“Anyone can cook. But I realize, only now do I truly understand what he meant. Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere. It is difficult to imagine more humble origins than those of the genius now cooking at Gusteau’s, who is, in this critic’s opinion, nothing less than the finest chef in France.”

The point is not that all people can be good – or even decent – cooks with enough help. The point is that you cannot predict whether or not somebody will be a good cook judging by their origins – where they lived, their economic and social status, their race, their religion, etc, etc, etc. It’s based upon the fact that using stereotypes and generalizations to predict and judge all aspects of something or someone simply does not work. It’s futile.

Now – the “not anyone should cook” and Linguini’s thing. Here’s an excerpt from the script, available online here:

“Below, LINGUINI accidentally knocks over the pot of soup,
spilling it. Remy gives Gusteau a patronizing chuckle.
REMY
No.
What WE SEE, but Remy doesn’t: desperate that no one notices
his mistake, Linguini quickly replaces the pot on the burner,
and MOPS up the floor.
GUSTEAU
How do you know? What do I always
say? “Anyone can cook”.
REMY
Well, yeah. Anyone can. That
doesn’t mean that anyone should.
GUSTEAU
Well that is not stopping him. See?
Remy watches aghast as Linguini quickly chums some water from
another pot into the soup to refill it to it’s former level,
haphazardly throws in a few spices and vegetables. ”

First, Linguini isn’t trying to cook so much as he’s trying to hide the fact that he wasted a bunch of soup, lest he get fired. In order to do so, he throws whatever he can find to make it look like the soup never fell on the floor. So his intent wasn’t to “sneak around and ruin the soup” – he was nervous and clumsy and afraid of being fired and still not displaying a desire to cook. Just a desire to avoid being kicked out on the street over a clumsy mistake.

Now – Remy’s statement. What we, the audience, and Anton Ego, and many of the characters in Ratatouille learn is the true meaning of “Anyone Can Cook,” which I quoted above. The movie teaches us that great people can come from anywhere. The motto is commonly misinterpreted as meaning that every single person can learn to cook well, and this is shown by Remy’s somewhat judgmental attitude – the sneering, “That doesn’t mean that anyone should.” Both he, and the audience, have not yet learned not to jump to conclusions and be judges of who is capable of learning and who is not, especially before giving them a chance to learn and prove themselves. However, by the end of the movie, both Remy and the audience have grown and developed more perspective, and this transition, this change, this character growth and lesson is summed up by Anton Ego’s review and revelation concerning Gousteau’s motto:

Again – “Anyone can cook. But I realize, only now do I truly understand what he meant. Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere. It is difficult to imagine more humble origins than those of the genius now cooking at Gusteau’s, who is, in this critic’s opinion, nothing less than the finest chef in France.”

And it looks like many people who watched the movie, people of all ages, somehow managed to completely miss Anton Ego’s speech, or just didn’t really pay attention to it, since many people are taking issue with the motto even after seeing the movie and being given the true meaning on a silver platter. One needs to think about all the levels of meaning of a phrase and not just their initial reaction – expand your knowledge and thinking skills!

As for the relationship? I wouldn’t be so quick to judge whether or not it’s ALWAYS easy or difficult to meet somebody who becomes your significant other based on your own experiences. Again, beware of stereotypes and generalizations, including those based on your own experiences, which are limited! (Note – I’m not implying your experiences are lacking. However, it’s not possible for one individual to share all the different experiences to be had. All of our experiences throughout our lives are different, and we can and should learn by listening to what other people may have learned from experiences they have had but we have not – or even experiences shared by both you and them, but they have a different perspective on it all) Everybody’s different. Some people find it very difficult to find somebody to date and be in a relationship with. Some people just stumble into them without any luck. And when chemistry is strong, and you spend enough time together, feelings can develop very quickly, depending on the person. It’s also worth remembering that it’s implied that Linguini’s always had a bit of a crush on Colette.

Now, their fighting – first, before they actually affirm their feelings for each other…

“Colette watches Skinner steer Linguini into his office.
HORST
(to Colette, re: Linguini)
The Plongeur won’t be coming to you
for advice anymore, eh Colette?
(nods to Skinner’s office)
He’s gotten all he needs.
He exits chuckling. Colette slowly turns away, stung”

“COLETTE
Oh. Forgive me for intruding on
your deep, personal relationship
with the Chef. I see how it is. You
get me to teach you a few kitchen
tricks to dazzle the boss, and then
you blow past me? ”

Not only is Horst suddenly being more chummy with Linguini than with anyone else in the kitchen, but he is giving special attention to the new guy, not the woman who has dedicated many years to learning her craft and (from what she and the rest of the cooks are aware of at this point) mentored Linguini in how to perfect his feigned “natural talent” (which is, of course, Remy’s – allowing Remy to cook and Linguini to keep his job). This would sting, and combined with the way that Remy’s puppet act with a sleeping Linguini (another act to try and protect Linguini’s job – it wouldn’t be good form to be discovered sleeping on the kitchen floor in the morning, looking “like a vagrant,” according to the script, by fellow employees. That could definitely jeopardize your job) only serves to come across as cold, contemptuous, sarcastic, and confirms Colette’s reasonable and expected growing fear that Linguini is completely ungrateful of her aid (remember – not only is she unaware that he has his own little mentor the whole time, she also helps Linguini by accepting him as a cook and allowing him to be welcomed and accepted by the rest of the kitchen. THAT’S invaluable –
“COLETTE
So you see, we are artists.
Pirates. More than cooks are we.
LINGUINI
“We”…?
COLETTE
Oui. You are one of us now, oui?.
LINGUINI
(surprised, touched)
Oui.”) and has no regard for her whatsoever – at this point, Colette believes that she has been used. This is not childish. In fact, the way she handles the situation, given what she knows, is very mature, and what she thinks is happening is not a petty slight. No matter what age you are, when somebody uses you to get ahead and then dumps you like trash (again, I must emphasize that at this moment, she thinks that’s what is happening and quite understandably), that’s a big deal. That’s betrayal, on both a personal and a professional level. At the interview after Linguini is revealed as Gousteau’s son, Colette’s irritated with Linguini because, quite frankly, he is soaking in the limelight and disregarding the fact that they have a business to run and it’s an hour past opening time. He’s being irresponsible. He is a TERRIBLE motivational speaker (what a sad attempt at inspiring the chefs in preparation for Anton Ego’s impending food review!), and that doesn’t help, though she doesn’t hold that against him. It only gets worse…

“CHAOS. Tempers are flaring, orders are piling up and the
kitchen is dissolving under Linguini’s leadership. Holding a
pan filled with grey glop, Horst confronts Linguini.”

The fate of the restaurant is now in the hands of an incapable boy who relies on Remy to cook – and Remy is currently in a cage. Just as the entire kitchen staff put their trust in Linguini to lead them and at the very least, be able to continue cooking as well as he had appeared to. He could very well destroy the restaurant and their individual reputations as cooks. Not a childish issue.

And to top it off? When Remy returns, Linguini tells the truth – but the fact is, no matter how thoroughly they can now salvage the disastrous cooking situation, no matter how brilliant Remy is at cooking, they were deceived, they were lied to, and they put their trust and the future of the restaurant into the hands of somebody they now realize has never had any talent as a cook. They were taken for fools. Again, a completely understandable reaction and a mature way of dealing with these emotions.

But Colette comes back. She sees a sign on the highway – “Anyone Can Cook!” – and the true meaning is coming more and more into play. It doesn’t matter that Remy is a rat – it doesn’t change the fact that he is brilliant and has an incredible and unique gift. Great chefs can come from anywhere. They can even be a rat.

Now, as for the relationship being shallow? I heartily disagree. Having sat through a fair amount of romantic movies where the characters fall INSTANTLY in love and are DESTINED for each other, and the audience is provided with no reason they fell in love, no transformation, no build-up, no process of becoming friendly and beginning to care more and more about each other… I must say that especially as a movie that doesn’t focus on the relationship, the clips showing how Colette and Linguini develop over time as she mentors him from a strong, skilled mentor who will accept only excellence and a terrified, awkward boy doing his best to survive and please his bosses and not screw up, to gradually becoming more comfortable around each other and less awkward in the kitchen (Linguini) to being friends. Yes, the kiss is sudden and designed to keep Linguini from spilling the beans about Remy, but because the movie shows, through a montage of clips of the Linguini and Colette working together, a believable account of how they develop a friendship, it doesn’t appear at all contrived that they can develop further into a couple. I believe that it was fantastically done – the fact that it focused on their complementary personalities and a comfortable and natural friendship in those short clips that managed to say so much (figuratively) rather than on expressions of adoration and love which, while they are romantic, are not indications of a good relationship. By themselves, they are indications of infatuation – based on physical chemistry that is called love without anything to show that they also just enjoy spending time together on a friendship level (and how can you be in love with somebody if you wouldn’t like hanging out with them as a friend? A couple has to be able to be content with each other just in normal settings, because no matter what The Notebook will have you believe, relationships are not constant head-in-the-clouds, walking-on-air, I-can’t-live-without-you moments. They have LOTS of just normal moments of spending time together. Just chilling. Talking about a book or music or a mutual friend. Cooking. Keeping each other company while going on errands. Telling jokes. And when Ratatouille focused on those key elements, the ones that, while they might not seem as completely romantic, form the foundation of a solid relationship, it made Colette and Linguini’s development into a couple very believable. It gave their relationship a foundation.

Yeah, I did go on… but I really hope this helped you maybe consider a different way of looking at the parts you didn’t like!

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