Robert De Niro with Martin Scorsese’s Mother on the set of “Goodfellas”, 1989
Martin Scorsese is one of the very few directors who has an entire repertoire of films to quote from, just think of Goodfellas, its’ one of the greatest movies ever made. In addition to the reference material, there’s a ton of food scenes, the most well-known takes place after a hit is carried out by Tommy DeVito, played by Joe Pesci. In that specific week, DeVito’s mother, played by Martin Scorsese’s real mother, cooks for everyone.
A little known fact is that Scorsese’s mother, Catherine, often cooked for the cast and crew during filming. The jail scene where Sorvino uses a razor blade to shave garlic comes from one of her cookbooks. He once told Jimmy Kimmel, “My mother made a dish called chicken with lemon and garlic and if you go to Francis Coppola’s restaurant he has it on the menu… It’s pretty good, pretty close…”