A lighthearted, satirical, social comedy about an unsuspecting couple in the Canadian Diplomatic Service posted to New Delhi who inherit a household of Indian servants headed by the wily, charming... and totally inspiring cook - Stella. I can only imagine the luscious sets, landscapes and colour in this new movie. Production Designer, Tamara Deverell (top photo), studied Renaissance art and architecture in Florence, and design and painting at the Emily Carr Institute of Art. She worked as an art director with renowned production designers François Séguin and Carol Spier, on such films as Crash and Existenz, both directed by David Cronenberg. She was also the art director on X Men, and on Guillermo del Toro‘s Mimic. Her work as a production designer covers a wide range of periods and styles, and includes the Eloise at the Plaza television movies, and the mini series Sounder and A Feast for all Saints. She was the production designer for Deepa Mehta‘s comedy Bollwood Hollywood, for Breakfast with Scot, director Laurie Lynd and also for THE Burning Season, director Harvey Crossland — which was shot in India. She is currently designing the ABC series Happy Town. Her four months in New Delhi researching and designing Cooking with Stella were a professional and personal highlight.
Stella Elizabeth Matthews has been a cook in the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi for 30 years. She is brilliant as a cook, and brilliant at creatively padding her salary - with a few pilfered items, some minor overcharging, and a special phone-order duty free business. A newly posted Canadian diplomatic couple Michael and Maya arrive with their baby and, after an initial jolt when she learns that Michael will be staying home as "diplomatic housewife" while Maya goes off to work, everything goes swimmingly for Stella. Michael was a chef in Ottawa and he is longing to learn authentic Indian cooking. Stella agrees to be his "cooking guru". But Stella's cozy domestic set-up implodes when Tannu, an honest nanny, joins the household, and threatens to expose Stella's deceptions. Eventually Stella wins Tannu's full cooperation (and then some!). This unlikely partnership embarks on a much grander, riskier scam, which seems to bring disaster. An unexpected kind of justice is found, but not until the guru-student relationship between Stella and Michael has been sorely tested. Michael has learned many important lessons from his teacher ...including glorious traditional South Indian cooking. And Stella? Well... let's just say dreams sometimes come true in unexpected ways.
Stella Elizabeth Matthews has been a cook in the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi for 30 years. She is brilliant as a cook, and brilliant at creatively padding her salary - with a few pilfered items, some minor overcharging, and a special phone-order duty free business. A newly posted Canadian diplomatic couple Michael and Maya arrive with their baby and, after an initial jolt when she learns that Michael will be staying home as "diplomatic housewife" while Maya goes off to work, everything goes swimmingly for Stella. Michael was a chef in Ottawa and he is longing to learn authentic Indian cooking. Stella agrees to be his "cooking guru". But Stella's cozy domestic set-up implodes when Tannu, an honest nanny, joins the household, and threatens to expose Stella's deceptions. Eventually Stella wins Tannu's full cooperation (and then some!). This unlikely partnership embarks on a much grander, riskier scam, which seems to bring disaster. An unexpected kind of justice is found, but not until the guru-student relationship between Stella and Michael has been sorely tested. Michael has learned many important lessons from his teacher ...including glorious traditional South Indian cooking. And Stella? Well... let's just say dreams sometimes come true in unexpected ways.
Official 'Cooking With Stella' website.
Stella's Recipes here.
Year: 2009
Language: English, Hindi
Runtime: 103 minutes
Format: Colour/35mm
Rating: PG
Opens March 19, 2010
5 comments:
Love the header today LP....thank you very much for putting me up there with such gorgeous company.
I think ' Cooking with Stella' sounds like a great movie. Have a fabulous weekend, xv.
The Movie and the food look wonderful. I hope it gets to Salt Lake soon.
I'm sure I'd love this (even though cooking is not my thing)
Thanks for the preview. x
Like India. Had done 4 travels over there, and use lots of pictures in my culturel' shops windows. as a decorator.
Now I have a blog about Japon. It is as well, a very interesting country
.
hello from Lausanne, Switzerlad
Post a Comment