ROCHESTER — Patrons of an evening showing of “Spirited Away” at Pop’s Art Theater emerged from the theater to a scene that looked like something directly from the screen. A colorful feast of Asian food including a boar’s head, cornish hen, radish stew, sausages, sushi, steamed bao and more lay spread out on the tables and counters in the theater lobby. The feast, prepared by Tiffany Alexandria, food blogger and chef with Choochoo-ca-Chew, was inspired by the colorful spreads of food seen throughout the 2001 Japanese anime movie.
ADVERTISEMENT For Alex Torgimson, who remembers watching the movie as a kid, the spread brought those scenes to life. “I really enjoyed picking out the pieces from the movie and trying them,” Torgimson said. The movie, written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and animated by Studio Ghibli, was an instant hit for children and critics and is considered a Ghibli classic.
Pop’s Art Theater planned a month of screenings of Ghibli films. After Alexandra finished working at Minnesota State Fair, she approached Pop’s owners with a]the idea to bring some of the food from “Spirited Away” to life. “We said ‘yes’ right away,” said Maggie Panetta, co-owner of Pop’s Art Theater.
“It sounded fun,” added Nate Nelson, co-owner of Pop’s Art Theater. “We trust (Alexandria’s) experience and creativity and wanted to expand the types of events we have here,” Panetta said. “But first and foremost, we wanted to do it because it wou.