Sexy Foods with Adam Conover

Adam Conover, comedian and host of Adam Ruins Everything, arrived at Recipe Club with a specific thesis: food and sex are structurally similar, not because one makes you horny, but because both are about presenting a sensation to another person, receiving it, and responding. Over a platter of DIY hand rolls, Conover and host Chris Ying used three films—9½ Weeks, Tampopo, and Lady and the Tramp—to test that idea, and the results were surprisingly precise.

The Refrigerator Scene and the Problem of Consent

The 1986 film 9½ Weeks is the obvious starting point for any conversation about food and sex on screen. Its famous refrigerator scene features Mickey Rourke’s character blindfolding Kim Basinger and feeding her a parade of ingredients: maraschino cherries, a whole tomato, a spoonful of Jell-O, an olive, a jalapeño that startles her, and finally honey poured over her tongue. Conover watched it for the first time in preparation for the episode and found it “kind of a revolting movie.”