You don’t have to be a food and restaurant aficionado to get a gratifying kick out of Chef but it certainly will heighten your sensual pleasure from this crowd-pleaser by Jon Favreau. Favreau stars in the film as Carl Caspar, an acclaimed Los Angeles chef who’s talented, hard-working, street-wise, and stone technologically-deficient.
Taking a break from directing his big studio projects (Iron Man, Iron Man 2), Favreau goes right back to his roots, when as a 29-year-old he wrote and starred in Swingers, one of the best films of the 90s. Only here he directs and writes a small, independent film and still gets to rely on the likes of Scarlett Johansson, Dustin Hoffman, and Robert Downey Jr. to play key supporting roles. With John Leguizamo and Sofia Vergara as co-stars and additional supporting roles played by Bobby Cannavale, Oliver Platt, and Amy Sedaris, it would seem pretty hard for this film to go wrong. In Favreau’s hands, it goes remarkably right.
Favreau captures the camaraderie of the tightly-knit kitchen staff, the momentousness of the visit of an influential critic (Platt), and the tension surrounding a cautious restaurant owner (Hoffman) curtailing the creativity of a chef who has gumption to spare and a new menu to try out. Caspar’s job becomes in jeopardy when Hoffman forces him to “play your hits.” A feud with the critic goes viral due to Carl’s ineptness on Twitter and his worshipful 10-year-old son, Percy (Emjay Anthony), lessens his troubles by beginning to educate Dad on the wiles of the Internet. Percy helps Dad turn the corner onto a new enterprise. Their strained bond (Caspar, like most great chefs, works incessantly) builds momentum on a road trip in Caspar’s shiny new Cuban food truck and this subplot eventually becomes the main plot. Fast-talking Martin (Leguizamo) is in tow, the truck hits Miami, New Orleans, and Austin on the way back to L. A.
Prominent in the film like shiny jewelry are wonderful food scenes including the construction of a perfect Cuban sandwich. The culinary money shots continue throughout the film right to the closing credits, where a film consultant demonstrates to Favreau the art of the grilled-cheese. The whole thing has a rollicking, good-timey feel that isn’t betrayed but actually heightened by its more serious scenes of non-custody father/son relationship building. Vergara going off her usual overload, has a chance to actually act here as Caspar’s ex-wife, an eye-candy stunner never without designer clothes. However, when it comes to supporting roles, she’s up against a terrific, crazed Downey Jr., who has only one scene and it’s a great one; a solidly convincing Hoffman; and an intriguing Johansson. Cannavale continues to impress, playing an even grittier version of his character in Blue Jasmine.
Sure, the screenplay takes a few shortcuts and raises an eyebrow here and there with plot jumps but Favreau is smooth enough to have you hardly notice it. You get the sense this is really how the fast-paced restaurant world operates–there’s an inescapably realistic bent to the early scenes. And although the food-truck scenes seem somewhat more forced, you’ll have much fun here. You may rush to the exit and make a beeline for the nearest Cuban sandwich. Or hit up Austin, Texas for a visit to Franklin Barbecue, featured in Chef as just another stop on the way to a down-and-out chef’s self-realization
Make another indy film, Favreau. Please.