In 2007, Pixar was in charge of giving us a film whose protagonist not only managed to earn the prestige of the most feared food critic but even earned the title of “best chef in France”—in the animated world, of course.
Ratatouille turned out to be a success in the world of cinema, resulting as a “box office hit” during its premiere, earning praises from both the audiences, critics, and even becoming an Academy Award winner.
In order for Pixar’s film to achieve the above, it had to use ‘quality ingredients’ for its development. If you want a good movie, you need good characters.
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And, in the case of Ratatouille, it turned out to be inspired by real-life people to create some of the characters that would appear throughout Remy’s story. Here are some of them!
Chef Gusteau
Let’s start with Remy’s idol that inspired him to enter the gastronomic world (basically without him, there would have been no movie): Chef Gusteau.
Before ‘Little Chef’, Auguste Gusteau was France’s most famous chef, who sadly died of a broken heart following a negative review by Anton Ego. When the movie was released, some reviewers believed that Gusteau was inspired by real-life chef Bernard Loiseau. Who was he?
Chef Bernard Loiseau was born in Chamalières, France. As a teenager, he decided to become a chef. Thus, Bernard become an apprentice at La Maison Troisgros, a world-renowned French restaurant that achieved a 50-year record with three Michelin stars in 2018. I think this gives a taste of Bernard’s talents in the kitchen, don’t you?
In time, Loiseau would be known worldwide for setting trends in the kitchen and for the three Michelin stars that he obtained for his hotel-restaurant, La Côte d’Or’s. By 2003, Chef Bernard Loiseau was the most famous chef alive in France.
No wonder Gusteau was thought by many to be the animated version of Bernard! Unfortunately, though, both chefs met a tragic end. Loiseau, was obsessed with being perfect in order to maintain his three stars. Because of this, Bernard developed distinta, also known as chronicle depression.
One day, Gault Millau, one of France’s most influential restaurant guides, had downgraded Bernard’s restaurant. Added to this, an article in Le Figaro hinted that the famous chef was about to lose one of his Michelin stars.
Loiseau couldn’t handle any more pressure. A few days later, after a long day at work, Chef Bernard ended his life, passing away in February 2003.
Bernard’s gastronomic brilliance would leave a legacy in culinary art. In his honor, director and writer of Ratatouille, Brad Bird, visited La Côte d’Or. Loiseau’s restaurant was one of the many French kitchens from which the film’s crew drew inspiration to create the movie.
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Anton Ego
Next, we have Anton Ego, France’s most respected and feared restaurant critic (in Pixar’s universe). In the case of Ego, there were two people that whom the creators of Ratatouille based their character.
First off, Ego appears to be loosely based on Giulio Andreotti, who was Italy’s Prime Minister— for three times! Some critics have pointed out that both Ego and Andreotti share similar personalities.
The former Italian Prime Minister earned a reputation as a ‘Machiavellian politician’ that managed to strike fear into his opponents with his speeches, just like Ego’s reviews. This is why Andreotti has been the inspiration for several fictional characters, especially the villains.
As for his physique, Ego’s appearance was modeled after Louis Jouvet, a French actor and filmmaker. Jouvet was born in Crozon and used to stutter as a young man. His family wanted to train him to become a pharmacist— Louis even earned an advanced degree in such profession!
However, Jouvet’s dreams had other plans for him. Louis never practiced as a pharmacist; instead, he pursued a career in theatre. After being refused three times by Paris’s Conservatoire, Jouvet was finally accepted to Jacques Copeau’s Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier as a stage manager in 1913.
Gradually, Jouvet worked hard to climb the art world. With this, he would become the protagonist of the stage, theater director, and even collaborate on film projects. Like Ego, Jouvet would gain respect in his professional field.
In fact, the Théâtre de l’Athénée Louis-Jouvet was renamed after him due to his artistic influence when he directed the theatre!
Chef Skinner
The main villain of Ratatouille, Chef Skinner, was also based on two people. To begin with, Gusteau’s former sous-chef behavior, size, and body language were loosely based on Louis de Funès.
De Funès was a French actor and comedian. According to different polls, conducted since 1968, Louis is France’s favorite actor— a totally opposite case to Skinner! So how come is it that the wicked chef has a connection with a beloved comedian?
Well, having played over 150 roles in film and over 100 on stage, de Funès’s acting style is described as a ‘high-energy performance’. Moreover, Louis had a talent for performing a wide range of facial expressions and tics. Now, this does coincide with Skinner’s mood swings during the movie!
On the other hand, Skinner’s name is a nod to the late behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner. The late psychologist was famous for his experiments with rats, known as the operant conditioning chamber or ‘Skinner box’.
Skinner used the chamber to observe a rat’s behavior and how it could be influenced. Skinner believed that free will was an illusion and saw human action as dependent on the consequences of previous actions. In the case of his box, if the rat received a cheese for a specific action, it was most likely that the animal would repeat it to obtain the reward.
This can be seen when Skinner captures Remy, albeit in a cage, and asks our Little Chef to “design him a line of frozen food in exchange for staying alive”. Not a nice deal, man!
Colette Tatou
Last but not least, we have Colette Tatou, Gusteau’s rôtisseur and current co-founder of the small bistro La Ratatouille. In this case, Colette was inspired by French chef Hélène Darroze.
Darroze is a fourth-generation chef who used to cook desserts for her parents’ dinner parties by age 12. She built her culinary path by training under top chefs, such as Alain Ducasse, taking over her father’s restaurant in 1995, and opening her own in 1999.
Yet, before becoming a professional chef she had already earned a business degree!
Eventually, her reputation would be recognized worldwide: Darroze has three restaurants as well as three Michelin stars. She was admitted into the French Legion of Honour as a Chevalier (Knight) by President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2012. And, in 2015, Hélène was named the world’s best female chef by a British magazine.
Due to her extraordinary resume, she was contacted by Pixar to be the inspiration for the heroine of the movie “Ratatouille”. In an interview with CNN, Hélène Darroze shared her experience with Pixar:
“They followed me everywhere, they asked me questions, they wrote notes, they filmed me, and two years later this amazing movie came out,” she recalled. “I am so happy and proud to be a part of it.”
However, Colette’s tough personality is not the projection of Hélène, as the latter has been described as ‘someone with a big heart’. Rather, what the film reflects through Colette is Darroze’s passion for cooking and all her effort to excel regardless of one’s gender.
Hélène Darroze is a true example of Gusteau’s iconic quote: “Your only limit is your soul. What I say is true – anyone can cook… but only the fearless can be great”.
