John Leguizamo, Emjay Anthony and Jon Favreau in a scene from Chef. Photo / AP
Jon Favreau does everything in Hollywood - he acts, directs, writes and produces - and is as well known for his indie films, family friendly flicks and big-budget comic book adaptations.
In Chef, he brings all this together; taking the sass of Swingers, the family friendly values of Zathura: A
Space Adventure and the mainstream sensibilities and A-list cast of his more recent films, to produce something sweet, simple and filled with feel-good optimism and delicious food.
Favreau plays Chef Carl Casper, once regarded as one of America's up-and-coming chefs by restaurant critic Ramsey Michel (Oliver Platt). A decade later, after moving from Miami to Los Angeles, he now churns out a nice "safe menu" in a fine-dining neighbourhood restaurant. When Michel comes back for some Casper magic he's appalled at what he finds.
Ramsey's vicious online review becomes the talk of Twitter, and Casper gets his son Percy (Emjay Anthony) to sign him up so he can see what everyone is saying. What follows is an accidental Twitter feud that leads to a public encounter between chef and critic, and a career crisis and meltdown. Parents and kids will relate to the inability of an adult to fully grasp the consequences of social media.
The rest of this film follows a predictable narrative as Casper takes his ex-wife's (Sofia Vergara) advice and starts up a food truck to rediscover his passion for Cuban-inspired food. He finds a truck in Miami - thanks to his wife's other ex-husband, played by Robert Downey jnr - and drives with Percy and sous chef Martin (John Leguizamo) back to California. It's an opportunity to repair his relationship with his son, and a road trip that celebrates the good things in life; finding happiness and inspiration in family and food.
