A silent-screen star finds love while attempting to adapt to the arrival of talking pictures. Singin’ in the Rain (1952), choreographed and directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, is one of my all-time favorite films, as well as, in my opinion, the greatest movie musical, ever. However, it is not a film that is particularly associated with food, although there are indeed a couple of food moments in the film that you could recreate or use as inspiration.

The first, a party scene at R.F. Simpson’s residence following the premiere of Monumental Picture’s The Royal Rascal. In addition to the party food served, there is the giant fake cake that Kathy jumps out of, as well as the very real whipped cream-covered dessert she unintentionally throws in Lina’s face.

The second is the scene leading into the song, “Good Morning,” where Don, Cosmo and Kathy are seated around a dining table in Don’s home with simple sandwiches and glasses of milk that look rather sad and completely untouched in front of them.

I should also note that there is a fair amount of booze in this film; whether it be champagne, beer or cocktails, there are several celebratory scenes set at parties or nightclubs, as well as a saloon sequence.

Undoubtedly there are several food and/or drink moments in this film that are enough to build a menu around; however, when I first thought about the meal I would create for Singin’ in the Rain (which I obviously had to feature on food & a film since I love it so), I thought about the sequence for “Good Morning.” I had no intention of recreating the pitiful, uneaten sandwiches from the start of the scene, but instead took my inspiration directly from the catchy tune itself and decided to veganize classic breakfast foods to create a meal that would make anyone’s morning a good one.

For my take on a classic American breakfast, I decided on vegan scrambled eggs and sausage, as well as pancakes with mixed berries, coffee and grapefruit juice.

It was my first time using this vegan egg product and I was overall impressed; the texture and smell are pretty close to exact, but, sadly the taste was rather bland. I imagine that the VeganEgg is similar to tofu in that it is all about what you add to it. I feel like it would be much more flavorful if combined with ingredients such as onions, peppers, or various herbs and seasonings. I would also love to try making huevos rancheros, as well as a quiche if possible! I definitely think the VeganEgg is not at its best as a substitute for plain scrambled eggs, but instead works better when part of a more complex egg dish with various flavors and ingredients added. I will definitely try out a couple of recipes and report back!

As for the sausage, I really loved these apple maple breakfast sausage links and was delightfully surprised by how insanely amazing they smelled while preparing, as well as how flavorful they tasted. Also, because I envisioned having perfectly round pancakes for my plating, I decided to save myself the hassle of making them from scratch, and instead, tried these because why not!

For place setting inspiration, I used the above photo (the final shot of the film), which contains the primary colors that are constantly employed throughout the film – raincoat yellow, as well as blue and red. I liked the idea of having a floral tablecloth since ‘April showers bring May flowers,’ and also wanted roses as a nod to the song “Moses.” I also chose a pink juice glass to match Kathy’s costume for “All I Do Is Dream of You” and a napkin with a light lavender trim to match the color of her costume for “Beautiful Girl,” which she also wears during the subsequent song, “You Were Meant for Me.”

Singin’ in the Rain is the first, but definitely not last example of a type of film that is not necessarily well known for food, but one that I love and am inspired enough by to create a menu for food & a film. Thanks for reading – until next time!