Described by cityam.com as a ‘satisfyingly sugary feast’ and ‘a molten chocolate lava cake of a movie: soft centred, comforting and entirely satisfying’, CHEF is a welcome distraction from (a) football – although even that now involves attempted eating, and (b) tennis.
If you have a sweet tooth, you’ll enjoy CHEF!
Nominate a great film about food
And, as cityam.com also points out, there are few if any great films about food. Sideways, perhaps, though that’s more about wine than food? H&C News would welcome nominations from readers to suggest others…
The plot
The plot sees Miami-born Chef Carl Casper (Jon Favreau) with a chance to prove himself in a restaurant in Los Angeles, when prestigious critic and blogger Ramsey Michel (Oliver Platt) comes to dine. Popular with hostess Molly (Scarlett Johansson) and his assistant chefs, Carl is working his creative side and dabbling in a new Tasting Menu, but the owner (Dustin Hoffman) intervenes and tells Carl to serve the menu’s old classics. The critic gives the restaurant an unfavourable review, Chef Carl berates him on Twitter, and then publicly yells at him in the restaurant.
The bad publicity turns Carl into a social media sensation, videos featuring his meltdown having gone viral. His credibility and job sisappear, but his ex-wife Inez (Sofia Vergara) invites him to Miami and he reluctantly returns there with her. This gives him a chance to establish a better relationship with Percy, his young son. He also connects with Inez when they dine on Cuban food and attend a club where her father sings with a band. Inez’s ex-husband Marvin (Robert Downey Jr.) offers him a food truck, and Carl accepts.
In an effort to rediscover his culinary passion, Carl restores the broken-down food truck, names it El Jefe, and serves Cubanos, a form of Cuban sandwich. From then on, he’s upwardly mobile once again as he and his team drive the food truck across the country, back to L.A. with social media coverage and success along the way – on both professional and private levels.
The cast
The stellar cast ensures our attention and entertainment, including as it does Jon Favreau as CHEF, Sofia Vergara, John Leguizamo, Scarlett Johansson, Oliver Platt, Bobby Cannavale, Dustin Hoffman, and Robert Downey Jr.