Warning: Contains SPOILERS for The Menu!
A deleted scene from The Menu might expand on the story, but it actually would have hurt the movie a lot more than it would have helped it. The Menu‘s primary focus is on a group of rich patrons who travel to the private island of a renowned chef. One deleted scene from The Menu does give some extra context that the film loses without it, but it was ultimately a good choice to cut it.
The Menu‘s deleted scene provides an origin story for Chef Julian Slowik, the head chef of Hawthorn and the film’s main antagonist. In the scene, food critic Lillian Bloom tells a story about when she was in Portland, with her becoming sick of all the lifeless designer food she was used to eating. One day, she decided to go to a Korean taco truck where she found Chef Slowik, leading to Lillian Bloom writing an article about him. This caused Chef Slowik to explode in popularity, bringing him together with an investor and getting his own private island. While giving Slowik an origin story is interesting, it was a good choice to trim the fat.
The Deleted Scene Takes Away From Chef Slowik’s Mystery
Giving Chef Slowik a backstory is a detracts from The Menu, as it hurts the character’s sense of mystery. The questions regarding Slowik’s motivation are core to the film’s suspense, as none of the guests know why Chef Slowik wants to kill everybody. The deleted scene would have appeared near the beginning of The Menu before the guests even arrive at Hawthorne, and showing the scene so early would have pulled the rug out from under the film’s slow reveal of information. Slowik is similar to DC’s Joker, in that his mysterious past and unknown motivations are what make him such a potent villain.
Keeping the deleted scene in would also have destroyed The Menu‘s build-up of its themes. Having Lillian explain that Slowik lost his passion for food so early damages the film’s criticisms of commodification, as that card is held until almost the end of the film in the final cut. Chef Slowik’s unknown connections to each guest serve as a puzzle that the audience is meant to solve throughout the film, and the deleted scene would have ruined it.
The Deleted Scene Does Fix A Lillian Bloom Plothole
In The Menu’s ending, a major Lillian Bloom plothole remains unexplained, and while the deleted scene would have hurt Slowik, it would have fixed this issue. During the film, Lillian begins to believe that Slowik’s violence is all theatrics that he is putting on for her sake. Hiring all these actors and staging all the events of the film wouldn’t make sense if Lillian was just a random food critic. However, making her the one responsible for Slowik’s big break makes her theory a little more believable. However, fixing this small detail with The Menu‘s deleted scene isn’t worth the damage it would have done to Chef Slowik’s menacing antagonist.