Kitchen Magician

TITLE: LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE

DIRECTOR: ALFONSO ARAU

WRITER: LAURA ESQUIVEL

THE BOTTOM LINE: This grand Mexican fable shows that the way to a man's heart is through a woman's hearth.

; Nothin' says lovin' like somethin' from the oven. The extra ingredient is care. Just like Mom used to make it.

It's a pity that the folk wisdom of food has degenerated into commercial slogans -- for the kitchen is a place of remembered magic. What are spells, if not womankind's oldest recipes? What is a caldron but a pot for witches' bouillabaisse? Snow White's stepmother was Apple Annie with...

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