Movie Theme Snack Night

I have a friend who has taken to giving a little extra with her family movie nights. It’s always interesting to see what she’ll come up with to make the event a bit crazier. For example, for Jurassic Park she might make “Dr. Sattler’s Triceratops Taco Horns, Goat Legs (don’t worry… they’re chicken drumsticks), Barbasol Can Push-Pops, and Hammond’s Rapidly Melting Sundae Bar.” While it certainly won’t be for people who don’t already enjoy cooking, for those who do, it’d be a cool memory for kids. 

Who’s got time for all this though? Unless you’re like my friend and doing creative cooking is of hobby-level interest, this is something you’re just going to leave for the Instagram parents. Unless of course we have a way to offload the creative. 

LET’S BUILD OUR MOVIE THEME NIGHT MEAL PLANNER

While it might not seem like we’d need a GPT for this, I find generic ChatGPT actually doesn’t hit the ball out of the park all that often here. It understands what we want to do, but it tends to stick to an overall theme. For instance, the Jurassic Park examples above took some back and forth. 

When I first mentioned it, it gave me generic dinosaur-themed food… Dino-nuggets and pudding volcanos and such. Very cool and everybody secretly yearns for a volcano pudding, but the suggestions aren’t specific to the movie. We want fun things that are like easter eggs, so when Nedry is given the can of Barbasol with the hidden compartment for the DNA samples, it’s a fun little moment. 

For this reason, we must work in steps, which is coincidentally a great strategy to get the most out of ChatGPT in general. 

I don’t want to jump right into the meal planning. First we must establish a sequence of events in the movie to work off of, so we’ll ask ChatGPT to first outline the entire movie, hitting on all the important plot points, scenes, and happenings. Next, we don’t want to necessarily spoil the movie if we haven’t seen it, so we’ll make it ask us if we care about spoilers. 

Instructions

Throwing a Theme Night

Once it has the plot-points figured out, it will create 10 snack ideas based off those points, and as you can see we get far more specific ideas that are based more in the movie than just the overall theme. Here’s one I did for JAWS (sorry for the spoilers but you’ve had nearly 50 years to watch it):

1. Amity Island Welcome Basket – A delightful assortment of seafood snacks, representing the island’s vibrant beach and community.
2. Quint’s Gritty Sea Biscuits – Hardtack or simple sailor’s biscuits, showcasing the rugged life at sea.
3. Brody’s Beachside BBQ Bites – Mini barbecue sliders, symbolizing the summer beach vibe and community gatherings.
4. Hooper’s Oceanic Delight – Sushi or sashimi platter, reflecting the marine biologist’s connection with the sea.
5. Shark Fin Cupcakes – Cupcakes with a fin design on top, a nod to the iconic fin slicing through the water.
6. Orca’s Deck Platter – A rustic, hearty charcuterie board, echoing the life aboard Quint’s boat, the Orca.
7. Chum Bucket Popcorn – Salted caramel popcorn mixed with red candy pieces, symbolizing the chum used to lure the shark.
8. Survivor’s Sangria – A refreshing sangria with floating fruit pieces, representing the triumph over the shark.
9. Shark’s Tooth Cheese Triangles – Cheese cut in the shape of shark teeth, adding a thematic but light-hearted touch.
10. Seafoam Jelly Cups – Blue jelly with a frothy white top, mimicking the ocean’s waves.

Compared to snacks generated without the plot point considerations, these are way better. Fans of the movie will notice the subtle nods. The welcome basket for our main characters who aren’t native islanders, The biscuits that Quint is constantly chewing on, the chum bucket popcorn from the moment just before the famous “you’re gonna need a bigger boat” line, and the Sangria with floating fruit pieces, symbolic of an exploded shark. 

Some of those (the biscuits especially) are deep dives into the story. This is where asking it to “consider” the plot-points before making the list of snacks becomes key. Compare them to ones done with a standard ChatGPT prompt:

1. Shark Fin Soup Cups: Serve a savory tomato soup in small cups, and float a triangle of toast on top to resemble a shark fin.
2. Beachside Popcorn: Mix popcorn with gummy sharks and Goldfish crackers for a “shark in the water” vibe. Add some pretzel sticks as driftwood to enhance the beachy feel.
3. Ocean Water Punch: Create a blue punch using blue sports drinks or a mix of blue food coloring with lemonade. Float some gummy sharks in the bowl for a fun touch.
4. Shark Bite Hotdogs: Cut hot dogs to look like little sharks by making a slice for the mouth and inserting small triangles of cheese for teeth. Serve with ketchup ‘blood’ for dipping.
5. Seaweed Dip and Coral Crackers: Use spinach or seaweed dip to represent the ocean’s flora, served with pink and coral-colored crackers or chips.
6. Shark Tooth Cheese Triangles: Cut cheese into triangle shapes to resemble shark teeth. Serve with a side of crackers or bread.
7. Shark Jell-O Bowls: Make blue Jell-O in clear bowls and place gummy sharks inside before it sets. You can add some crushed cookies on top for a sandy beach look.
8. Fishing Rod Pretzel Sticks: Use pretzel rods as the ‘fishing pole’ and attach a gummy worm or fish to the end with a string of licorice.
9. Piranha Pizza Bites: Make or buy mini pizzas and add extra toppings like pepperoni cut in the shape of a fish or shark.
10. Life Preserver Donuts: Take plain donuts and decorate them with red frosting to look like life preservers.

Those are fun and cute, but they’re just shark/ocean related. The popcorn is clever, but hotdogs were never part of the film, unless you count Pippet… (RIP Pippet), there’s no piranha to speak of, and none of them even even wear life preservers. 

To make things even (somehow) nerdier, consider withholding the snacks until reference to them appears in the film. Your kids will hate you, but they’ll ever forget your inspiring/enraging dedication to the bit.

And of course in keeping with an important theme around ChatGPT, should you find yourself unsure how to make any of these things, all you need to do is ask. 

ALTERNATE USES

This GPT illustrates how to use ChatGPT for creative and thematic event planning, specifically focusing on crafting unique, movie-themed dinner nights. This skill could also be leveraged to create GPTs for:

Book Club Snack Pairings

This GPT would offer snack and drink ideas tailored to the theme, setting, or significant plot points of the book being discussed at a book club meeting. For instance, it could suggest French pastries for a novel set in Paris or futuristic cocktails for a sci-fi read, adding an immersive layer to the discussion.

Thematic Birthday Parties for Children

This GPT could generate party ideas, including food, decorations, and activities, based on a child’s favourite book, movie, or cartoon. It would help parents create a memorable and themed birthday celebration that brings the child’s favourite characters and settings to life.

Seasonal Holiday Meal Ideas

Adapting the original concept, this GPT could offer creative and thematic meal plans for various holidays, like a “Haunted Halloween Feast” or a “Winter Wonderland Dessert Night,” incorporating elements traditional to the holiday with unique twists.