The Menu parallels Roald Dahl's magnum opus, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which makes it worthy of being touted as Willy Wonka for adults. Set in a remote island restaurant, The Menu presents a spectacular demolition of classicism by using the culinary arts as a narrative device. While it refuses to take itself and its undercurrent of socio-political themes too seriously, it is clear-eyed, hilarious, and even downright terrifying with its mockery of food criticism and fine dining obsession.
A lot goes on in The Menu's proverbial "eat the rich" narrative, but it is primarily driven by Chef Julian Slowik's evil plan against his elite patrons. With each ing course on the titular menu, the chef gradually reveals that he is on a warpath against his own beliefs and his pretentious upper-class customers. Considering how Julian subtly achieves this by using his food as a medium, it is hard not to parallel his anti-hero narrative with another morally ambiguous fictional character.
How The Menu Parallels Willy Wonka
Chef Julian's arc in The Menu parallels Willy Wonka's in more ways than one. Wonka invites children and their families to his coveted chocolate factory, and Chef Julian prepares a special menu for an elite roster of guests at his restaurant. While Willy Wonka uses the candy in his factory to draw out and ridicule the sins of his patrons, Chef Slowik does the same in The Menu through his purposefully silly meal courses. In the end, both realize that one of their customers is not the same as the rest and give them the opportunity to earn a reward. Charlie inherits the factory while Margot gets to escape.
Although Chef Slowik's demeanor is far more intimidating than Willy Wonka's, the two establish from the beginning that their guests can leave if they try. However, the privileged visitors of their respective facilities are too self-indulgent to serve themselves since they are so used to being served by others. Not to mention, given how the staff at the Hawthorne kitchen obediently conform to the chef's orders and are almost indistinguishable from one another, they do not seem too different from the Oompa Loompas in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
The Menu's Willy Wonka Parallels Make The Movie Even Better
The Menu's Willy Wonka parallels highlight how despite having a familiar narrative, it ingeniously subverts all expectations in its second half. For instance, unlike Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, The Menu is not a rags-to-riches story in which Margot inherits Chef Julian's wealth after ing his test. Instead, it is a relatively more human take on class divides where Margot represents a world the chef misses but cannot go back to. Therefore, he sets her free, not as a descendant of his legacy, but as a reminder of his past.
The Willy Wonka similarities also nail down the idea that as much as one would like to idealize characters like Willy Wonka and Chef Slowik, they, too, are enablers of the system they criticize. While Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka mindlessly fires his entire workforce before hiring the Oompa Loompas, Slowik involves his staff in his sinister suicide mission. In the closing arc, both are humbled and outwitted by that one unprivileged customer, but what makes The Menu darker and more engaging for an adult audience is that Chef Julian takes his pride and greed with him to his deathbed instead of finding redemption like Willy Wonka.
