Film: Chef
Cast: Jon Favreau, John Leguizamo, Dustin Hoffman, Scarlett Johansson, Robert Downey Jr., Sofia Vergara, Oliver Platt,
Bobby Cannavale,
Emjay Anthony
Director: Jon Favreau
Not since Ratatouille, the 2007 computer-animated comedy has food been photographed as mouthwateringly as this.Statutory warning: Chef’s culinary delights are guaranteed to make you feel famished. But Favreau’s story about a feud between a chef Carl (Favreau) Casper and a food critic Ramsey (Oliver Platt) Michel is as multi -layered as that Goan delight bebinca. Chef is about finding yourself, about relationships, and the power of social media. Did Twitter pay for product placement? The online social networking and microblogging service is just about everywhere and yours truly even learnt a few tricks of the trade from Casper’s little boy Percy (Anthony) who teaches his dad how to send the 140-character text messages, called “tweets”.
A Twitter war erupts when Michel pans Casper’s menu. When legends abound about American food critics visiting restaurants in disguise, it’s interesting that Casper and his playsafe boss Riva (Dustin Hoffman) are aware that a famous food critic is coming to their restaurant. Riva doesn’t allow Casper and sous chefs Tony and Martin (Cannavale and Leguizamo) to woo Michel with new dishes and insists that tried and tested favourites be served.
But Michel is unimpressed by the lobster bisque and hapless Casper finds himself jobless. His worldly wise ex wife Inez (Vergara) manipulates a deal with yet another ex, a wealthy Florida bizman named Marvin (Downey Jr) and soon enough Casper and buddy Martin are driving a food truck from Miami to Carl’s home in LA, California, selling Cubano sandwiches while Percy draws on his Twitter expertise to attract crowds during stop-overs. It’s sweet to watch Dad mentor his small son, but sour when the apprenticeship verges on child labour.
Early in the film, he expresses disapproval of foul language, but as the film progresses, some male bonding scenes show how the absence of women leads to raunchy behaviour. A different movie might have underlined the chauvinism, lack of empathy and decline in values that afflicts misogynist societies. Nuanced performances all-round and a great soundtrack make Chef a delectable experience.
Ronita Torcato
ronitatorcato@gmail.com
