December 15, 2000

MULTICULTURAL LOS ANGELES FETED AT THANKSGIVING
Thanksgiving is an odd American holiday. A nation composed of immigrants from around the world expects to sit down to a dinner table with an extended family to consume a strange combination of relatively bland foods -- roast turkey and dressing with sweet and mashed potatoes -- made palatable by the addition of tangy cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. In What’s Cooking?, directed by Gurinder Chadha, we laugh uproariously at the consequences of the yearly custom by viewing short cuts of four families who live south of Hollywood (near Pico & Fairfax)—the Avilas (Mexican), the Nguyens (Vietnamese), the Seeligs (German Jews), and the Williamses (African Americans). Clearly, the Seeligs have lived longest in the neighborhood, perhaps fifty years, but they have never met their most recent neighbors, who live on opposite corners of Genesee Avenue. Of the forty of so characters in the film, perhaps the best known are Joan Chen, Julianna Margulies, A Martinez, Mercedes Ruehl, Kyra Segwick, and Alfre Woodard. Mrs. Avila is a schoolteacher. The Nguyens run a multilingual video store. The Seeligs are retirees, and Mr. Seelig’s favorite pastime is a 105º hot tub. Mr. Williams is an aide to the reactionary Republican governor; his wife is an attorney. We first view someone throwing paint over the California governor to protest his anti-immigrant, anti-minority policies. Next, we become acquainted with the guests invited by the families, which span four generations. The Mexicans provide a place at the table for a good-looking Vietnamese boyfriend of one of the daughters, the estranged husband of the family, and the new macho boyfriend of the wife. The Nguyens invite no guests but shut the door to three high school friends of the youngest son because he has hidden a gun under his bed. Mr. Seelig invites his old-fashioned parents, and their daughter and Lesbian lover fly into town from San Francisco. The Williamses receive the husband’s fussy mother, who arrives from out of town, and a white couple (business associates of his) and their politically correct daughter; their rebellious son shows up later. In short, What’s Cooking? is not just about food but a host of family problems, and ethnicity is not the only aspect of diversity, as two families cope with adultery, one with same-sex attraction, and children in the remaining family do not dare to tell their parents that their son and daughter have befriended a girlfriend and a boyfriend who are not of their ethnic background. As the film’s tagline well describes the plot, "Thanksgiving -- A celebration of food, tradition and relative insanity." We observe that the turkey is placed at the center of the meal, but the ethnic (and nouvelle) cuisines contribute most of the side dishes; the exception is that the Nguyens, unaccustomed to oven cooking, burn the turkey while providing two tubs of KFC chicken for the younger generation. Anthony Avila invites his father, who left home after having an affair with a cousin Rosa, to the party, not knowing that his mother planned to introduce her new boyfriend to the family. When the boyfriend arrives, the father has a showdown with the mother, who in turn tells him to leave.