Dave Chang's Favorite Movie Food Scene Comes From The Matrix (It Makes Him Crave Steak Every Time)

Dave Chang has always been known for being outspoken on culinary subjects. Whether it's the best restaurant for people watching or what you should never do if sitting down for a tasting menu, the multi-award-winning chef, restaurateur, and media mogul definitely doesn't mind letting his opinion be known, even if it's controversial. Perhaps it makes sense that a movie scene from "The Matrix" (1999) works up Chang's appetite.

"The Matrix" is an action-packed science fiction classic starring Keanu Reeves, so it's not exactly a food-focused film. After all, the story is set in a world where sentient machines have turned humans into living batteries, trapped in a fake reality. So what about this movie gets the man behind the iconic Momofuku restaurant so hungry? The answer is steak. In one pivotal scene, Cypher (played by Joe Pantoliano) betrays his fellow rebels, including Reeves' character Neo, as he sits in a restaurant. Here, Cypher enjoys a beautiful piece of steak, which he admits he knows doesn't actually exist.

"They did a great job of conveying that lustful feeling when you're eating meat," Chang said in an episode of "The Dave Chang Show." He expressed that certain details of the scene — from the sound of the knife cutting into the steak to Cypher holding the piece of meat and admiring it — made him crave a steak.

Like "The Matrix," where nothing is as it seems, there's more to this steak than meets the eye. Dave Chang describes it as a "giant hunk of filet" in his show, but others believe that the steak is a Chateaubriand. The difference between a Chateaubriand and a filet mignon is that the former comes from the center section of a beef tenderloin, while the filet mignon is a smaller steak from the narrow end of the tenderloin. However, the steak story doesn't end there.

Joe Pantoliano, in an interview with Inverse, revealed that he didn't like rare steak and that he would spit it out when the cameras stopped rolling. In some shots, he was actually eating shiitake mushrooms made to look like steak. Still, through the magic of movie-making, the scene gets Chang's stomach rumbling, even though he's not a fan of filets.. On "The Dave Chang Show," he noted that this is the only (non-food-related) media that made him want to eat steak. With that said, maybe Chang would be more inclined to dive into shiitake mushrooms if he ever learned the truth.