‘The Taste of Things’ Ending Explained: How Does Dodin Cope With Eugenie’s Death?

‘The Taste of Things’ is a 2023 French historical romantic drama film directed and written by Trần Anh Hùng, featuring Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel. Set in 1889, it tells the story of a romance between a cook and the gourmet she serves. The gourmet character is inspired by Dodin-Bouffant from Marcel Rouff’s 1924 novel ‘The Passionate Epicure.’

Even if you’re not that big on food, chefs, and gourmets you will certainly appreciate the timeless romance between Dodin and Eugenie, however in its more than 2-hour runtime the movie has little plot and one really confusing and open-ended ending. So let’s dive into it.

Dodin and Eugenie are more than a chef and an employer

The movie starts with cooking, but I supposed the majority of the movie shows exactly that and this is why it’s so long with its main premise being relatively simple and uncomplicated. We meet our main character, Dodin, a French gourmet who has the habit of entertaining his friends with overly long and complicated meals. We meet Eugenie, Dodin’s chef who seemingly slaves away at the stove for days on end to deliver perfect meals. There’s Violette, Eugenie’s apprentice and helper but as Dodin puts it, Violette can’t boil water as far as cooking goes. There’s also young Pauline who despite her age shows incredible talent when it comes to cooking and appreciating food in general.

Eugenie and Dodin are mostly cooking together with Eugenie having the last words on how something will be cooked and Dodin having the last word on what should be cooked. Despite the movie initially showing Eugenie as a servant later we learn that she and Dodin are in a romantic relationship with Dodin being desperate to marry Eugenie, but she refuses claiming that marriage is the death of love.

Eugenie has been working for Dodin for the past 20 years, she is one of the best chefs in France being the daughter of a famous pastry chef. Dodin fell in love with Eugenie’s cooking and she fell in love in a way that he can appreciate her cooking. It’s a perfect love story really and the two live an idyllic life filled with simple pleasures, food, and long nights spent together.

But, one afternoon while preparing a meal Eugenie almost faints, she claims that it’s nothing. After everything has been said and done Eugenie wants to take on Pauline as her apprentice as she believes that the child shows great promise and might in future surpass even her.

As it turns out, the royal chef has nothing on Pauline

Dodin is invited for an 8-hour-long dinner with the Prince of Eurasia who wants to impress him, a notable gourmet with his royal chef. Dodin accepts the invitation but he also notices that Eugenie is more tired than usual and urges her to visit a doctor. Eugenie claims that it’s nothing that she certainly feels fine enough to cook and perform all her regular duties.

Eugenie visits Pauline’s parents and tells them that she and Dodin would like to train her, but the parents aren’t quite sure about that and say that they will have to think about it.

Dodin returns from his overly-long dinner with the Prince but he is not all that impressed and plans a dinner to host the prince with Eugenie preparing it. He plans a relatively simple meal, boiled beef with vegetables. Eugenie tries to talk him out of it but he claims that he wants to feed the prince to an original French meal, humble yet masterfully prepared.

Eugenie is seriously ill and no one realizes the gravity of it

Eugenie starts suffering from fainting spells more frequently and Dodin asks a doctor to give her a full examination however they can’t find anything wrong with her. When Eugenie faints while talking to Dodin one day, he asks the doctor again to examine her and the doctor admits that there are only so many things that he can do about it and he has no idea what’s wrong with her.

Dodin is shocked but listens to Eugenie when she convinces him that she is alright. He decides to pamper her while she is resting and decides to prepare a full-course meal for her. When Eugenie comes to the desert she notices an engagement ring and with a smile accepts to marry him.

Eugenie and Dodin hold an engagement party and it’s really touching. After the party, the two discuss their future plans and Eugenie mentions how she will probably pass away during the summer but Dodin thinks nothing of it, he merely thinks that she is referring to summer as her favorite season.

Soon after announcing their plans to marry, Eugenie dies in her sleep. She most likely died of some heart condition that went undiagnosed due to the medicine’s limitations in the 1800s.

Dodin gives up on food

Dodin is horribly shaken by Eugenie’s passing and he refuses to eat and enjoy life as he used to. There is a stark change in the ambient in the kitchen. From a sunny and warm place, the kitchen has transformed into a gloomy, dark, and cold place. Something that I have to give praise to the filmmakers for as they made the transition perfectly. You can feel Eugenie’s loss in every shot of that kitchen.

Dodin is depressed and he refuses to replace Eugenie which is understandable. One morning his friends send a replacement chef to him and he wakes up to the smell of his favorite breakfast. But as soon as he sees a strange chef in his kitchen wearing Eugenie’s apron he loses it and yells at her to get out of the kitchen.

His friends are trying to talk him into hiring a replacement but he won’t hear about it, and their ideas are received quite aggressively when it comes to Dodin.

One day, Pauline’s parents visit Dodin and tell him that they have decided that Pauline should be trained by him, but Dodin refuses telling them that it was Eugenie who was supposed to train her since she was the chef and not him. Pauline’s parents then ask that he be the one to break the news to Pauline since she was quite looking forward to it.

Dodin ends up training Pauline

After some time has passed we can see that Dodin has taken Pauline under his wing after all and the two are working together to prepare the meal for a prince but Dodin admits that he doesn’t have the skills that Eugenie has and his meal is briefly an outline of a sketch compared to what Eugeine was capable of creating. The two hold sort of an audition for the next cook to be hired and no other candidates clearly have what it takes. Some cook badly, some admit that they can’t recreate Eugenie’s dishes and some fail to present even the slightest knowledge of cooking for pleasure.

Dodin is just about to give up on the whole affair when his friend walks into the kitchen and presents him with a dish cooked by Adele Pidou, both Dodin and Pauline are enchanted with the dishes and Dodin might finally find his next cook. He hurries to meet her and hopefully offers her a job.

What did the last scene with Dodin and Eugenie mean?

The last scene in the movie sees Dodin and Eugenie talking in the kitchen as if she were still alive. The conversation is the one that they had after the engagement party where Eugenie hinted that she will soon die. Dodin mentions the quote from St. Augustin and how happiness is to continue to desire the things we already have and asks Eugenie whether he ever had her.

Eugenie instead of answering asks him whether she is his cook or his wife, after some thinking Dodin answers – that she is his cook. This makes Eugenie happy, but why? Well, the point was that everybody can be someone’s wife but being someone cook, especially someone as finicky as Dodin, is a great honor. Eugenie wasn’t loved merely because of her beauty of convenience, she was loved because she was the only person who knew what Dodin liked, because of her exceptional talents in the kitchen and the fact that she worked magic. This is why will truly make her irreplaceable when it comes to Dodin. He can always remarry, he can always find another wife, but he will never be able to replace his cook, his Eugenie.

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