Carl Casper (Jon Favreau) is a brilliant chef but not much good at anything else. Or at least, so it first appears. His marriage to Inez (Sofia Vergara of Modern Family) has failed. He has an awkward relationship with his young son (Emjay Anthony) and an openly confrontational one with his boss (Dustin Hoffman). Worse still, his amateurish understanding of the workings of social media has seen him become embroiled in a Twitter War with a prominent food critic (Oliver Platt).
As you may have noticed already, Chef has an excellent cast. Favreau’s old Iron Man buddy Downey Junior has an enjoyable cameo as Carl’s ex’s other ex. Other stars such as Scarlett Johansson are largely wasted.
But throughout Chef, it’s the little touches that impress the most. The cooking scenes are surprisingly compelling (a good job as there are a lot of them) and director/star Favreau avoids easy clichés in a script which manages to be both funny and moving without being sentimental. Carl is never exactly a complete bastard to his son, for example, merely a bit distant and preoccupied with his work. The relationship between Carl and his ex is also warmer than one might expect and child actor Emjay Anthony is excellent.
With a good audio commentary and a few deleted scenes, Chef is never a self indulgent feast of a movie. But it is in its own quiet way, a small delight.
Overall Verdict: An unexpected treat which goes down very nicely indeed.
Special Features:
Audio Commentary with Jon Favreau and Chef/Co-Producer Roy Choi
Deleted Scenes
Reviewer: Chris Hallam