Sometimes, looking at food is almost as good as eating it. Dishes take the spotlight on the big screen in a lot of films, and here are some mouthwateringly memorable examples:

1) Waitress (2007)

Kerri Russel plays a waitress at a diner who uses her emotions and her life experience to invent creative combinations of flavors. Your heart aches for her while your mouth waters, and you can't wait to go back for second helpings. Um, whoops!  We mean viewings.

2) Julie & Julia (2009)

Even kitchen-phobics couldn't help but be inspired to want to try their hand at cooking after watching this movie. The stew, the roast duck, the desserts (sorry, a little drool escaped just now). The film was two biographies at once, with a fantastic menu for a timeline. If the food doesn't entice you, then the delightful performances by Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, and Stanley Tucci sure will.

3) Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)

What could make a better food film than one devoted entirely to a candy factory that had treats you'd never even dreamed of before? Odds are, if you do dream in sweets, the chocolate river in this movie figured prominently in your night-time escapes. The movie was so influential in the candy world that Wonka is now a brand that makes popular candy like Gobstoppers and Nerds.

4) Woman on Top (2000)

With stars like Penelope Cruz and Mark Feuerstein, this movie is obviously entertaining. With food factoring so prominently into the love story, it was surprisingly tantalizing. Food and affection have an obvious connection (look no further than the old adage, "a way to a man's heart is through his stomach), and those two aspects combine wonderfully in this film.

5) Ratatouille (2007)

ven in computer animation form, the food in this movie looked yummy. Case in point: it was so good that the audience had no choice but to root for the rat to succeed in the kitchen -- something that would never happen in real life. No wonder it won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature.