Are you thinking about entertaining on Halloween?  Why not rent a food flick and invite a few friends over for a food movie night? You could plan a Halloween feast or opt for the quick and easy, like pizza. You could serve a sumptuous dinner, an appetizer menu, or desserts only. Be creative and base your menu on the movie’s theme.  Whatever your menu, do not forget the popcorn!  If you do not have a popper, pick up organic and gourmet popcorns from Cost Plus World Markets. They also carry the cute little popcorn bags you get in movie theaters.

There are outstanding food films that depict the seductive interplay of food and cooking. Here are some of my favorites:

• Babette’s Feast: On the desolate coast of Denmark, two elderly, religious women take in a young woman to be their housekeeper and cook, not knowing she is a superb French chef. When the chef, Babette, wins a large sum of money, she decides to spend it all creating a magnificent meal for the simple villagers. In Danish and French, with English subtitles.
• Big Night: The story of two brothers whose Italian restaurant is on the brink of bankruptcy. Their only chance for success is to risk everything they own on an extravagant feast for bandleader Louis Prima. But their big night is complicated by a lovers' triangle, a sneaky restaurant rival, and the hilarious perfectionism of the chef.
• Chocolat:  When a single mother and her young daughter move to rural France and open a chocolate shop, with Sunday hours, across the street from the local church, they are met with some resistance from the rigidly moral community. As soon as the townspeople discover their delicious products, their attitudes begin to change.
• Dinner Rush:  The owner of a New York eatery presides over a busy night of fine dining and mob entanglements. A bookmaker for 25 years, he's going legit, and his son is eager to inherit the business. The sous-chef is deeply in debt to mafia thugs, an art-dealer snob is antagonizing his waitress, a charming stranger harbors a climactic surprise, and a powerful food critic is ready to pounce on any wrong move. It's a loud New York life film with much heart and a dandy ending.
• Eat Drink Man Woman: This film looks at the relationship between a Chinese widower and his three daughters. The main character, Chef Chu, is one of Taiwan's most respected chefs. But while food has brought him status in the outside world, it fails to gain him the respect of his three grown daughters. Early on we learn the father has lost his taste for food, which symbolizes that both father and daughters have lost their taste for life. In this comedy, food illustrates the shift in values between generations.
• Julie and Julia:  This film is an adaptation of two best-selling memoirs: Julie Powell's Julie & Julia and My Life in France, by Julia Child. Based on two true stories, Julie & Julia intertwines the lives of two women who, though separated by time and space, are both at loose ends. That is until they discover that with the right combination of passion, fearlessness and butter, anything is possible!
• Like Water for Chocolate: This film tells a series of erotic stories built around recipes. The heroine’s exquisite cooking causes all sorts of passions and emotions to collide within a Mexican ranch family.
• Mostly Martha (Bella Martha):  Martha is the chef who fusses and obsesses over each dish before it leaves the kitchen. The demands of her job and her natural shyness keep her from meeting new people. When her sister suddenly dies and Martha adopts her eight-year-old niece, she finds unexpected help from her hunky new sous chef.  He is not only a whiz on the chopping block but knows sundry magic tricks and jokes to keep the niece’s spirits afloat.
• No Reservations:  A master chef lives her life as she runs her kitchen at a trendy Manhattan eatery—with a no-nonsense intensity that both captivates and intimidates everyone around her. Her perfectionist nature is tested when she ''inherits'' her 9-year-old niece while contending with a brash new sous-chef who joins her staff. Rivalry becomes romance in this heartwarming film. Americanized version of Mostly Martha.
• Ratatouille: A rat named dreams of becoming a great French chef despite his family's wishes and the obvious problem of being a rat in a decidedly rodent-phobic profession.  The rat’s passion for cooking soon sets into motion hilarious and exciting activities that turn the culinary world of Paris upside down. He finds himself torn between his calling and passion in life or returning forever to his previous existence as a rat.
• Soul Food: Sunday dinner at a family’s matriarch is a mouthwatering, 40-year tradition. As seen through the eyes of her grandson, love and laughs are always on the menu despite the usual simmering family rivalries. When serious bickering starts to tear the family apart, the good times suddenly stop, and it is up to the grandson to get everyone back together and teach them the true meaning of soul food.
• Tortilla Soup: This is a heartwarming comedy about food, family and a certain magic that only happens at the dinner table. Martin is the culinary genius behind a successful restaurant and the widowed father of three daughters whom he has a compulsion to steer in the right direction. Hungry for their independence, the girls find themselves at odds with their traditionalist father.
• Woman on Top:  A brilliant Brazilian chef cooks with such sensuality and abundant chilies that she trails an aroma that renders all men on two continents insensibly in love with her.  In this hilarious fantasy, the bossa nova music is a big part of the mix, and the scenes of Bahia are gorgeous.
  

Welcome your guests with this mulled beverage—a perfect potion for Halloween!