Food from the GF trilogy

There is so much food in the GF movies.
Some is mentioned by name, and some you just see on the table.

What food or dishes can you think of from the movie?
(Name the food (or dish) and the scene)


Lasagna at the wedding in GF1 when Mike and Kay are sitting at the table.

Capicola sandwiches/the gobbagool tossed to Pauli at the wedding.

Chicken cacciatore being made in the kitchen by Mama, Sandra and Connie.

Clemenza's sauce!

How can anyone forget the cannolis!


Don Cardi

Don't forget the 's. Oh yea Popcorn J/K

Ritz cracker and chopped liver.
("Can o'peas my ass...")
Frank Pentangele

Popcorn??

Pop's birthday cake.

Typical mafia. They are always eating.
I often get hungry from watching mafia movies.
Food seems to be a very important aspect in the life of the cosa nostra.

Don't forget the birthday cake in part II. Oh and the olive oil from Gencos.

Yea listen to Geoff's radio show that he did this year and you will understand.

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Very good Mig! Very good!


Don Cardi

The spaghetti that was being scrapped into the garbage in the montage in GF I, and the spaghetti Connie threw at the wall in GF I. The spaghetti Vito, Tessio and Clemenza were eating in GF II when Vito told them about his plan
The pear in GF II.

Whatever it was Apollonia was passing around at her wedding.
Some kind of candy I think.

The OJ and candy Michael ate in the cardinal's courtyard.

The Pope's tea.

Hyman Roth's Birthday cake in Cuba, and his tuna sandwich in Miami.

The bag of Groceries Abbandando tried to give Vito.

The salsice Joey Zasa ate at the street fair.

The best veal in the city.

What were Hagen and Woltz having for dinner?

What were Michael and Kay eating at the hotel?

What were they having in GF II in the scene where Merle and Deanna were dancing?

The Chinese food they're eating right before Michael's meeting with Solozzo and McCluskey.

Btw, is that Rocco eating with them?

Really, guys, Im getting hungry....
Dont forget the wine... Lots of it

I didn't go back to the movie to check, but ... but I always thought it was Italian food they were eating.
Back inna old days it was often Italian food that came in those carry-out containers. When I was a kid in the 60's occasionally my grandparents would pick up some carryout ... it was things like spaghetti, gnocchi, fried eggplant, meatballs, orancini and things of that sort.

Couldn't locate a copy of the radio show. Searched google and checked www.jgeoff.com.
Could ya clue me in? (or point me toward a link)

Sonny eating the candies while he, Tom and Vito discuss whether to enter the drug business with Solozzo.

Young Vito in GF2 serving Clemenza and Tessio the plates of spaghetti and then explaining that he would 'take care of everything'. A brilliant scene.

Young Vito bringing a pear home to his wife and her seeming joy or happiness at seeing it.

Sonny's apology to Tom after his outburst about not having a wartime consigliere centered around food......."It's Sunday, Ma made a little dinner......"

Amen to that! The Sopranos are eating all the time. Makes me hungry!

Another good mafia dish would be horse steak, rare.

Did anyone think to mention the Doomed oranges bought by don vito moments before his assasination?


Joe Batters

Excellent selections! ... and some great scenes, Don Illuminati.
The pear scene was one that would always cause my ex to swoon a bit ... kinda romantic in a very simple way.
"Ma made a little dinner" ... it's true, the dinner table is often where Italians make up.

The tomato garden where vito died.

The Child star's birthday cake at the movie studio

The China Bowl restaurant and Jack Dempsey's restaurant

The fruit on display in Atlantic city

The friut stands where Vito got his first freebie and the one where he took five shots and lived.

Another take on this is the fact that the food business is central to the stories.

Vito grew up with a family that owned a grocery store.

Vito's front for all his "business" was an olive oil company.

The casinos, in addition to having gambling, had restaurants and lounges.

Fredo ran mickey mouse nightclubs.

A couple of months ago there was a thread about the drinking, now we have the eating. Between eating, drinking and killing, there was only 16 minutes for everything else.
And when they aren't eating, someone is asking them to eat or wishing they were eating

GF2 - Michael says, Johnny's men look hungry.
GF - Sonny asks Paulie if he's hungry before he suggests brandy to sweat out his cold.
GF2 - Frankie is looking for the sausage and peppers at the communion party
GF2 - Frankie doesn't mangia with Hyman Roth in Miami
and
GF - the opening wedding scene the State Troopers are eating in the parking lot

This eating thing is true in all movies. If real people ate as much as they did in the movies everyone would look like Clemenza.

My favoite though is the pasta Connie threw at the wall when Carlo told her he was going out to dinner.

I often wondered how many times they rehearsed that scene. Ok, bring in the clean up crew! Take 17. And have you noticed that Carlo takes the poke chips close to the jewels?

I always enjoy watching Clemenza dig into his pasta in that scene. He's really the only one who eats and he pigs out with gusto...at the same time trying to convince Vito that they just HAVE to pay Fanucci! I always eat spaghetti with a spoon, too...it's the 'Italian' way !

Another food scene nobody seems to have mentioned - Hyman Roth's tuna sandwich & cheese during Michael's visit to his home.

Apple

what a great topic..noone mentioned that very sexy (ugh)scene where Mary and Vincent were rolling the dough with their hands...always reminded me of the scene in "ghost with the pottery wheel...

Radio Show
Scroll down to were JG posts the radio show

Food seems to be a very important aspect in the life of ITALIANS!!

WOW!! I never noticed it before!!! Great point! Funny is both movies were shot in 1990, so that we cannot tell which one was the inspiration! Anyway, I agree. The scene is nice. Pretty sexy. Food and sex. What a combination!!

There's also the rice throw at Michael & Apollonia's wedding

Sonny ripping off a piece (no, not Lucy) of bread and dunking it into a pot of sauce (just after he spoke to Mama Corleone about Vito getting shot).

Yeah! this is very Italian! Oh, and does anybody here use to clear his sauce spotted dish with a piece of bread when they are finished eating pasta?

I can go through a loaf of bread while making sauce.

My friends used to think my family was odd because we ate bread with our spaghetti. It was the way I was raised ... I never thought it strange.

And, yes, I "clean" my plate with a piece of bread to mop up any remaining sauce.

Of course we clean our plates with bread! So clean that I just put the dish away when I'm done.

I digress....Lavi, do restaurants in Italy put a small dish or bowl to pour olive oil into for dunking bread? I don't remember from my trip there.

that's called scarpetta, i.e. little shoe. Absolutely Italian! I find it to be delightful that you keep these Italian habits, SC!

Isn't Scarpetta the name of some kind of detective in Patricia Cornwell novels?

Yeah Kay Scarpetta...a sort of pathologist cum detective

How about the cakes?

The Carlo-Connie wedding cake with the angels.

The Commanditore cake with Saint Sebastian (Mike offers Kay a slice of it)


Also in GF III I seem to remember some kind of food spead over the kitchen table in the scene where Michael has his stroke.

Me neither...but we ALWAYS had Italian bread & butter on the table with every meal, pasta or not.

However, though raised Italian I could never get into that sauce mopping thing. I'd much rather dunk my bread into the juices from the fresh tomato salad!!!

Back to the subject at hand...there's the deleted scene (which we'll get to see next week) of the older Clemenza digging into another plate of spaghetti while the doomed Paulie waits in the car, thinking his boss is in some kind of meeting.

There's also that big plate of pasta being dumped into the garbage during the piano montage after Michael shoots Sollozzo.

Apple

I am going to eat spaghetti and drink red wine for the Godfather fest on television. Maybe some cannoli too.

I don't think this was mentioned.

GF3 - Michael drinking OJ and crackers to stave off his diabetes.
GF - Clemenza teaching Mike how to make sauce (Sonny dunking, previously mentioned), but the "new faces" sitting in the kitchen (background) eating.
GF - Lunch at Vitelli's in Corleone.
GF - Tessio tossing an orange in the air at the wedding getting reading to peel it.
GF - Calo is eating when Michael asks him to get the car.

Sonny discussing business at the table and when Carlo offers his services being told to shut up and that business is not discussed at the table. Carlo retreats to the kitchen where the women are cooking.

'What's the matter Carlo?'

I migth sound enoying but... werent there pickles in the godfather triology? Im sure there were but... When?

Yea---My Dad did it all the time...It's all in the family!

Never!!!!!

Altobello savoring the bread and sicilian olive oil/

I most confess myself guilty!

Does anyone know what type of cake they where eating at Hyman Roths BD in Cuba??