A $125 dinner at Geisha House can be yours.

The Knife has joined forces with the Dolce Group to give away a $125 gift card at Geisha House.

To win, answer this question: What's your personal best -- or worst -- of food movies? And why?

Quality over quantity: You can refer to a food/cooking themed movie or just a single memorable scene. (Need to be reminded what the contenders might be? Click through to the jump.)

Leave your judgments in the comments and the most entertaining entry wins the sushi loot. (Don't forget to give a working email address.)

And why Geisha House? Because, prior to the release of "Ratatouille" or "No Reservations," it's in the best food movie of the summer: "Knocked Up." It's the restaurant where... oh, hell, just watch the clip.

AN UTTERLY INCOMPLETE LIST, WITH NO THOUGHT TO PRIORITY, ORDER, OR COLOR OF THE LINKS:

Babette's Feast

Goodfellas

Waitress

The Chinese Feast

Vatel

Kitchen Stories

God of Cookery

The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover

Simple Irresistible

Dinner Rush

Eating Raoul

Supersize Me

La Grande Bouffe

Mystic Pizza

Tom Jones

9 1/2 Weeks

Rare Birds

Eat Your Heart Out

Sideways

Eat Drink Man Woman

Tampopo

Chocolat

Like Water for Chocolate

Who is Killing the Great Chef's of Europe?

What's Cooking?

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (Widescreen Special Edition)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Spanglish

Woman on Top

Mostly Martha

Big Night

Tortilla Soup

Comments

[Big Bomb]

Who is killing the great chefs of Europe. Fantastic gastric film. It gives hope to all the young sous chefs, that maybe their iconic a-hole of a boss will be murdered ...

[Lesley]

While all of these are really great food movies (my head's spinning with scenes of Agustus Gloop scooping white marshmallow froth and slurping the chocolate river, drinking pinot in Santa Ynez valley, Japanese noodles, placing a snip of herb on some Thomas Keller-inspired dish....) but one of my favorite all-time scenes, still gets me, still makes me hungry: Moonstruck, when Olivia Dukakis makes Cher those eggs-in-basket toasts with roasted red peppers.

[Lesley]

I meant Olympia... duh.

[Diana]

Nauseating? Definitely. Terrifying? Absolutely. Is it the worst restaurant movie scene ever if viewed by a neurotic germ-o-phobic person like me? Without a doubt. The diner scene in the inane Tom Green film, Road Trip, where DJ Qualls (“Kyle”) sends back his French Toast to a portly, unhygienic cook who proceeds to place said French Toast down his pants before returning it to the table, is simultaneously comical and incredibly disturbing. In a city where health grades are posted in all restaurant windows, Los Angelos know all too well the anxiety felt when they learn their favorite restaurant is given a “B” rating. What exactly is going on behind those swinging kitchen doors?

Watching a scene like the “French Toast down the pants” clip in Road Trip, amplifies that anxiety to a whole other level. If my $40 petite filet is not cooked properly, do I send it back and risk it accidentally “falling” on the floor next to a (used) rat trap? If my soup is cold, do I say something, or pretend it’s a gazpacho, rather than risk receiving a “spit stew”? Road Trip has forever tainted my naïve impressions that restaurants will happily accommodate most customer requests. Is this a good thing? Am I saving myself from food poisoning and bacterial infection? Or am I paranoid? And devoid of the opportunity to receive a properly cooked steak?

[Zach Huddleston]

Without a doubt, my favorite food movie is The Christmas Story. The entire turkey sequence where the roasting bird and the wonderful dishes created from its flesh are described always brings me back to my own memories of gluttonous holiday meals with the family. The manner in which the meal is thwarted - by a pack of neighborhood dogs - reminds me of the frustrating calamities that always beset my family when events were thoughtfully planned. Then the triumphant, and unexpected, Chinese dinner with the food staring back at the characters, reminds me how fun unexpected food adventures can be, especially when shared with those you love.

[Jumpcut]

Honto ni (Japanese for "really") it HAS to be "Tampopo!" The famous egg yolk scene -- where a yolk is passed from mouth to mouth between a mobster and his lovely moll, until it breaks and drips yolk from her mouth -- is the most erotic food scene ever. Aside from the fact that this is the grandaddy of modern foodie movies, it's the perfect choice for a dinner at Geisha House!

[Dave Bullock]

Clearly that would be Delicatessen, a post apocalyptical French flick about a twisted landlord / butcher who serves up various tasty cuts of the whomever happens to be the new tenant in the building. My favorite food scene is the guy who's apartment if filled with snails and frogs which he heartily devours on the regular.

[Sku]

The worst has to be one of two 1980s B grade horror movies.

(1) The Stuff, about miners who discover a delightfully tasty substance and market it as a dessert. It turns out to be some kind of addictive extra-terrestrial substance which turns people into mindless zombies...kinda like Pinkberry.

(2) Motel Hell was about a ranch that produced the tastiest beef jerky around, only thing is that it wasn't exactly beef in that jerky...

[myste]

I am an avid food and film lover so it makes sense that my favorite film of all time is also my vote for the best food movie of all time.

Hands down, it doesn't get any better than The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover. Peter Greenaway is a master of cinematic style and the long horizontal pans along the length of the banquet tables are incredibly captivating. The themes of food, sex, love, and dismemberment run through all of Greenaway's films, but none is as strong an homage to the kitchen and beautiful foods as The Cook the Thief.

Whether it is the brilliant use of menus and food still life to frame the titles and chart the passage of time in the restaurant, the grotesque disdain that the dinner party shows to the entrees lovingly prepared and set before them, to Michael Nyman's sometimes nauseatingly intense gorgeous score, to the overwhelming final scene taking love of food to its absurd pinnacle of cannibalism, nothing quite touches my love of beautiful food and beautiful filmmaking like The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover.

Bravo Peter Greenaway, and bon Apetit to any food lovers out there who have not yet tasted this delicacy.

[Amanda]

The chilled monkey brain dessert in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom has to be my most memorable movie food moment. I think that scene permanently scarred me.

[Ivonne]

Fools Rush In: Families talk at dinner environment...but specifically when Alex compliments the tamales by yelling at the wrong deaf Aunt Rosa...see clip:

[Ivonne]

Oops! See clip on youtube:
youtube.com/watch?v=zKtkckc5yZE

[Darcy]

The Bread, My Sweet with Scott Baio. This makes my list because it was filmed in Pittsburgh, PA at an amazing biscotti bakery that I visit often. The plot is a little sketchy, but is outweighed by the thought of the how delicious the biscotti are.

[Christa]

Hands down for worst food movie: American Pie, for taking the most innocent of down-home desserts and turning it into a lurid sex toy. For making us watch a guy drink beer tainted with... you know. I certainly had a tough time stomaching pale ale after that, much less asking for it at a bar. And that "third base is like a warm apple pie"? Geez, guys, way to ruin pie AND third base for all of us!

[ipsedixit]

Rocky.

Nothing like punching large sides of cattle.

[Jofar]

Fast Times at Ridgmont High. "Huh?" you ask. The answer is simple, really. "There's nothing wrong with a little food on our time."

[Merna]

Oooh, Like Water for Chocolate, hands down -- a wonderful sensual flick leaving one with a hunger for life, not just the spices and food of Mexico.

[Seweryn]

I suppose the best worst movie food scene to me is in the not so memorable film entitled "Young Einstein" starring Yahoo Serious. The film is about food, beer to be more exact, but there is one seen that has stood out in my mind since this 1988 film came out, when the camera stops to show the baker placing 4 or 5 kittens in a giant pie tin and covering them up with dough.

Other scenes/films may be more real, such as Supersize me, showcasing what we really feed ourselves nowadays, but I think scenes such as the Cat Pie Baker drive home a nail harder into the minds of people to question where their food comes from, because I know after watching Supersize me, people probably drove out to McDonald's and ate some Chicken McNuggets.

Luckily we don't get to see the end product, nor was there any major riots from PETA for possible animal cruelty, but this scene was amazing because I can still remember it even though this film was so bad. I suppose it must have a cult following, but I wouldn't be surprised if people actually ate a pie like, maybe I'd expect that more to occur in Asia, not to be offensive or racist, but when one thinks of strange eats, Asia definitely comes in first.

[Seweryn]

Another great scene is the National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation scene where they cut open that delicious looking turkey that Eddie's wife made, only to burst open upon slicing to reveal an extremely dried our bird with gizzards still intact. Amazingly funny.

However, I still stand by my previous comment as Young Einstein being the best worst food scene.

[ah-ha]

The last scene in Big Night that's done in one take with no dialogue. There is such a feeling of defeat,but also there is normality in the kitchen. Marc Antony puttering around, Stanley Tucci making an omelette, bread is sliced, breakfast plated. Tony Shaloub comes in and they eat together in silence and one brother puts his arm around the other. Such a powerful scene.

[em]

The most memorable for me is the Chinese short film, Gaau ji (Dumplings) from the collection Three Extremes. First, it's one of the few films in which Bai Ling isn't a complete trainwreck. But more than that, it's got to be the food horror film to end all food horror films. I will never look at dumplings the same way again. Whoever did the sound for that movie deserves an Oscar. Creepy!!

I hate to give away what's in the dumplings, in case folks haven't seen it, because it's definitely worth a rental if you love cringe-worthy horror. My boyfriend still refuses to eat steamed dumplings to this day. That's a powerful movie.

[Rob]

That restaurant sketch in Monty Python's Meaning of Life is by far the worst food moment in the history of film. The glutton sits down, starts ordering, and proceeds to eat and drink, covering himself in food, and sweating like a jogger. Then comes the projectile vomiting, into a strategically placed bucket. Finally, after eating one of everything, and puking everywhere, the Stereotypical French waiter (payed brilliantly by John Cleese) comes and offers him "just one wafer thin mint." The mint is rejected, but after prodding, he eats the "one wafer thin mint," and the waiter runs for cover, just as the diner begins to swell and explode.

[Eva]

Does it get more memorable than the restaurant scene in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life? I think not.

"Finally, monsieur, a wafer-thin mint. Oh sir, it's only a tiny, little thin one."

Can't eat a meal out without thinking about it....

[Kim]

How about the When Harry Met Sally orgasm scene? Or does that not count since food is only peripheral?

"I'll have what she's having."

[Kevin]

The most memorable culinary movie to me would be the passionately grim ride one takes through “The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover.” The film explores temptation and gluttony in some of the most artfully grueling film scenes that I’ve ever watched. These characters have no ability to abstain from verboten indulgences, much like the forbidden display of food found in the cave of the evil eye-wielding ogre in Pan’s Labyrinth. They gorge themselves as much in sinful behavior as they do in lavish food and wine. The movie is much like a buffet where you continue to nibble even though you know you can’t possibly take any more. Ultimately the viewer too feels the ill after effects of indulging in the film as the grim ending weighs as heavily as any food hangover I’ve experienced.