Chef

A chef who loses his restaurant job starts up a food truck in an effort to reclaim his creative promise, while piecing back together his estranged family.

Director:

Jon Favreau

Writer:

Jon Favreau

Stars:

Jon Favreau, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson

Storyline

Carl Casper is an acclaimed chef with a family life that seems as decaying as his artistic freedom. Those frustrations boil over into a raucous viral-videoed public confrontation against a restaurant critic who panned his cooking of food that his boss ordered him to make against his instincts. Now with his career ruined, Carl's ex-wife offers an unorthodox solution in Miami: refit an old food truck to offer quality cooking on his own terms. Now with his young son, Percy, and old colleague, Martin, helping, Carl takes a working trip across America with that truck to rediscover his gastronomic passion. With Percy's tech savvy and Martin's enthusiasm, Carl finds that he is creating a traveling sensation on the way home. In doing so, Carl discovers he is serving up more than simply food, but also a deeper connection with his life and his family that is truly delicious in its own way.

User Reviews

I've always been a big fan of Jon Favreau due to both his acting history and his fantastic directorial skills in the Iron Man films. So I looked forward to renting and watching CHEF. But 30 really-trying minutes into the movie, it becomes obvious that every scene is 5x longer than it needs to be and 5x less interesting than it could be. Moving at roughly the speed of wood, the film occasionally offers enjoyable performances from Sophia Vergara, Dustin Hoffman and Emjay Anthony (who plays Favreau's son, who is reaching out to his dad for a richer relationship). The film needed a better writer, and desperately needs an editor, ANY editor. I finally resorted to fast forwarding through most of the rest of the movie, before slitting my own wrists from having to endure any more tediously long scenes.