Warning! This article contains major spoilers for The Menu
The plot of The Menu revolves around Chef Slowik’s desire to kill everyone, including his guests, his kitchen staff, and even himself. The movie opens with Margot Mills as she joins her date Tyler and a few famous and rich celebrities as they all travel to an exclusive restaurant on a private island. The restaurant is created and operated by none other than Julian Slowik, a celebrity chef who has ulterior motives to have these guests on the private island that have little to do with an exclusive dinner experience.
Throughout The Menu, the audience learns more about Chef’s plans to kill everyone and why he has come to this decision. As he has meticulously plotted everybody’s death, including the unknowing and innocent protagonist Margot, Ralph Fiennes’ Chef Slowik is clearly the antagonist in The Menu. Julian has come up with an elaborate plan that, as he explains to his guests, will lead to the death of everyone on the island. However, a closer look at his story reveals that Chef’s motives are more complicated than those of many other villains.
Why Chef Wants To Kill Himself
As Chef Slowik introduces his dishes in The Menu, both the viewers and his guests learn something about him. Throughout the movie, Julian constantly emphasizes the difference between his guests who exploit their work, and him and his staff, the people that are responsible for the manual labor that creates pleasure and entertainment for the few that can afford it. The classism which makes up the underlying theme in The Menu has probably played a significant part in Chef’s decision, but everyone will die at the end of The Menu, regardless of their role or class status.
The truth is that Chef has lost the passion he once had for his craft. It becomes evident in The Menu that there is no joy in feeding people who pretend to know everything about food but could not cook anything themselves. Julian is unhappy feeding people who eat his food only because they can afford it, rather than because they truly like it or because they are hungry. Having lost that passion, which Chef is reminded of by Margot’s request for a cheeseburger, he does not see any reason to live anymore.
Why Chef Chooses These Customers To Kill Too
As The Menu progresses and the threat to the guests on the island becomes evident, Chef reveals that they will all die at the end of the night and that he has carefully chosen his guests. As The Menu ends on a possible twist, everybody does in fact die, but this is not by chance. The guests are all people that have taken advantage of their privilege and of the food industry, either by exploiting those who work like Slowik and his team, such as food critic Lillian Bloom, or by contributing to Chef’s loss of passion for cooking as no one can appreciate the art and craft behind his dishes.
Margot was the only one who was not meant to be there: after all, she has not been personally selected by Julian nor is she part of the rich minority Chef harbors such a deep hatred for. In stark contrast to the rest of the characters, she does not pretend to enjoy Chef’s dishes but, instead, demands something that she will enjoy, food that is far from the fine dining Julian has become accustomed to. As The Menu flips a horror trope, Margot is the only one to survive, since she is the one who could still appreciate Chef’s food.
The Menu is structured, quite literally, like a menu. Each segment of the film coincides with a specific dish, from the welcome dish to the dessert at the end. As such, each course is introduced by Julian with dramatic monologues, revealing a little more of the story as the meal goes on. With the lack of bread in one of the courses or the idea of representing the island’s ecosystem, the menu in the film represents the stark difference between classes, underlying the wealth and privilege of these rich people who, unlike common people, don’t eat for sustenance or pleasure.
Just like a real restaurant menu, then, the menu in the film tells a story, one which shocks the dinner guests, leading Margot to slap Tyler in The Menu in a twist that reveals how Tyler is a villain too. Once again, there is an element that does not conform to the rest of the menu: Margot’s cheeseburger. Just like Margot, the cheeseburger is not a part of this world. Therefore, the cheeseburger and Margot are the only two that can escape the detonation of the restaurant at the end of The Menu which kills the chef and everyone else.
