Intriguing details in The Menu's character arcs and the movie's central restaurant setup suggest that the characters personify the biblical Seven Deadly Sins. A darkly humorous movie in a horror shell, The Menu offers a nail-biting and consistently unpredictable thrill ride that uses the allure of food and fine dining to highlight the downfall of a purposeless artist. While The Menu's central dishes and their tongue-in-cheek social commentary are enough to please most viewers, its nail-biting culinary drama is elevated by its well-written characters and the actors who play them.
The layout of The Menu's restaurant, Hawthrone, is divided into seven sections. Out of these, six accommodate individual customer tables while the seventh has Chef Julian Slowik's kitchen. As The Menu's storyline unfolds and the symbolism behind Slowik's food becomes more evident, it is hard not to notice how each section represents a specific type of customer. A deeper look at this arrangement at the restaurant and its seven divisions suggests that the patrons seated in them could be a metaphor for something dark.
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How Chef Slowik (& His Staff) Represent Rage In The Menu
The story arcs and gimmicks of The Menu's primary characters allude to the Seven Deadly Sins, where Chef Slowik and his staff represent rage. Before Slowik literally burns down his entire restaurant with his fury, he channels his anger and frustrations towards his patrons through his food. His rage, as he gradually reveals, stems from the pretentiousness and entitlement his elite customers bring to the table, which has drained his passion for cooking. It was not always this way, though.The cheeseburger scene towards the end of The Menu establishes that Chef Slowik had humble beginnings in the culinary world and only rose up in ranks because of his flare and commitment to his art form.
Unfortunately, after toiling away in the kitchen for years under the reign of the upper class, Slowik (played by Ralph Fiennes of the Harry Potter fame) realized that they had no appreciation for his food. All they cared about was the social status they achieved from dining at his acclaimed restaurant. This tragic realization infuriates the chef and makes him hate himself for conforming to the expectations of the elites. As a result, he gets so consumed by his anger that he decides to burn down everything he once stood for.
How Lillian (& And Her Editor) Represent Envy In The Menu
Lillian's criticism of food lacks credibility from the first course itself, as she is unable to spot the satire in Slowik's food. She only criticizes it because it gives her a sense of power over real artists like Ralph Fiennes' Chef Slowik, who she clearly envies. For her, the painful realization of not being as gifted and driven as Slowik is too hard to swallow. Out of sheer jealousy, she tries to look down on him and even destroys the livelihood of other talented chefs by shutting down their businesses with her brash written word.
How The Chef's Mother Represents Sloth In The Menu
The only time Chef Julian's mother gets the spotlight in The Menu is when he recalls his traumatizing childhood. Throughout the rest of the movie, his mother is either sitting alone and drinking or lying lifeless on her table. In the chef's eyes, she seems to be a sloth who sleeps all day and does nothing to stop him from wreaking havoc at the Hawthorne. She, too, is an enabler of evil because of her inability to resist.
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How The Movie Star Represents Greed In The Menu
John Leguizamo's movie star, George Díaz, in The Menu faces Slowik's rage since George reminds Slowik of his own tragic downfall as an artist. Just as the chef settled for the shallow pursuit of commercial success, George succumbed to his greed and started playing silly roles in terrible movies for a paycheck. The chef hates the fact that this movie star is a sell-out like him and only invites him after feeling disgusted by his performance in one of his dumb cash-grabbing movies.
How Richard Represents Lust In The Menu
In The Menu's opening moments, Richard's wife asks him if they know Margot after she finds her staring at Richard. Richard denies knowing her and even dismisses his wife when she claims Anya Taylor-Joy's Margot looks like their daughter. Moments later, Chef Slowik's staff serves tortillas that have the patrons' darkest secrets laser-printed on them. Richard's wife finds a tortilla with a drawing of him on a date with a young woman. All of these details point towards Richard's infidelity, suggesting that he was one of Margot's previous clients, which makes him the rightful incarnation of lust.
How Bryce (And His Finance Bros) Represent Pride In The Menu
Bryce and his Wall Street buddies are introduced as the employers of Slowik's investors. They blatantly disrespect Slowik's creations and his staff by demanding food items that are not on the menu. When their requests are denied, they proudly show off their "you know who we are, right" card. To their dismay, however, their dirty blackmailing tricks do not work at Hawthrone, and Slowik crushes their pride with his evil plan by denying them the blissful experience they expect from the evening.
How Tyler Represents Gluttony In The Menu
Considering how Tyler mindlessly chows down everything placed on his table at the Hawthrone, his place as the glutton is quite obvious. He initially presents himself as a man who reveres Chef Julian's work and unlike other upper-class folks, also seems to know a thing or two about food preparation. However, Tyler gives himself away when he sings praises for the chef's Breadless Bread Platter, even after realizing that it ridicules him and the other upper-class patrons. When the chef tests him by asking him to cook in The Menu's final arc, Tyler only confirms that he is nothing more than a casual gourmand who knows little to nothing about the culinary arts.
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How The Seven Deadly Sins Theory Explains Margot's Escape
Margot is the only customer who goes to Hawthrone without underlying agendas or social dispositions. When the food at the restaurant does not meet her expectations, she respectfully refuses to eat it and defies the chef when he forces her. Her lack of envy and greed — and her ability to hold herself back from consuming food that does not look appetizing — affirms that she does not represent any of the sins and is, in fact, their moral anti-thesis. Chef Julian, too, realizes this towards The Menu's ending when she asks him to make her a cheeseburger, which reminds him of his golden days of carefree, passion-fueled cooking.
MORE: The Menu's Cheeseburger Explained
