Chef: 2 Hours of Food Porn
Food has always been close to us as a species. It is used to tell stories, pass on tradition, and create intimacy. Well then of course in the age of the internet we made fucking porn out of it. Seeing as how much food and stories affect us, it becomes a no brainer to put it all together.
The movie has been written, directed, produced, and also starred in by John Favreau. Never knew that a single person can do so much. It also has huge star power behind it, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, and Sofía Vergara.
Spoiler Alert!!! (It’s a 6-year-old film, if you haven’t seen it by now, it gonna be one of the films that you say that you want to see but never end up seeing. So, why not continue to read) And I know it doesn’t make sense to review a 6-year-old film. But I’m going to do it anyway.
The film follows a rising star chef Carl Casper(John Favreau) who gets the start of his career in Miami, by the time we see him he is a head chef of a high-end restaurant in LA. He has a son Percy with his Ex-Wife Inez(Sofía Vergara) who just wants to hang out with his dad. His life comes crashing down when he ends up quitting/fired(It depends upon who you ask) from his job. Due to a bad review by an acclaimed food critique. In short, he gets a food truck and travels the country with his son and Martin(John Leguizamo) making amazing food.
First of all props to the film for once using the concept of social media properly in a film. Many films treat social media as a magic plot device to achieve whatever they want and don’t want to give a proper explanation for. It makes sense that he gets so many followers when he makes his account because that bad review went viral and people are still talking about it. Also, he is a rising star chef in LA, so people will want to follow him. Then it also makes sense that his food truck is getting attention because his outrage video just went viral a few days back and his son is constantly putting new content on their Twitter page. The only issue I have with this entire sequence is that it feels like a giant Twitter Ad. I know that this kind of back and forth between the chef and the critique can only happen on Twitter but you get the point.
The film although packing a lot of star power fails to utilize and develop them in a meaningful manner.
Sofía Vergara who plays the part of Carl’s ex-wife Inez never saw a lot of development, the same is with Scarlett Johansson’s character Molly who I think is the hostess(the movie is never clear about it). Both of them have a considerable effect on Carl but for some reason, the story doesn’t go into the intricacy of their relationship with him. Even the reason for Carl and Inez’s divorce is not discussed and is brushed off to the side with a wage mention. Also what happens to the relationship between Carl and Molly when he gets back with his ex-wife is left to the audience’s imagination.
What the movie lacks in the development of supporting characters, more than makes up for it with the amazing relationship between Carl and his son Percy. They were able to create a somewhat realistic relationship between them. You can see the Percy is hurt that his dad is not able to spend time with him and the movie shows it very well. He doesn’t get snarky or anything but starts to distance himself from his father but still jumps at any opportunity to hang out with him. I just love how normal and grounded in reality Percy is, he is not some genius or wiz-kid but a normal kid who understands social media(the understanding social media part is a bit exaggerated). The only thing different is he really wants to around his dad, so he works extra hard in hopes that Carl will recognize his contribution and would want to keep him around. Also, Carl is not shown to some asshole who doesn’t care about his kid, he is extremely invested in his job. He cares about his son enough that he does not want Percy to see his kitchen in L.A. because he knows he is miserable in his current job.
One of my favorite scenes in the entire film is when they are cleaning out their truck and Percy refuses to clean the dirty tray, Carl shouts at him. Carl is a chef and they were standing in his new kitchen, while in a kitchen no one dares to disobey the chef. So, Percy refusing to clean the tray was a shock to Carl, but when he realizes that he is not talking to his kitchen staff but his son, he goes over and apologizes to Percy.
It’s a fun movie to watch, just one thing do not in any case what so ever watch it on an empty stomach. I have made that mistake more than once. This is something I would like to classify as feel-good cinema. You get a satisfying story arch and as a side bonus get inspired to make some good food. Whether you succeed or not is completely up to you. May your kitchen rest in peace.
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