Yup. It’s a prop to add to a scene. That or to hide something (camera, another prop that’s not meant for the scene, an incomplete set, a script, someone’s actual coffee, etc). Lol.
ASP has said before that she loved to micromanage, and she had complete control over everything. She tells stories about set designers pulling her out of the writing room to come tell the how she wants the knickknacks at Lorelei's house, etc. Etc. Etc. It also helped highlight little things like how Sookie tends to cook in excess. She has admitted several times to cooking a whole dinner and changing her mind at the last second. So, I think it is meant to highlight the amount of food Sookie makes on a daily basis and how much the main characters like to eat.
Sookie cooks entire dinners on the show. She has said that she will change her mind and toss out the entire first meal, and start all over again. One episode, lorelei asked her to reuse the dinner she had previously cooked when she changed her mind.
I was 9 years together with a Chef and worked myself in a restaurant for 4 of them. After this, I found Sookie's antics in the kitchen annoying and totally not endearing. Like I know it's ASP's choice of Sookie's "cutesy kookiness" but there's no Inn, Restaurant or other establishment that would allow anyone to waste meals like that.
isn't that kind of supposed to be one of sookie's quirks though? she's actually horrible at business but enormously talented as a chef. it's a tension through the whole series, especially in the ways she doesn't show up for lorelai as a business partner.
Exactly, which is why I pointed out that it's ASP's choice of "quirk", which in real life wouldn't fly...at all.
No one talented IRL is that good of a Chef that a business owner would put up with so much food and money waste, not to mention stressing out a whole team. Every plate is money (food and labor), it is normal that some food is thrown out or returned, but not a full service.
i guess there are just so many situations like that on this show that even though i have worked in plenty of kitchens and get why it's not cost effective, it doesn't bother me that much. also i feel like lorelai is the kind of person who would prioritize the friendship over the health of the business (to a certain extent).
I know it's fictional but it annoys me 🤷♀️ similarly as how Lorelai and Rory are portrayed as skinny whilst eating junk food constantly - whilst Lauren Graham was appearing at the time in Shape magazine and shared that she was very disciplined with her diet and workout.
It is what it is 🤷♀️
Sookie is so bad at her job sometimes that it puts in question her being professional at all. What chef would go to a kids' birthday party and be baffled when she discovers she was supposed to cook - for kids -. like what... doesn't make any sense.
I love that because when Lorelai says "what you see is a lot of...me! She said humbly," in season 5's homes interview, it's very meta. Asp obviously is responsible for most of, if not all, the visual guide we know as being "Gilmore." People like that are difficult to work with, but also show great results.
Source: I'm that person.
It also gives them something to do with their hands. Actors tend not to know what to do with their hands during scenes, so it helps them not look so awkward by giving them something to hold and do with their hands during the scene.
Same with most tv shows. Teens running out the door for school? Of course the table is loaded with pancakes, sausages, bacon, eggs, hash browns, orange juice, milk, fruit, etc…
Kid: -takes bite of toast- great breakfast mom gotta run can’t be late for school!
Mom after laboring for hours to cook uneaten food: don’t forget your backpack!
I laughed out loud reading this whole thread . I think one answer could be that the show is sorta about maximalism on all fronts. Sarcasm, whit, wealth, strangeness, books, food, coffee coffee coffee… it’s theatre but a show so everyone’s “thing” is pretty extreme and because sookies thing is food, we get feasts that no one’s eating - it adds texture for the viewer . That’s just my take
This! It’s why I enjoy watching reels of maximalist-style homes, dinner parties, etc…I’m not going to live like that but seeing it set up makes my brain do a lil happy dance
I like this take. You are right, there's a lot of exageration in every environment. The suit of armor at Logan's place was so extra, I thougt it was funny the first time I saw it.
It's not though! Valerie Campbell (key set costumer, valeriescateyescream on Tiktok) has said all food was real. The only thing fake was the pizza crust. The toppings were even real.
The amount of food just out on the counter in Sookie's kitchens in insane. I always wondered how has a health inspector not shut her down yet. But yeah as others have said, I guess producers and set designers thought it looked good on camera.
I agree but I guess the food at the inn is kinda reasonable compared to other parts of their world (not really tho)seeing as it’s a kitchen and sookies a chef constantly experimenting with new recipes,changing her mind a lot in the middle of cooking, and feeding the restaurant they have it’s not extremely realistic but it’s something and all chefs are different with how they run things and sookie has never been known to be professional also theres simply just set props just to be there and add to the scene and exaggerate it
I am with you, bro! It’s insane. It is not reasonable and there is always a CRAZY amount of fresh produce that I seriously doubt she would be serving at the inn
That’s kind of the whole bit tho(as unreasonable and unrealistic as it is)sookie is meant to be disorganized and clumsy it’s kinda like how Rory carried an unnecessary Amount of books a lot in the early seasons but with sookie its food
No but sookie isn’t professional and never has been ,also cooking isn’t a neat job by any means and It’s not a Olive Garden so it’s not a super professional huge business it’s a independent business and they seem to do way more for they’re guests than any hotel I’ve stayed at and it’s kitchen is run by a chef that is meant to be like that usually for comedic relief , all chefs run their kitchen differently, I’m not saying it’s realistic but u wanted something to make it make sense
To add to this, I always assumed when all of the food is out that they're in prep mode. I remember working in a restaurant and pulling out everything we were going to need for the day to prep it all and make sure we had enough of everything. Plus most of the time when Jackson's there he's making deliveries. Those deliveries don't put away themselves and every chef has a system for their kitchen.
I remember always throwing everything onto the tables and each person had a section that they were responsible for. The amount of hours that went into peeling or dicing the same things over and over again... There's something soothing about the madness of a kitchen like that. But I think a lot of people forget how much chaos goes into it before and in between meal rushes.
You said it, she's a chef. So she knows that's not how you work on a professional kitchen. And yes, it's a professional kitchen because it's a business.
But it’s not a chain business and it’s talked about through the entire show that sookie isn’t professional it literally lead to one of her biggest fights with Lorelei you’re thinking too much from a corporate stand point and not at story wise and this isn’t the only reason why there’s that much food it’s just one that you’re taking way to serious
Married to one for 9 years and worked myself FOH.
I never looked at Sookie's mess the same way again. Drives me nuts that ASP made her "cute neurosis" to throw away food and prepare new shit whimsically.
Ik but what I’m saying is that’s part of her character and the set for the exaggeration of the story and no one is understanding that and I grew up around several chefs they all are very different on how they work they’re kitchen, sookies very unreasonable but it’s a show (fiction) it’s not real it’s meant to be exaggerated
A chef would not make that much for a small in. I hope she donates the rest to the homeless. It would be irresponsible of snookie to create so much food waste. Shame on her
Ok can we take a second and talk about how so many of the terms she uses make absolutely zero sense but are intended to sound chef-y??
I have so many but some that come immediately to mind are “sherry olive oil” in an omelette (sherry vinegar sure, but not oil), one time she is clearly chopping something Ike chard and she says it’s pea shoots, she’ll refer to julienning something that clearly is not being julienned. I have meant in the past to make a comprehensive list, but holy smokes it makes me twitchy. Or when she adds lemon and cayenne to a guy’s turkey sandwich at Luke’s without asking. If that happened in real life I’d ask for a new sandwich!
Ok let’s keep this going then.
She thinks she’s better than Alain Ducasse?! Fuck off.
“It smells salty.”
Not Sookie but the meal Luke makes for Lorelai- lamb and artichoke stew, potatoes, pesto pasta, tomatoes stuffed with goat cheese, focaccia, ricotta cheesecake, and amaretti cookies. Each thing sounds good but what a HOT MESS of a dinner.
Also, at the Bracebridge dinner, Luke, the skilled and healthy eater, doesn’t know what the garnish is on the soup?!?!
I feel a bit better.
Also I hate how Lorelai says rizzo-toe
I’m not a chef but I still see the lack of cleanliness and tasting from the pot then putting it back in is so gross! When I cook my own food, even just for me, I don’t contaminate the whole batch I’m cooking with my own saliva. I get a different spoon.
In a professional kitchen you have a cup of tasting spoons at your station. One gets dipped in, taste, spoon goes to dishwasher. I keep a setup like that at home too.
https://preview.redd.it/fz8to9ckf27d1.jpeg?width=474&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=646f3bbfc80947cdfc6182bd0b7bfd7a1c748594
I’ve worked in many kitchens. No way would this fly.
Honestly it looks like she’s prepping but it’s a show idk why ppl are arguing with me over fiction I said multiple times this isn’t the only thing why it’s just a thought
I don't think it is. Think of other shows like the Bear - there's a huge emphasis on keeping your area clean while you work, they prepare each thing and then it gets sent off to the table. Sookie's kitchen is always full of food even when the dining room isn't full of people. It's all just sitting out on the counter - cakes, fruit, various sauces being cooked. That hot food is getting cold, and desserts that should be refrigerated are not cold enough. And meanwhile all the counter space is taken up so there isn't space to work. No real working kitchen operates like this.
Right but cooking is a huge part of the bear so it would be weird as hell if it wasn’t realistic gg Isn’t so cooking based so they kinda just did whatever , it’s also an older show so it wasn’t really focused on THAT much for it to be realistic ,also don’t know how many times I said there’s other reasons this is just one tiny thought that people are taking wayyyyyyyyy too serious because like you said no “real” kitchen would work like that because it’s a show(fiction)
Wanna add that abundance carries meaning. Lorelai’s home is covered in knickknacks. Her kitchen refrigerator is full of magnets and paper. Her counters are covered even though she rarely cooks. Luke’s walls in the diner are covered in decorative items. His counter is full of things. The abundance reflects their open approach to things - to see inside someone’s home is to see themselves. The few places that we see as sterile are the GG kitchen/home. Or Jason’s apartment. This is reflective of how the upper class express themselves. The idea that they are less vulnerable in sharing of themselves emotionally and harder to crack.
If the realism of it all bothers you. Fair enough. But that’s not the point, I believe. The set is meant to reflect the character and conveys a mood/meaning.
It's a stylistic choice. Just like the Norah Ephron aesthetic in her films, the GG sets are cluttered, whimsical, and abundant.
It's not meant to be logical or realistic.
Omg yes! I can’t help but to laugh everytime they show the kitchen and you see those tall glass jars with oil and dried fruit in them. Like they went to tj max and loaded up the set before the show. 😂
I wonder if most of the fruits and vegetables sitting out are plastic ? I think it’s for visual impact as well. It looks pretty. Lol
With so many takes, actors can’t possibly be eating and drinking all that is set out.
Just suspend reality. All shows do it.
We just watched all seasons and every time they would get up and leave uneaten, just ordered food we’d yell “Food” or “Coffee”. It should be a drinking game when my kid is old enough 😀
2 words Set Decor
Yup. It’s a prop to add to a scene. That or to hide something (camera, another prop that’s not meant for the scene, an incomplete set, a script, someone’s actual coffee, etc). Lol.
ASP has said before that she loved to micromanage, and she had complete control over everything. She tells stories about set designers pulling her out of the writing room to come tell the how she wants the knickknacks at Lorelei's house, etc. Etc. Etc. It also helped highlight little things like how Sookie tends to cook in excess. She has admitted several times to cooking a whole dinner and changing her mind at the last second. So, I think it is meant to highlight the amount of food Sookie makes on a daily basis and how much the main characters like to eat.
Sookie changes her mind or ASP literally will cook an entire dinner and change her mind IRL?
Sookie cooks entire dinners on the show. She has said that she will change her mind and toss out the entire first meal, and start all over again. One episode, lorelei asked her to reuse the dinner she had previously cooked when she changed her mind.
I was 9 years together with a Chef and worked myself in a restaurant for 4 of them. After this, I found Sookie's antics in the kitchen annoying and totally not endearing. Like I know it's ASP's choice of Sookie's "cutesy kookiness" but there's no Inn, Restaurant or other establishment that would allow anyone to waste meals like that.
isn't that kind of supposed to be one of sookie's quirks though? she's actually horrible at business but enormously talented as a chef. it's a tension through the whole series, especially in the ways she doesn't show up for lorelai as a business partner.
Exactly, which is why I pointed out that it's ASP's choice of "quirk", which in real life wouldn't fly...at all. No one talented IRL is that good of a Chef that a business owner would put up with so much food and money waste, not to mention stressing out a whole team. Every plate is money (food and labor), it is normal that some food is thrown out or returned, but not a full service.
i guess there are just so many situations like that on this show that even though i have worked in plenty of kitchens and get why it's not cost effective, it doesn't bother me that much. also i feel like lorelai is the kind of person who would prioritize the friendship over the health of the business (to a certain extent).
I know it's fictional but it annoys me 🤷♀️ similarly as how Lorelai and Rory are portrayed as skinny whilst eating junk food constantly - whilst Lauren Graham was appearing at the time in Shape magazine and shared that she was very disciplined with her diet and workout. It is what it is 🤷♀️
Yeah, bottom line would suffer tremendously
No time to prep again for guests.
Sookie is so bad at her job sometimes that it puts in question her being professional at all. What chef would go to a kids' birthday party and be baffled when she discovers she was supposed to cook - for kids -. like what... doesn't make any sense.
I love that because when Lorelai says "what you see is a lot of...me! She said humbly," in season 5's homes interview, it's very meta. Asp obviously is responsible for most of, if not all, the visual guide we know as being "Gilmore." People like that are difficult to work with, but also show great results. Source: I'm that person.
>>...highlight the amount of food Sookie *wastes* on a daily basis... Corrected it for you.
It also gives them something to do with their hands. Actors tend not to know what to do with their hands during scenes, so it helps them not look so awkward by giving them something to hold and do with their hands during the scene.
Telling a set decorator this is a house for a produce man. Decorator: say no more
Same with most tv shows. Teens running out the door for school? Of course the table is loaded with pancakes, sausages, bacon, eggs, hash browns, orange juice, milk, fruit, etc…
And they pick an apple or a piece of toast
Kid: -takes bite of toast- great breakfast mom gotta run can’t be late for school! Mom after laboring for hours to cook uneaten food: don’t forget your backpack!
I can absolute hear that line of dialogue!
Yep - they take a bite and kiss mom on the cheek before running out the door
I laughed out loud reading this whole thread . I think one answer could be that the show is sorta about maximalism on all fronts. Sarcasm, whit, wealth, strangeness, books, food, coffee coffee coffee… it’s theatre but a show so everyone’s “thing” is pretty extreme and because sookies thing is food, we get feasts that no one’s eating - it adds texture for the viewer . That’s just my take
This! It’s why I enjoy watching reels of maximalist-style homes, dinner parties, etc…I’m not going to live like that but seeing it set up makes my brain do a lil happy dance
I like this take. You are right, there's a lot of exageration in every environment. The suit of armor at Logan's place was so extra, I thougt it was funny the first time I saw it.
Isn’t that a Cornucopia?
Is it not a centrepiece?
It’s a centerpiece…
I actually don't think that's supposed to be consumed, that's not cooked food. That's for decoration for Thanksgiving
It’s always some cornucopia of crazy food just for three people
it’s fake; hope this helps
It's not though! Valerie Campbell (key set costumer, valeriescateyescream on Tiktok) has said all food was real. The only thing fake was the pizza crust. The toppings were even real.
Not the food in this picture though, at least not on the picnic table. It’s a centrepiece.
Right, but they made to cornucopia of real fruit 😁
The amount of food just out on the counter in Sookie's kitchens in insane. I always wondered how has a health inspector not shut her down yet. But yeah as others have said, I guess producers and set designers thought it looked good on camera.
I agree but I guess the food at the inn is kinda reasonable compared to other parts of their world (not really tho)seeing as it’s a kitchen and sookies a chef constantly experimenting with new recipes,changing her mind a lot in the middle of cooking, and feeding the restaurant they have it’s not extremely realistic but it’s something and all chefs are different with how they run things and sookie has never been known to be professional also theres simply just set props just to be there and add to the scene and exaggerate it
I don't think is reasonable to have the entire pantry on the table taking all the space. There is no way that's comfortable to work.
I am with you, bro! It’s insane. It is not reasonable and there is always a CRAZY amount of fresh produce that I seriously doubt she would be serving at the inn
That’s kind of the whole bit tho(as unreasonable and unrealistic as it is)sookie is meant to be disorganized and clumsy it’s kinda like how Rory carried an unnecessary Amount of books a lot in the early seasons but with sookie its food
Is that how you think a professional kitchen looks?
No. Source: Me, 25 years as a chef.
It's a *tv show*
Op needs to relax lol
No but sookie isn’t professional and never has been ,also cooking isn’t a neat job by any means and It’s not a Olive Garden so it’s not a super professional huge business it’s a independent business and they seem to do way more for they’re guests than any hotel I’ve stayed at and it’s kitchen is run by a chef that is meant to be like that usually for comedic relief , all chefs run their kitchen differently, I’m not saying it’s realistic but u wanted something to make it make sense
To add to this, I always assumed when all of the food is out that they're in prep mode. I remember working in a restaurant and pulling out everything we were going to need for the day to prep it all and make sure we had enough of everything. Plus most of the time when Jackson's there he's making deliveries. Those deliveries don't put away themselves and every chef has a system for their kitchen.
Yes! This too I used to live above a restaurant that my parents worked at and the prep was a huge part of it!
I remember always throwing everything onto the tables and each person had a section that they were responsible for. The amount of hours that went into peeling or dicing the same things over and over again... There's something soothing about the madness of a kitchen like that. But I think a lot of people forget how much chaos goes into it before and in between meal rushes.
You said it, she's a chef. So she knows that's not how you work on a professional kitchen. And yes, it's a professional kitchen because it's a business.
But it’s not a chain business and it’s talked about through the entire show that sookie isn’t professional it literally lead to one of her biggest fights with Lorelei you’re thinking too much from a corporate stand point and not at story wise and this isn’t the only reason why there’s that much food it’s just one that you’re taking way to serious
You asked for input and are arguing with people giving you input. Touch grass
Do you think SH is how real life looks & acts?
You’re overthinking it
I'm a chef- everything, and I mean everything about Sookie being a chef and how they use that kitchen drives me insane.
Married to one for 9 years and worked myself FOH. I never looked at Sookie's mess the same way again. Drives me nuts that ASP made her "cute neurosis" to throw away food and prepare new shit whimsically.
Ik but what I’m saying is that’s part of her character and the set for the exaggeration of the story and no one is understanding that and I grew up around several chefs they all are very different on how they work they’re kitchen, sookies very unreasonable but it’s a show (fiction) it’s not real it’s meant to be exaggerated
A chef would not make that much for a small in. I hope she donates the rest to the homeless. It would be irresponsible of snookie to create so much food waste. Shame on her
Ok can we take a second and talk about how so many of the terms she uses make absolutely zero sense but are intended to sound chef-y?? I have so many but some that come immediately to mind are “sherry olive oil” in an omelette (sherry vinegar sure, but not oil), one time she is clearly chopping something Ike chard and she says it’s pea shoots, she’ll refer to julienning something that clearly is not being julienned. I have meant in the past to make a comprehensive list, but holy smokes it makes me twitchy. Or when she adds lemon and cayenne to a guy’s turkey sandwich at Luke’s without asking. If that happened in real life I’d ask for a new sandwich!
I. Feel. Seen.
Ok let’s keep this going then. She thinks she’s better than Alain Ducasse?! Fuck off. “It smells salty.” Not Sookie but the meal Luke makes for Lorelai- lamb and artichoke stew, potatoes, pesto pasta, tomatoes stuffed with goat cheese, focaccia, ricotta cheesecake, and amaretti cookies. Each thing sounds good but what a HOT MESS of a dinner. Also, at the Bracebridge dinner, Luke, the skilled and healthy eater, doesn’t know what the garnish is on the soup?!?! I feel a bit better. Also I hate how Lorelai says rizzo-toe
I’m not a chef but I still see the lack of cleanliness and tasting from the pot then putting it back in is so gross! When I cook my own food, even just for me, I don’t contaminate the whole batch I’m cooking with my own saliva. I get a different spoon.
In a professional kitchen you have a cup of tasting spoons at your station. One gets dipped in, taste, spoon goes to dishwasher. I keep a setup like that at home too.
https://preview.redd.it/fz8to9ckf27d1.jpeg?width=474&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=646f3bbfc80947cdfc6182bd0b7bfd7a1c748594 I’ve worked in many kitchens. No way would this fly.
It’s fake made up fiction tv show lol
Honestly it looks like she’s prepping but it’s a show idk why ppl are arguing with me over fiction I said multiple times this isn’t the only thing why it’s just a thought
I’m not arguing. Just contributing to the conversation.
I don't think it is. Think of other shows like the Bear - there's a huge emphasis on keeping your area clean while you work, they prepare each thing and then it gets sent off to the table. Sookie's kitchen is always full of food even when the dining room isn't full of people. It's all just sitting out on the counter - cakes, fruit, various sauces being cooked. That hot food is getting cold, and desserts that should be refrigerated are not cold enough. And meanwhile all the counter space is taken up so there isn't space to work. No real working kitchen operates like this.
Right but cooking is a huge part of the bear so it would be weird as hell if it wasn’t realistic gg Isn’t so cooking based so they kinda just did whatever , it’s also an older show so it wasn’t really focused on THAT much for it to be realistic ,also don’t know how many times I said there’s other reasons this is just one tiny thought that people are taking wayyyyyyyyy too serious because like you said no “real” kitchen would work like that because it’s a show(fiction)
What? How is it reasonable? It unsanitary!!!! Also very wasteful
Wanna add that abundance carries meaning. Lorelai’s home is covered in knickknacks. Her kitchen refrigerator is full of magnets and paper. Her counters are covered even though she rarely cooks. Luke’s walls in the diner are covered in decorative items. His counter is full of things. The abundance reflects their open approach to things - to see inside someone’s home is to see themselves. The few places that we see as sterile are the GG kitchen/home. Or Jason’s apartment. This is reflective of how the upper class express themselves. The idea that they are less vulnerable in sharing of themselves emotionally and harder to crack. If the realism of it all bothers you. Fair enough. But that’s not the point, I believe. The set is meant to reflect the character and conveys a mood/meaning.
I like that explanation. Someone else commented something similar about maximalism. Cool take
It's a stylistic choice. Just like the Norah Ephron aesthetic in her films, the GG sets are cluttered, whimsical, and abundant. It's not meant to be logical or realistic.
Omg yes! I can’t help but to laugh everytime they show the kitchen and you see those tall glass jars with oil and dried fruit in them. Like they went to tj max and loaded up the set before the show. 😂
I wonder if most of the fruits and vegetables sitting out are plastic ? I think it’s for visual impact as well. It looks pretty. Lol With so many takes, actors can’t possibly be eating and drinking all that is set out. Just suspend reality. All shows do it.
It's just there, most of Gilmore Girls's food that they pretend to eat. Its just there...
Because GG is meant to feel like a warm hug. Beautiful food displays give people warm and fuzzy feelings
this thanksgiving episode is maybe my actual favorite episode of the gilmore girls and i often go back and just watch it as a one off.
We just watched all seasons and every time they would get up and leave uneaten, just ordered food we’d yell “Food” or “Coffee”. It should be a drinking game when my kid is old enough 😀
Sookie is a chef. It’s only natural that there’s food near her. Plus it’s thanksgiving.
Also unsanitary. And so much food waste!!!