Movie Review: Chef (2014)

Jon Favreau is today better known as a film and TV director than as an actor. We know that he was the director of Iron Man (2008) and Iron Man 2 (2010), in addition to having been involved in the production of several other MCU films and, lately, in The Mandalorian series and the Star Wars universe. But also the guy acts; Not only have we seen him as Happy Hogan in the MCU, but some of us remember him as one of Monica Geller's suitors in the first seasons of the Friends series.

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Title: Chef
Year 2014
Director: Jon Favreau
With: Jon Favreau, Sofia Vergara, John Leguizamo, Bobby Cannavale, Oliver Platt, Emjay Anthony
Distributor: Open Road Films
Country of Origin: United States
English language
Rating: R
Duration: 114 min.

In Chef (2014), Favreau does the trifecta: writing, directing and starring. And it's not bad, by the way. Chef is on my "short list" of favorite movies. It has an interesting story with an unusual theme, relatable characters, good performances, a number of cameos or walk-ins by popular actors, great latin music, and a parade of mouth-wateringly tasty food.

Favreau is Carl Casper, head chef of a restaurant of some fame. Carl is not entirely happy with how his creativity is used (or rather wasted). He wants to experiment with new flavors, but his boss (Dustin Hoffman) wants to stick with the familiar and not mess with the menu. To make matters worse, a food critic named Michael Ramsay (Oliver Platt) has taken on Carl and demolishes him in his reviews. Carl challenges Ramsay and invites him to a tasting at the restaurant, but things end badly and Carl resigns amid a scandal.

With the advice of his ex-wife Inez (Sofía Vergara), Carl decides to recondition an old food truck and go out touring the country selling Cuban sandwiches, made with the sspecial touch of a chef like Carl Casper. He is soon joined by his little son Percy (Emjay Anthony) and his old assistant Martin (Joe Leguizamo), and from here on Chef becomes a road movie full of little anecdotes and joie de vivre.

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And, as I said before, this personal quest for Carl is one that we can all, to a greater or lesser extent, identify with. Who hasn't felt dissatisfied with how their life is going, or with their current job, and has longed for a change? Here, life puts the protagonist in a position that allows him to try something that more than one of us will have thought of at some point in our lives.

The performances are more than decent, especially Favreau's (fundamental) performance as Carl. Favreau as an actor conveys Carl's restlessness, frustration, and perfectionism, and as a director he manages to get good performances from actors like Leguizamo and Vergara, which might have turned out disastrous in the hands of another director. And then there's the issue of cameos and walk-ins. The film abounds in brief performances, of one or two scenes, by actors like Dustin Hoffman, Robert Downey, Jr., Scarlett Johannson or Oliver Platt, what in the jargon is called a walk-in. A walk-in is a bit more than a cameo, but just barely. There is also an occasional cameo in Chef, although these are limited to Cuban music personalities.

The music, this is another character in this delicious film and acts as incidental music, in this case, creating and maintaining the latin climate that pervades this road movie. I therefore recommend the soundtrack, with songs by Perico Hernandez, Lyle Workman, Gente de Zona, Pete Rodriguez and others, which is a pleasure in itself and is enhanced within the framework of the film.

And of course there is the food. I don't know whether to describe it as fast food porn, because in Chef, Favreau elevates the Cuban sandwich to the level of cuisine d'auteur. And it's all authentic, without "kitchen doubles". The protagonist was trained in the truck kitchen by an expert, some of that training can be seen during the credits, and John Leguizamo spent a week working in a restaurant kitchen in preparation for the film.

All these elements make Chef the best movie to combat depression or make the day more bearable.

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