• it/its

Please don't be a stranger! Contact me on Discord, Telegram, or FA as @silverspots


I woke up with this memory of a movie I'd seen as a child but I'm not sure it exists.

80s/90s movie, blond boy with a bowl cut lives in a neighborhood, his parents are fighting all the time and litigating a divorce, and he's miserable. He lives near the creepy old man/creepy old house, who everybody says is a witch/wizard/voodoo guy/whatever, who makes spells and potions in his giant pot.

He sees creepy old man doing suspicious things like carrying loads of vegetables out back, or emptying out a big kettle, the two meet at some point and the kid gets scared and runs away.

Eventually the two meet properly and it is revealed that the old man is a chef and he just loves to cook elaborate meals. He shows the boy a big recipe book and it's filled with all sorts of foods the boy has never heard of, let alone tasted.

The man is lonely and the boy needs a stable parental figure, and so the two agree to cook through the whole book together. Along the way, the boy learns valuable lessons about self esteem, learning to trust and accept people even if they're imperfect, and be emotionally vulnerable when necessary. Obviously this is all reflected in the food they make. Meanwhile, the old man keeps saying that the best recipes are at the end of the book, and he can't wait until they get that far.

Its been several months, and the divorce gets finalized, the boy's mom is going to take him away and move out of state. The boy says he would rather live with the old man but obviously this isn't going to happen. As a parting gift, the man gives the boy the recipe book and tells him to keep cooking. The boy finally gets to see the recipes at the back. He opens the book and finds that the last half the book or so is blank. He looks to the old man questioningly.

"Of course it's blank," the old man says. "If life were just a series of instructions to be carried out, there would be no joy in living!"

The boy, having learned this final lesson, hugs the old man, gets in the car, and leaves forever. He reflects on the things he's learned and the life he may live, meanwhile the old man does s something that makes the audience question if he was just a chef, or possibly something more magical.

No idea if this movie is real or not. Has anybody seen/heard of it?


You must log in to comment.