Binging with Babish: Lunches from The Breakfast Club

This week, we're headed to John Hughes' favorite fictional filming location of Shermer, Illinois for some high school lunching. What do sushi, sandwiches, and soup have in common? A lot more than you might think, Mr. Vernon. Sincerely yours, The Breakfast Club.

Music: "XXV" by Broke for Free

My playlist of preferred cooking tunes, Bangers with Babish!

[LeoFan]

So fun fact about Claire's sushi: According to Molly Ringwald, the script had originally called for Claire to have pasta salad for lunch. It was Ally Sheedy who came up with the idea of her having sushi because it better fit her status as an upper class rich girl, because sushi was more of a luxury foodstuff back in the mid-80's.

[trinaq]

I love how each lunch symbolises each character's background, relationship with their parents and personality. Bender mocks everyone else's lunch to disguise that he doesn't have any.

[SirChrisThompson]

"...and a single slice of mortadella."

Mortadella? Andy, this was Chicago in 1985. That's pimento loaf.

[scibqdo]

"It's unweildy, sour, sweet and totally insane."
Just like Allison. Perfect.

[Steveofthejungle]

Thinking how Claire ate that sushi that was sitting unrefridgerated for hours in her lunchbox before lunch

[terriblegamer]

Looking forward to the Sushi episode of Botched where Bab’s will no doubt have several breakdowns.

[vickenator]

The moment when Bender tosses a coke overhand to Allison and she one-hands it without looking was pretty awesome. I think they understood each other better than anybody else in the room.

[Joe___R]

The captain crunch sandwich most likely had mayonnaise not butter. A sandwich with just mayonnaise & sugar is an actual sandwich that was common 50 years ago in the midwest. That is an updated version of lard sandwich which had lard spread on bread then sugar sprinkled on it. My great grandfather used to eat them all the time.

[samga]

As a former sushi chef, I was so proud when you made the tuna roll. And then I died inside when I saw the sushi bazooka.

[Bobbnoxious]

Saw this movie when it first came out. Sushi was just starting to become trendy in the US, and it was for hifalutin' people. That's why Claire had to explain what it was to Bender (and to most of the audience).

"You won't accept a guy's tongue in your mouth, and you're gonna eat THAT?!" - John Bender, 1985

[JonSudano]

Glad I'm not the only one who acknowledges that Allison Reynolds kindled my affection for weird goth girls

[Jay-rdsq]

I love that Andrew is always worried about how Italians will feel about his doing something correctly. Then, when it comes to sushi, from a culture where people spend lifetimes mastering techniques, he's like, "eh, I've never done this before, here's a sushi Bazooka!"

[DavidTokugi]

He finally got a rice cooker, as an Asian I feel like a proud parent who has watched their child grow up

[jessicapierce]

I just assumed that Brian's soup was Campbell's Chicken Noodle. That and cream of mushroom were the only soups I knew growing up.

[benjaminkamben]

The "sugar tubes" that were used in the movie were actually a powdered coffee creamer referred to as "coffee Lightener" by the automatic coffee dispensing vending machines.

[Skipti_LLC]

As someone with a peanut allergy, my girlfriend once asked me to make her a pbj because she had to run to class. I had assumed that "peanut butter" was to be taken literally, so I put a thin smear of peanut butter on the sandwich since people don't normally slather bread in actual butter. She said it was the single saddest looking pbj she'd ever seen but she ate it anyway because she loved me.

[andrewmclaughlin]

I cannot understate how much I love the phrase "the sushi pooper 9000". I can't explain it, but my word it KILLED me. Top notch work as always.

[margeryk]

I think Brian was more of a chicken noodle soup kind of guy. Straight from the can.

[MsClaudiaDuran]

This is one of the cutest episodes yet. You're like a mom preparing individual lunches for her kids. You even guessed what kind of soup Brian would like ❤️

[greekfire]

Claire: Can I eat?

John: I don't know, give it a try.