The Ratatouille movie introduced the ratatouille dish itself. With the eye-pleasing and appetizing animation of the title-based food, many viewers become intrigued as to who designed the widely famous ratatouille. 

Thomas Keller, an acclaimed chef who owns the famous restaurant The French Laundry, designed the ratatouille dish, including the elegant and modern layering of the ingredients.

The Coveted Ratatouille Dish

Directed by Brad Bird, the Pixar movie Ratatouille has gained widespread love even years after its release. Ratatouille focuses on the dilemma of Remy, the rat, as his passion ignites once he sets foot in Gusteau’s restaurant, an eatery in Paris once owned by Remy’s culinary idol, Auguste Gusteau.

With the help of Auguste Gusteau’s ghost and Linguini, the materialization of Remy’s goal set forth his dream of becoming a chef after making a dish for food critic Anton Ego. Ego holds much power with his reviews, subjecting the Gusteau’s to a low rating because of his disappointment with the food.

Cooked by Collete and Remy, the final dish served to Anton Ego named the ratatouille led to Ego giving his compliments to the chef and meeting Remy himself. Ego described the ratatouille as an extraordinary meal that changed his perceptions of fine cuisine, ultimately unifying his ideals with Gusteau’s motto of Anyone can cook. 

With Remy’s established cooking skills and Anton Ego’s reaction, the movie’s release made the French dish coveted globally, as it played a significant role in helping all the main characters pursue their dream. With the international desire to taste the esteemed ratatouille, one becomes intrigued to know the designer of the highly coveted food. 

The acclaimed chef Thomas Keller made the movie’s version of the dish, even sharing the film’s modern recipe on the ratatouille. (Source: The Berkshire Eagle) 

Thomas Keller’s Contributions to Ratatouille

The movie Ratatouille wanted nothing more than to make the meals cooked by Remy to be as eye-pleasing as it tastes. The act of animating food is a lengthy process that the effects supervisor and the animating staff of the movie came to know in their pursuit to make the finished scene look effortless and entertaining.

The lighting supervisor at Pixar Animation Studios, Kim White, explains that the appetizingness of animated food is essential. With that thought process, they dedicated themselves to cooking classes and French dining with the aid of Thomas Keller.

Going into the movie, we knew food was going to be hard. Food is almost the opposite of a lot of computer stuff. It’s organic. It’s sloppy. It’s fluid.

Apurva Shah

Apurva Shah, the effects’ supervisor of the movie, and his fellow filmmakers allocated much of their time to recalling their cooking classes and kitchen work videos as they worked on the animation of chopping scenes and food.

The collaboration of Thomas Keller and the Pixar Crew began years ago when the filmmakers requested to study the kitchen of French Laundry, a restaurant in Yountville owned by Keller. Eventually, the crew asked Keller to create the ratatouille dish for the film. (Source: The Berkshire Eagle)