(This blog was originally posted on September 9, 2014)
(Spoiler alert: This
blog contains information about some key plot scenes. Please do not read it if
you have not yet seen—but intend to watch this film!)
The Hundred-Foot Journey captivated
me from the first frame, when a little boy follows his mother through a crowded
market to select food for their family’s meal. Of course, that little boy grows
up to become the chef and a main character in the movie. What he learns about
gourmet cooking and life turns out to be good lessons for the audience, too.
In
addition to admiring the scrumptious feasts that the rival restaurants present
for their customers, I also had an opportunity to observe how neighbors from
two seemingly disparate cultures opened their minds and their hearts to each
other. This movie is an elegant illustration of how John Kappas, Ph.D.’s Theory of Mind can
transcend cultural differences by initially hindering and ultimately facilitate
people’s relationships and acceptance of those different cultures.
According to the
Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder, human
behavior is based on the subconscious mental scripts that we create during
early childhood. From birth until about eight years old, the SCM is accumulating
and storing various message units that will ultimately comprise the
subconscious life script. Each message is ultimately categorized as a positive
(pleasure) or negative (pain) experience. Anything that the subconscious mind
does not recognize falls under the category of “pain”; the resistance to
meet/welcome someone new into our lives or to try a new experience (e.g., flavor)
is the mind’s way of protecting us from potential danger.
After Hassan
Kadam and his family are forced to leave their home in India they ultimately
settle in a small town in the French countryside. His father purchases a
property across the road from a traditional French restaurant and decides to
also open a restaurant (Maison Mumbai), which will serve traditional Indian
cuisine. Hassan and his siblings initially protest their father’s plan: there
is already a Michelin-starred restaurant across the street, they argue; anyway,
why would villagers want to eat the fare they will serve? They probably
wouldn’t like or appreciate the stronger flavors and the restaurant would never
be successful. The family’s reasoning came from their subconscious fear of repeating
previous failures and their belief that their neighbors would be afraid of the
unknown (i.e., eating food they had never tried before). Papa disagrees: How do they know they won’t like it? They’ve
never had it! His argument comes from the will-power, reasoning,
decision-making and logical faculties of his conscious mind.
When the family
has trouble attracting customers for the grand opening of their restaurant, the
patriarch changes from the Western European suit he has been wearing and dons
traditional Indian clothing (including a turban). He instructs his teen-age
daughter to do the same, and the bright lights decorating the faux façade of
the Taj Mahal in front of Maison Mumbai and lively, traditional music emanating
from within attracts the guests. Papa Kadam obviously realized that the way to
attract clientele to his new restaurant was by giving them what they already “knew”
and therefore wanted: what they believed to be traditional Indian culture that
matched the traditional Indian cuisine they were about to experience.
In my favorite
example of how the SCM learns to accept new knowns and adopt new behaviors,
Hassan Kadam incorporates a traditional Indian spice in a traditional French
recipe. His new employer, Madame Mallory—the Kadam family’s former rival and
the restaurateur across the road—is loath to make even a minute modification to
a centuries’ old recipe. When she demands to know why anyone would want to change
an old tradition, he patiently explains that maybe it is time for the old
tradition to be let go. I believe the aspiring chef is able to make his case
about this modification for two reasons. First, because his employer has
previously tasted and enjoyed the traditional Indian spices he has incorporated
in other dishes he has prepared, so these flavors are becoming more familiar or
even a known to her subconscious mind. Second—and I believe more importantly—because
the Kadam family’s personal and professional relationships with Madame Mallory
had become more mutually respectful and even cordial. Just as Hassan was open
and eager to accept culinary suggestions about how to create a traditional
French meal, she had also become amenable to adding ingredients and spices from
his traditional cuisine to the menu at her restaurant.
This
blog is just an appetizer, as it were, to the various culinary, emotional and
human behavioral delights you will experience when you watch The Hundred-Foot Journey. Needless to
say, I highly recommend this movie…just be sure to have something to eat first,
because you might find yourself feeling very hungry looking at all of that
sumptuous food!
Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in
Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in
2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy®
and to set up an appointment, please
visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.
© 2015
