The first word that comes to mind the second I enter the kitchen is “appetizing.” This isn’t because of the food that is being made, but rather the smell of the food that was cooked; the smell of my mom’s food always resulted in me running down the stairs just waiting to taste her food. 

Nonetheless, the moment I whipped open my laptop and found out the movie Toscana had come out on Netflix, I just knew I had to write a review on it. 

Now, the only reason that this movie is so special to me is partly because of the backstory behind it. When it comes to watching movies, I always tend to go toward movies based within the US. 

 Toscana is an Italian word that means “Tuscany.” The film is based around a restaurant owner named Theo (Anders Matthesen) who wants his business to take off, but, due to some of the major life changes he encounters along the way, finds it difficult. 

During Theo’s childhood, he was never able to maintain a good relationship with his father mainly because, from his point of view, it seemed he never really cared about him and was focused on the important things in life. 

However, because his dad was a cook, Theo was inspired to create his own restaurant and become co-owners with a woman named Merle (Lærke Winter). The start of the film shows the two waiting for an important financial investor to taste test their food, in hopes of saving their business. 

Everything runs smoothly up until Theo receives a letter finding out about the death of George Dahl, his father, and his restaurant in Tuscany named Ristoanchi in Theo’s inheritance. For many people, this can often bring feelings of grief, but for Theo, this only brought out more anger and resentment. 

From that point forward, Theo decides to go visit his father’s restaurant in Tuscany and try out the food for himself. Throughout the movie, we see how Theo not only chooses to deal with this change in his life, but also how it mentally affects him. 

Day and night, Theo constantly works towards making his meals better because his motto for his restaurant was to create “A restaurant that will change the way that we appreciate meals and make history.” When Theo goes back to visit Ristonchi, he finds a statue with a quote on the pedestal that says “as extraordinary as everybody else.” 

These quotes stick out very vividly in my mind, particularly because instead of looking at his father’s life as a tragedy, he looks at it as an incentive for motivation and to pass on the family tradition of his love for cooking.

Theo’s dream has always been to create a better restaurant that focuses on the quality of the food versus how much food is being made. Toscana is a great film for anyone who wants to learn more about the Danish culture, yet enjoys watching food being cooked on a screen. I think I would be lying if I didn’t say that this movie made me hungry.