A film that tastes so good ~ Chef (2014) Film Review

by: Uel Ceballos

It’s been a while that I didn’t come up with a good light-hearted film as Chef. For the recent weeks I’ve been suffering from heartbreaking and nervous breaking down TV series and films – and I was kind of ‘caught in the trap’ since I couldn’t stop until I finished it.

Finally, here came the Chef that knocked the tightness in me; and sent me drooling in front of the screen as I watched the delectable dishes that Chef Carl Casper (Jon Favreau) was doing. This movie was a potential sadistic as it got you wedged on your seat while you were dying on the scrumptious foods that you wished you could grab and eat.

Chef – a 2014 American comedy-drama film that was about a professional chef who got into an internet war with an influential food critic Ramsey Michael played by Oliver Platt. It was a simple but effective film with clear plot and effortless wits. Chef was the kind of movie wherein you wouldn’t care so much about racking your brain with confusing characters and web-tangled sequences. Rather you’d be delighted with the story of a passionate Chef who wanted to do nothing else in life but to cook; kitchen has been his true home and he wanted to share this passion with his young son who seemed to show the same interest in cooking. The cooks in the movie, the line cook Martin (John Leguizamo) with his winsome Spanish and the sous chef Tony (Bobby Cannavale) with his charming appeal, were both adorable in their chef’s suit while playing as Carl’s friends. Hard to ignore as well, were my ever favorite actor Dustin Hoffman who played here as owner of the restaurant where Carl worked, and Robert Downey Jr, whose appearance was quite quick and short but indeed a whole lot seconds of awesomeness! 

Aside from the mouth-watering food presentation, another highlight of this film was the impact of internet to someone’s career and public image. The sub-context was very timely as people nowadays got to grasp fully the power of social media and on how it could be utilized to enforce a social media war. Carl got into this internet warfare with Ramsey who’d been writing bad publicity about Carl’s food. Carl was certainly hurt by all these negative write ups that he made a verbal assault to Ramsey one night in the restaurant where Carl was working. This of course was recorded by the other customers in the restaurant; you know that initial instinct of the people when they witnessed such a scene that was worth getting into the news, suddenly they turned into a reporter who recorded everything in their phone camera. You got to see what happened to Carl after that evening. Indeed that was something to take note of and to keep in mind all the time.

The laid back soundtracks which were mixed Latin jazz and blues made the movie more appealing. This film was really for you if you’d up for some good laugh and relaxing moment. Much more if you were the foodie kind of person who’d be always curious about how the appetizing dishes were done. Just avoid watching this film with empty stomach because you’d fail to control your appetite. Oh well, you’d not pass anyway, I was full when I watched it but I ended wanting some Cuban sandwich right after J

So there, 7 Cuban Espresso shots for Chef Carl!