Jon Favreau is Chef Carl Casper, the chef of one of the most successful restaurants in Los Angeles. His personal life is something of a mess: he spends very little time with his son Percy, his ex-wife Inez (Sofia Vergara) is constantly trying to set him up with a food truck funded by her ex-husband, and his heart just isn't in the restaurant any more. He loves cooking and that's what he wants to do, but he wants to cook his food. The owner Riva (Dustin Hoffman) doesn't like when he cooks new things, and wants him to stick to the same menu. After a botched food review, Carl leaves the restaurant (in a blaze of glory, I might add), and Inez talks him into starting the food truck. Percy ends up lending him a hand in the cleanup of the truck, and his best friend Martin (John Leguizamo) flies out to Miami after quitting his job at Riva's restaurant to work with Carl. For the drive back to LA, Percy and Martin stay with him, and Carl and Percy bond for the first time. All over the food that Carl loves.
This movie is a food porno. We had just eaten and my stomach was filled while watching this, and yet I found myself still drooling. There's a scene where he makes Percy a grilled cheese - a fucking grilled cheese! - and it gets me drooling. It makes me wish I could eat this food all the time! The cool thing is that Favreau did all the cooking in the movie himself, and they had professional chefs training him like Roy Choi of "Top Chef" fame.
"Chef" has a bit of a strange format. A story is typically split into three acts, and most of the time they're fairly equal parts. Act 3 will often be a bit shorter, but not significantly. In "Chef", Act 1 is nearly an hour long, Act 2 is about 45 minutes, and Act 3 is maybe 5 or 10 minutes. It sounds weird, but it really works for this movie. The movie is really about the bond between a father and son who spend little real time together.
There are two things that make this movie work so well: the script, and the chemistry between these actors and actresses. The script is written in a way where everything seems real and plausible. Characters talk over each other, they stumble on their words when they're in a heightened state of emotion, and you can feel the love all these characters have for each other. I'm going to add honorable mentions to the music of the movie. I just found out that there is an actual soundtrack with all the brass band covers of the classic hip hop songs, and now I really want to get it.
Go watch this movie. Like, right now. Stop reading this post, and go watch this movie. As of writing this, it is available on Netflix, and man, I hope it stays there. This is one of my top 5 favorite movies, and I think everyone can enjoy this movie. So if you haven't seen it, go watch it, now! If you have seen it, go watch it again!
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