I had to skip last week’s Cucina Verite because it took me a full 10 days to get through the entirety of Marco Ferreri’s La Grande Bouffe, and frankly, I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about it.

The story goes that, following the French premiere of this notorious 1973 shocker, screen goddess Catherine Deneuve refused to speak to her boyfriend, the film’s star Marcello Mastroianni, for a week.

In the 1973 French film La Grande Bouffe, a group of gourmands gathers to eat themselves to death. But at this popular, cosy Rozelle bistro, a luscious creme brulee with a tart rhubarb compote is ...