The movie documents the misfortunes of Carl Casper, an excellent chef whose creative ideas are being stifled by the owner of his the restaurant. He takes a bad hit from a negative review by an influential food blogger, and his career spirals out of control. Then, he discovers something that he is really passionate about and starts to redeem himself from the disgraceful situations that he had to go through on his way down.
The movie is directed, written, co-produced and starred by Jon Favreau, who did a good job in capturing the ethos of a new breed of exciting and adventurous chefs who do not have the creative freedom to showcase what they have. The movie is co-starred by the voluptuous Sofia Vergara, Robert Downey, Jr., Scarlett Johansson, John Leguizamo, and Dustin Hoffman, among others.
Let me give you four reasons why I highly recommend this movie.
1. The food is ridiculously droolworthy
A movie that has a close-up sequence of grouse being gingerly placed on a garnished plate of port wine reduction? Are you kidding me right now? The movie’s overall attention to the food shots are astounding.
We saw caramelized and crystallized boiled sugar tossed with careless abandon over summer berries topped with a heavenly dollop of crème fraîche; a batch of Cafe du Monde beignets dusted with powdered sugar; a Cubano being buttered before popping on the sandwich press; chiffonaded parsley sprinkled over buttery langoustines… I could go on and on, but when a simple aglio e olio cooking demonstration had the entire cinema moaning and groaning with desire, as if being teased in bed, you know something’s up. There is this particular scene with the slicing of a crunchy grilled cheese sandwich caused my nearly empty stomach to rumble embarrassingly and my taste buds to tingle with so much anticipation for something crunchy and stringy. My mouth watered.
2. It’s a crash course to social media marketing
Twitter and tweets have a pivotal “role” in the plot of the story, and it is interesting how the movie demonstrates how a great social media marketing campaign can boost the sales of a product or a service. ….
3. The characters have so much chemistry
Jon Favreau did a great job, and the cast is so coherent that they were able to create a hilarious, inspiring, goofy and heartwarming movie. The kid who played Percy was stellar as well.
4. It’s a feel-good movie about second chances
Pick yourself up, dust yourself up and back on the saddle
5. It’s an on-the-road adventure
From the balmy and sultry Miami Beach and its lovely Art Deco buildings, through the beautiful awnings of New Orleans’ French Quarter, and the streets and deserts of Texas, then finally to the sandy shores of California, the movie is reminiscent of classic roadtrip movies, with hit-the-road blues that serve as wonderful device for storytelling. Chef is a culinary travel adventure that takes us from East to West in Carl’s search for himself, his passion and his destiny.
When you go to the cinema to see this movie, make sure you have eaten. You can thank me later.
Movie rating 8/10
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