Chef

by Sydney Bellon

 

Chef was released in 2014, directed, written and starred in by Jon Favreau. Chef is a comedy-drama, which follows a restaurant chef (Jon Favreau) turned food truck owner who goes on a cross-country road trip with his best friend/su chef (John Leguizamo) and son (Emjay Anthony). The connection between food and relationships is the core of all interactions in this film. More than just a foodie movie, Chef centers on themes of family, friendship, culture and all the best parts of life. While we are able to witness the classic food seduction scenes, we are also watching the character development of an estranged father and ex-husband in search of regaining his own creativity.

We begin with an opening scene of the daily life of a chef - in the focus of a routine, chopping vegetables, panning the kitchen and aesthetic of our character. The prologue of this narrative starts with the tension of an incoming food critic, Ramsey Michel. Head chef Carl Casper is anxious to break out of the monotonous menu at his restaurant and sees this as the perfect opportunity to show off his creative skills in the kitchen. However, he is blocked by the restaurant owner, who would prefer he stick to their classic cuisine. Outside of the kitchen, Carl is struggling with the distant relationship he has with his son, Percy, and ex-wife, Inez (Sofia Vergara). When the menu is presented as usual and given a bad review, Casper is led to respond to the critic on Twitter, given social media guidance from his pre-teen son. He challenges this enemy to a redo at his restaurant. He is, yet again, not allowed to create a new menu for the event of this critic coming to the restaurant.

This is when the audience receives one of the greatest scenes in terms of food presentation. At home, fuming, Casper is preparing a menu alone, as his creativity would have allowed and meanwhile, the critic is expecting a brand new Chef Casper menu but is faced with the same old courses. This scene perfectly illustrates the adaptation to our virtual reality, in that while Casper goes on in his own world of imaginative cuisine, Ramsey is Tweeting about how unimpressed he is with the food associated with Carl. The story reaches a boiling point when Carl sees all these Tweets and rushes to the restaurant to clap back - and his outburst goes viral.

As Carl is embarrassed from this scene and subsequently unemployable at the moment, he is awarded the chance to spend more time with his son, Percy, and is invited to go on a family trip to Miami. While in Miami, Carl is reminded by his ex-wife of his passion for food and connects with an old contact about the possibility of opening a food truck. Percy and Carl begin fixing up a nasty, old truck and shopping for the exciting, vibrant, new menu in store. The idea is formed from a new-old love of Cuban cuisine, including cubanos and yuca fries. Once the truck is set to go, Casper’s old su-chef, Martin, comes down to work with them simply from the excitement in Carl’s voice about the truck. The latter half of the film follows these three across the country on their way from Miami back to LA, serving food they love in cities they are not familiar with. This is where we see a true dedication to your craft from Casper entering his element once again and immersing himself in the food cultures of various cities. Throughout their trip, they change up their daily specials to reflect the variosity of their experiences, serving beignets in New Orleans and brisket in Austin from the famous Franklin Barbecue. This portion of the film also shows us tender scenes of a father-son relationship in progress.

Throughout the movie, we are shown the immaculate preparation of a grilled cheese sandwich, the simplistic creation of a bowl of pasta and the precision of making a cubano just right. The grilled sandwich is made with several types of cheese on a griddle and beautifully captures the desired crunch of cutting into toasted bread and displays the fanciest stack of melted cheese you could ever hope to have in a grilled cheese sandwich. As Carl prepares this pasta earlier in the film, we see from someone else’s point of view the intensity and drive that he puts into the preparation of a dish when care is involved. And when we arrive at the moment of creating the first food for the truck, this nerve-wracking endeavor, it is so easy for these characters to let loose and just make good food to share with others. While there are scenes that highlight the skills Favreau learned for the authenticity of the film, we must also shift our focus. Beyond the appeal of the food and towards the meaning behind these meals. The grilled cheese is prepared for Percy, with great care taken to create something more than two pieces of bread around a piece of American cheese, but is returned with a generic, aloof response. As we move forward, the pasta is made for the hostess close to Carl but is more centered on his own love of creating, or his connection to food, than the relationship between characters. Whereas when we reach the stage with cubanos, we are made aware of the importance of this food and Carl’s relationship with his own artistry as they embark on this new business venture and road trip. Carl is able to rediscover his love for creation as well as a newfound bond with his son through cooking. Once they arrive in LA, Carl is back with his family and his food truck is successful in LA and in final resolvement of conflict, Ramsey, the critic returns apologetic and offering to fund the opening of a new restaurant for Carl. It becomes clear that Carl’s happiness and passion for his food created a glorious combination, effecting his food.

While Favreau considers this script to be semi-autobiographical, much inspiration and guidance for this film came from food truck owner and chef, Roy Choi, a well known chef as well as food truck owner of Kogi. The story somewhat follows the same trajectory that Choi had in his own career, but his involvement was truly to consult on the work of Favreau at his request. Favreau went through a lot of training to get to an authentic level of storytelling - he attended culinary school, shadowed and collaborated on the menus with Choi. Choi and Favreau now collaborate on a Netflix series, The Chef Show. There was an intentionality to the whole of this movie through the authenticity of the cuisine, to the precision of skills by actors like Favreau, to the true enactment of how food can impact relationships.