Went to see this movie with my husband this morning thanks to SeeFilmFirst.
IMDB says: A chef who loses his restaurant job starts up a food truck in an effort to reclaim his creative promise, while piecing back together his estranged family.
Jon Favreau (Iron Man trilogy, Swingers) is writer, director and stars as Chef Carl Casper who gets a two-star review from food blogger Ramsey Michel (Oliver Platt of X-Men First Class, 2012) and accidentally twitter challenges him to come and taste a different menu, but is forced to serve the same tired menu by his restaurant owner boss Riva (Dustin Hoffman of The Graduate, Rain Man) resulting in a meltdown that goes viral. With no job prospects and the realisation that he hasn't been happy for quite some time, his ex-wife's idea of a food truck suddenly becomes a viable option.
It is a wake-up call that he has let his job at the restaurant become all-consuming and that nothing else in his life has seen any of his time, including his ten year-old son Percy (Emjay Anthony of Applebaum, It's Complicated) and that it is time to reconnect with his love of food and his son. His ex-wife Inez (the stunning Sofia Vergara of Modern Family, The Smurfs) asks her ex-husband Marvin (a brilliant cameo from Robert Downey Junior of Tropic Thunder and the Iron Man trilogy) to finance the truck and Carl takes his friend Martin (the always lovable John Leguizamo of Romeo and Juliet, Ice Age) and son on the road to sell his own 'real' food in the form of Cuban cuisine.
Scarlett Johansson (We Bought a Zoo, Avengers Assemble) also stars as Molly, the front of house manager and Bobby Cannavale (The Bone Collector, Parker) as Tony the sous chef who takes over after Carl leaves the restaurant.
Chef is a feel-good road movie with a difference and that difference is the food. Every dish lights up the screen with mouth-watering results. Not only does the visual beauty of New Orleans make you wish you were there, but the sticky and the sweet and the spicy platefuls make you feel as if you can almost smell and taste them - never have I been so hungry when leaving the movie theatre. My husband and I had such a craving for the food we had seen on the screen, we ended up at Trinity Food Kitchen, Leeds, to try and recreate that feeling.
The food is not the only star though, because the dynamic between Favreau and Leguizamo and Favreau and Anthony creates a wonderful chemistry that gives the film its true heart.
The only slight flaw we could find was that we struggled with the believability of the egotistical Carl getting two such amazing-looking women, unless it was supposed to emphasise the lure of the food he could create, and I am not sure which my husband found more appealing, the food or the women.
Look out for the police and the corn starch scenes, I challenge you not to smile.
A charming feel good film that will leave you salivating in more ways than one. 8.5/10
#ChefMovie #SeeFilmFirst
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