Trivia

Jean-Pierre Jeunet got the idea for a cannibal butcher when living in an apartment above a butcher's shop. Each morning at 7am he would hear the metallic clash of knives and a voice shout, "Chop chop!" His girlfriend said he was carving up the neighbors, and it would be their turn next week.

Both Marc Caro's and Jean-Pierre Jeunet's feature film directorial debut. However, Delicatessen (1991) was actually planned after La ciudad de los niños perdidos (1995) was refused, because studio executives presumed the latter film would be too expensive for the then-unknown directors to assume. Consequently, this film's budget was cut very tight with a very restricted set. Many friends and family of both directors appearing in the cast, and most props consisted of old scavenged stuff in order to cut costs.

Many elements of cause/consequence make the film ever more interesting to watch again and again. One such example is a couple always using the same prophylactic (a condom), of which the husband (Ticky Olgado) takes great care: it has been patched twice. Hence, the couple has two kids.

Rumored to be a surrealistic interpretation of The Delicate Delinquent (1957).

At one point in the movie a female character claims they are entering the age of Virgo. This would place the movie roughly around 12,150AD, according to modern astrology. This character however is depicted as a bit of a kook and Louison more believably describes Aquarius as "the sign of the future."