Friday’s Food and a Flick: Love Actually (2003) with Chocolate Fondue

It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there—fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge—they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaking suspicion…love actually is all around. — Prime Minister

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, so of course I've been thinking about my favorite romantic movies. I have to admit, there are very few romantic comedies that are on my favorites list. The whole boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, oh-wow-guess-what-they-get-back-together-just-in-time-for-a-totally-predictable-syrupy-happy-ending thing just gets on my sodding wit. I know I’m not spilling any great news here, but love is hardly ever as perfect as movies portray it. Sometimes love is great, but sometimes it’s loss. Love begins, and love ends. And there are different kinds of love—parental, brotherly, lustful, pining, unrequited, blissful, the love of a friend. One movie captures all of that. Love Actually is so much more than a romantic comedy; it tells the tales of love from every angle, at every stage, and at all ages. Each tale is unique, but the types of love they depict are ones we have all experienced.

Mark’s (Andrew Lincoln) life is complicated. He’s friends with Peter (Chiwetel Ajiofor) and Juliet (Keira Knightley) who are getting married, but what they don't know is that Mark is head over heels in love with Juliet. This is the tale of Unrequited Love, as Mark watches his two friends and their tale of Blissful Love. Anyone who has ever had unrequited love knows how Mark is feeling; the anguish as you watch the one you love, the one who you know would fall head over heels for you if they ever knew how much you adored them, walk down the aisle with someone else. And when the one you're in love with is a friend, well, there isn’t anything worse. But when Mark makes a last grand gesture to tell Juliet how he feels and she still stays with the other bloke, he finds out there is something worse, and your heart just aches for him.

Then there’s the tale of Illicit Love. Mia (Heike Makatsch) is a young secretary who is trying every trick in the book to seduce Harry, her boss (Alan Rickman, and no, I’m not going to tell you if she succeeds). Harry’s got his own tale, though. Harry and Karen (Emma Thompson) are married with kids; their Blissful Love has grown into that stable, settled, but maybe even a bit dull, tale of Comfortable Love. But when Karen thinks her suspicions that Harry is fooling around have been confirmed (in one of the most heart-wrenching scenes), their tale becomes one of Broken Love.

Daniel’s (Liam Neeson) story begins with him giving the eulogy at his wife’s funeral. This is the tale of Lost Love—the absolute high of being with your soul mate, and the depths of despair when they’re taken from you too soon. Liam is so despondent he can barely function, but when his young son, Sam, enters with his tale of Puppy Love, confessing to his dad that he’s in love with a girl who doesn’t know he’s alive, Daniel’s story shifts focus to that of Parental Love, as he helps his son win the girl.

Colin’s (Kris Marshall) tale of God-I’ve-Gotta-Have-It Love is downright hilarious. The randy Colin can’t seem to find a date in London to save his life, so he decides to go to America, the land of hot babes who are suckers for a British accent, to the utter disbelief of his friend. Imagine his friend’s surprise when he returns from the U.S. with a pair of gorgeous souvenirs!

Sarah’s (Laura Linney) tales of Pining Love and Guilt-Ridden Caretaker Love are like the hopelessly separate oil and water. Sarah’s been working for Harry (from the Lustful Love tale) for two years, seven months, three days and two hours, and has been pining for Karl (Rodrigo Santoro), a designer in the office, for two years, seven months, three days and an hour and thirty minutes. But Sarah’s life is complicated by a mentally ill brother, whom she loves but who keeps her so tied up with his endless phone calls and need for support she hardly has time for her own life. Sarah finally gets up the courage to ask Karl out on a date, but that damned phone keeps ringing…

Jamie’s (Colin Firth) relationship with Aurelia (Lucia Moniz) is the tale of Rebound Love. After Jamie finds his girlfriend in bed with his brother, he takes a trip to Portugal to do some writing and put his life back together. There he meets Aurelia, the girl sent to clean the cottage he’s rented. His speech to her at the end is one of the best moments in the film.

John and Judy may have the oddest tale of Office Love ever written. They meet as stand-ins on a movie set, but what they have to stand in for is anything but ordinary. Their awkward conversations while having to simulate sex scenes are some of the most hilarious bits of the movie.

What does a high-ranking official do when he falls in love with an aide? This is the Prime Minister’s (Hugh Grant) tale of Class Love. The newly minted—and single!—Prime Minister meets and is immediately smitten with his clumsy but utterly charming aide Natalie (Martine McCutcheon), who is from a middle-class working family. The way the public finds out is one of the most delightful scenes in the movie.

Finally, there is Joe and Billy Mack, and their tale of Best Friends Love. Billy Mack (Bill Nighy) is a vain, semi-washed up rock star trying to reclaim his former glory and squeeze out one more hit by revamping one of his tunes into a Christmas song. His long-suffering manager, Joe, has been by his side for years, through the good times and the bad. They are absolutely priceless together—Billy is a strung-out, aging mess, and Joe is, as he calls him “his chubby employee;” they're a rock-n-roll version of Abbott and Costello. Amazingly, the Christmas song takes off and Billy’s back on top, for another 15 minutes, at least. He ditches Joe to run off to Elton John’s house for a Christmas Eve party, but quickly realizes that where he really wants to be is with his best bloke.

As much as I adore the movie, it’s the ending that just sends me over the moon. The director had the brilliant idea of going to Heathrow airport and just filming people as they met their loved ones coming off the planes. People running into each other’s arms, hugging the life out of one another; parents, children, lovers, friends, spouses, all overflowing with utter happiness, is just overwhelming. With a cast that is to die for and fantastic dialogue, it just doesn’t get any better than Love Actually.

And what could go better with a romantic movie than some decadent chocolate fondue! So get out your slow cooker and enjoy a perfect dessert with the perfect movie.

Chocolate Fondue

Prep time: 10 minutes

Minimum cook time: 45 minutes in a small slow cooker

¾ lb. good-quality bittersweet chocolate, chopped

½ cup heavy cream

3 TBSP liqueur or liquor (your favorite: rum, bourbon, tequila, cognac, brandy, triple sec, Grand Marnier, Chambord, kirsch, amaretto, Frangelico, crème de cacao, crème de banana, Irish cream liqueur, Kahlua)

Your choice of dippers: strawberries, banana chunks, Clementine segments, apple slices, donut holes, waffle squares, butter cookies, angel food cake cubes, brownie cubes, biscotti, or sugar cookies

Combine chocolate, cream, and liqueur in the slow cooker. Cook on low for 45 to 60 minutes or until the chocolate melts. Stir gently toward the end of cooking time. 2. Serve directly from the slow cooker with your choice of dippers.

Variation: for a non-alcohol version, substitute, ¼ to ½ teaspoon pure extract (any flavor) for the liqueur or liquor

From The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Slow Cooker Cooking, Second Edition, by Ellen Brown