Authentic Italian meals were a labor of ‘Love’

Based on Gilbert’s best-selling book, “Eat Pray Love,’’ Elizabeth begins in Italy (the “Eat’’ part of the title), moves on to India (“Pray’’), and ends in Bali, where she meets a man (“Love’’). Whenever she or someone else in the film is eating, a food stylist is cooking out of sight and setting down fresh food for every take. That includes pizza and pasta, both looking delicious.

In Rome, Liz, as she’s called, bravely ventures into a cafe on her own and in halting Italian, orders spaghetti pomodoro. Her shy smile belies her anxiety. She twirls the red strands of pasta on her fork, relishing every bite, listening to Mozart’s “Magic Flute.’’ This image — eating alone on the patio of Osteria Dell’Antiquario — sets the mood for her new independence.

“The scene is about the joy she feels that she can eat a plate of pasta without wagging her finger and worrying if she’s going to fit into her jeans,’’ says screenwriter Jennifer Salt, who adapted Gilbert’s book with director Ryan Murphy. “On a rudimentary level, it’s about self love,’’ says Salt. Liz has unabashedly allowed herself the pleasure of eating.

When the cast and crew travel to Naples to L’Antica Pizzeria Da Michele, to eat what’s billed as the best pizza in the world, the slender Roberts — known for her healthful eating habits — willingly adopts the movie’s mandate of pleasure. She eats an entire piece of pizza in eight separate takes, rather than the designated bite.

Liz convinces her new best friend Sofi (Tuva Novotny) that life is about indulging pleasure, in this case, a craving for pizza Margherita. After musing over their inevitable muffin tops — both worry about bulging over the waist of their jeans — each succumbs to an entire pie with double mozzarella. Afterward, Liz orders each a second pizza. For dessert, they float down the streets of Naples in search of Italian pastries.

As for her tight jeans, Liz declares, “I’m going to eat and then buy some big lady pants.’’

Later in the film, in a busy cafe in the Largo Febo, we see Liz with a group of eight new Italian and Swedish friends, confidently ordering a variety of Roman dishes without a menu in her practiced Italian. “For the table,’’ she tells the waiter, “carciofi alla Giudia, orecchiette con guanciale, linguine con vongole, pappardelle con il ragu del coniglio, trippa alla Romana bucatini all’Amatriciana . . . and two more liters of the vino sfuso from Genzano. . .’’ English slips in but she doesn’t notice. She’s too busy raising her glass and shouting, “Ciao!’’

This elaborate menu kept the film’s food stylist, Susan Spungen, busy for three days. “I think it took a village,’’ says Spungen, who helped launch Martha Stewart Living.

While the actors wait for their orders at the crowded Santa Lucia restaurant in Largo Febo, Spungen and her assistants, who included an Italian cook, are at a restaurant down the street, assembling and putting the final touches on each plate. “I had researched the recipes,’’ says Spungen, “but I wanted to make sure the food looked authentically Roman, so I deferred to him.’’

The scene was filmed on a hot August day and there were six to eight different dishes. Each had to be prepared about a dozen times as the director called for take after take. Vibrant Roma tomatoes, artichokes, and pecorino Romano wilted, changed color, and expired under the cameras’ hot lights.

Typically, Spungen, an experienced stylist who created the French delicacies for “Julie & Julia,’’ works with a large refrigerated food truck parked near the filming location. There, everything is cooked, stored, and presented in sequence.

Narrow Roman roads prohibited that. During the elaborate scene at Santa Lucia restaurant, Spungen spent a day shopping, another prepping in a truck on the outskirts of Rome. On the morning of the shoot, she unloaded the food at one restaurant, cooked at another. She could not cook in the restaurant where the actors were dining. Completed plates of food had to be whisked down the street by assistants, who were swarmed by tourists, paparazzi, and other curious spectators.

There were also extras to think about and specific food orders from actors. “One of the actors from Rome said, ‘I’ll take the tripe.’ Another said, ‘I’d like the bucatini,’ ’’ recalls Spungen. Whatever dish they were eating in the scene got replaced again and again. “It was busy and chaotic,’’ says the stylist, who even made sure that an unnamed lady with a red skirt and a little dog sitting behind Liz in the scene had a fresh plate for every take.

Food scenes in India and Bali weren’t as demanding. At an ashram, Richard from Texas (Richard Jenkins), nicknames Liz “Groceries,’’ because of her insatiable appetite. In Bali, where Liz falls in love, her future husband confesses that he loves to cook and nurtures her with beautiful plates of food.

When they get back to real life, however, they’ll be missing a key ingredient to happiness: a stylist to replace their plates when something no longer looks fresh.

Beverly Levitt can be reached at bevlevitt@aol.com.