While food snobs have existed for eons, it feels like the notion received a boost over the last few decades. “Foodies” get the satirical treatment via 2022’s The Menu.

Renowned Chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) runs an extremely exclusive restaurant on a private island. Guests pay $1250 a head for the “privilege” of an extravagant meal.

The newest dozen diners find a chef with more than just a deluxe dinner in mind, however. Chef Slowik boasts a secret agenda that the customers don’t expect.

As I noted at the start, the popular concept of “foodies” evolved mainly over recent years. We had celebrity chefs like Julia Child and the “Galloping Gourmet” when I was a kid, but they worked mainly to popularize fancy meals for the public.

Instead, the “foodie” culture seems more oriented toward exclusivity and a sense of superiority. That side of the concept gets exploration with The Menu.

A well-deserved nasty exploration, though the main concept doesn’t remain exclusive to foodies. Of course, lots of people pay huge dollars for experiences solely to get the “snob appeal”, and this seems worse in the era of social media, as many folks feel the need to show their wealth and “sophistication” to the masses.

For the most part, Menu avoids the social media domain, but it goes after those who pursue art for less than pure reasons. Almost every guest at the meal comes there for purposes beyond the love of food.

Only one exception exists: Margot Mills (Anya Taylor-Joy), the date of food-obsessed Tyler Ledford (Nicholas Hoult). Margot’s presence comes with a number of secrets the story reveals as it goes, and I’ll avoid those, but we do quickly learn that she doesn’t share Tyler’s passion for fancy eats.

This allows Margot to act as the audience’s proxy – well, if we assume the vast majority of viewers don’t connect to the idea of $1250 dinners. I suspect even most “foodies” find the Chef Slowik experience excessive, so Margot allows us to take in the action via one “normal” person.

Not that the roles really matter much, as Menu acts more as a morality tale than a story or character focused piece. It takes on people who strip experiences of their inherent joy for a variety of reasons – and it doesn’t stop with the diners.

Slowik gets slapped around too, as the movie demonstrates his culpability in the way “foodies” fetishized the simple pleasure of an enjoyable repast. It takes two to tango, and without chefs who construct meals that exist more as performance art than satisfying sustenance, the whole culture couldn’t exist.

Menu doesn’t strike incredibly new ground. Indeed, one can see clear reflections of films as disparate as Saw and Willy Wonka in it.

At its heart, though, Menu exists more as a black comedy than anything else, and it does well in that regard. Though it can paint in broad strokes, the movie shows a deft enough touch to hit the right notes and keep the viewer with it.

An excellent cast helps. In addition to Fiennes, Taylor-Joy and Hoult, we find talents such as John Leguizamo, Hong Chau, Judith Light and Janet McTeer.

All do well – and especially Fiennes, who avoids the temptation to paint Slowik as a stock psychopath. He allows for the wounded heart of an artist to come through – along with a touch of mental disturbance.

Menu does lose some points at its end, for it comes with a fairly ridiculous finale – though I admit that the movie lacks a logical conclusion that would fare much better. Nonetheless, Menu turns into a largely involving and satisfying satirical mix of comedy and horror.

The Menu appears in an aspect ratio of 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This turned into a perfectly solid presentation.

Most of the time, sharpness worked fine. A few low-light shots felt a bit tentative, but the majority of the flick appeared accurate and concise.

No signs of jagged edges or moiré effects materialized, and I saw no edge haloes. Source flaw remained absent.

Colors veered toward a typical mix of amber and teal. Though uninspired, the disc replicated the hues in an appropriate manner.

Blacks seemed deep and dense, and despite the handful of slightly soft elements, shadows were smooth and clear. The movie boasted an appealing image.

With the film’s largely low-key scope, its DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack lacked great ambition. However, the soundfield worked fine for the end product.

This meant a soundscape that emphasized general atmosphere, with a few “action” scenes that kicked into higher gear. Boat-related shots brought good impact, and the handful of violent bits brought extra breadth as well.

Nonetheless, no one should expect much from the soundfield. Audio quality worked fine, with speech that appeared natural and concise.

Effects appeared accurate and broad, while music seemed warm and full. The movie’s mix never dazzled but it suited the story.

Minor extras appear here, and Open Kitchen runs 17 minutes, 21 seconds. It offers notes from director Mark Mylod, chef consultants Dominique Crenn and John Benhase, food stylist Kendall Gensler, production designer Ethan Tobman, costume designer Amy Westcott, writers Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, and actors Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, Aimee Carrero, Nicholas Hoult, Hong Chau, Judith Light, John Leguizamo and Janet McTeer.

“Kitchen” looks at set and production design, food and character domains, cast and performances, costumes, and Mylod’s impact. We find a good array of notes in this reasonably informative reel.

Three Deleted Scenes span a total of four minutes, 56 seconds. The first two offer some exposition from early in the film.

For the third, we find a bit more between Margot and Chef Slowik from roughly two-thirds of the way into the tale. These seem fairly watchable but unnecessary, though I do like the minor added insights into Chef Slowik.

As a mix of satire and horror, The Menu becomes a fairly satisfying black comedy. While it doesn’t always live up to its ambitions, it nonetheless creates a deft tale. The Blu-ray comes with positive picture and audio as well as a few decent bonus materials. Expect a pretty clever piece of social commentary here.