests as Julian asks Margot for her help with the dessert. Although the audience is not shown this, there is another savory course in The Menu, one that Margot does not witness.

As Margot returns to the restaurant, one of the diners at the Hawthorn is presented with a cake for his birthday. Whether this was previously planned or just a way to buy some time before Margot returns, it's simply hilarious to see the murderous staff giving a guest cake and even singing the birthday song like in a normal restaurant. It perfectly adds to the dark comedy of The Menu as Slowik and the staff happily present the cake to the traumatized birthday boy.

Supplemental Course: A Cheeseburger

Margot's Successful Bid For Survival

The cheeseburger is not originally part of The Menu's movie dishes, but was made upon Margot's request. The meaning of the cheeseburger in The Menu is simple. This dish reminds Chef of his love for cooking and for actually feeding somebody else — someone who's hungry and just wants to enjoy simple, real food. Therefore, he lets Margot leave, taking her cheeseburger to go.

As such, the last reminder of Julian will be that of food he truly enjoyed cooking, which is why he began his career. Ultimately, this course is why Margot escapes in The Menu and is the only one who survives. It serves as a fitting moment for Margot's character as well, as she is able to prove she is not like the rest of the self-centered diners as she was able to recognize Slowik on a human and intimate level, appealing to a side of him that others did not see behind his immense talents.

Final Dessert: Human S'Mores

The Fiery End To Slowik's Final Meal

After everybody pays, the staff prepares the final course, the one that, as The Menu ends, will cause the death of everybody on the island. S'Mores may be a simple course, even called boring by Chef, but it is often associated with childhood innocence and good memories. Out of The Menu movie's dishes, this was also the most epic, a fitting finale for everyone involved.

Interestingly, at this point in the evening, the diners have seemingly come to accept their fates and even embrace the show of the final course. They freely offer their credit cards to pay for the meal while knowing that it is not going to be necessary given that everyone will be dead. As Slowik ignites the fire, he is the first to burn, showing that his death was always going to be part of this evening and, in the end, he shared the moment with the diners whom he resented.

The Menu

R

A darkly comedic horror-thriller, The Menu focuses on a group of diners invited to a high-end restaurant on a private island by one of the world's greatest chefs. Shortly after arriving on the island, Margot Mills begins to realize something is strange beyond the perceived pompous nature of the menu. Her suspicions are confirmed when the night turns deadly as the restaurant staff begins to descend into a cult-like madness.

Release Date

November 18, 2022

Director

Mark Mylod

Cast

Ralph Fiennes , Anya Taylor-Joy , Nicholas Hoult , Hong Chau , Janet McTeer , Reed Birney , Judith Light , John Leguizamo

Runtime

106 minutes

Studio(s)

Searchlight Pictures