Chef is a 2014 American comedy-drama film written, produced, directed
by and starring Jon Favreau, and co-starring Sofía Vergara, John
Leguizamo, Scarlett Johansson, Oliver Platt, Bobby Cannavale, Dustin
Hoffman, and Robert Downey, Jr. Favreau plays a professional chef who,
after a public altercation with a food critic, quits his job at a
popular Los Angeles restaurant and returns to his home town of Miami to
fix up a food truck. He reconnects with his ex-wife and invites their
young son to join him in driving the truck back to L.A. while selling
Cubanos in various cities along the way.
Favreau wrote the script after directing several big-budget films,
wanting to go "back to basics" and to create a film about cooking. Food
truck owner and chef Roy Choi served as a co-producer and oversaw all of
the menus and food prepared for the film. Principal photography took
place in July 2013 in Los Angeles, Miami, Austin and New Orleans. Chef
premiered at South by Southwest on March 7, 2014 and was released
theatrically on May 9, 2014 by Open Road Films. It grossed over US$45
million at the box office and was well received by critics.
Plot
Miami-born Carl Casper is the head chef of
Gauloise in Brentwood, California. While popular with his kitchen staff
and hostess Molly, the restaurant owner Riva wants Carl to stick to
tired "classics" rather than innovative dishes. Carl has a strained
relationship with his tech-savvy preteen son Percy and rich ex-wife
Inez.
When Carl has a chance to prove his creative talents during a visit from
prestigious critic and blogger Ramsey Michel, Riva demands that he
stick with old favorites at the last minute, causing Carl to concede,
leading to a scathing review. On Twitter, Carl insults Ramsey for the
review, not realizing that his reply is public, and gains a large
Twitter following. Carl comes up with an inspirational new menu that his
staff loves and invites Ramsey to a "rematch". After a confrontation
with Riva as the owner wants the same old menu again, Carl walks out,
quitting. At home, he prepares the menu he wanted to serve to Ramsey.
Carl's assistant becomes the interim chef and even the regular dishes
become a disaster. Ramsey again starts to tweet negatively about Carl,
leading Carl to go to the restaurant, where he angrily and publicly
berates Ramsey.
Videos featuring Carl's meltdown go viral, and his professional
credibility evaporates. Molly and Inez encourage him to run a food
truck. He accepts Inez's invitation to Miami, where he spends some
quality time with Percy and rediscovers his love for Cuban cuisine.
Inez's ex-husband Marvin offers him a dilapidated food truck, and Carl
reluctantly accepts. He also finds out that Marvin and Inez spent some
time together after his divorce from Inez, which made him a little
angry. He and Percy bond while restoring the truck and buying groceries
and Carl buys him a chef's knife. Martin, his friend from Gauloise,
turns down his restaurant promotion to work with Carl, who has become an
exuberant and passionate chef again.
The three drive the food truck across the country back to Los Angeles,
serving top-quality Cuban sandwiches and yuca fries. Percy finds ways to
promote the food truck on social media websites, and the truck becomes
successful in New Orleans and Austin, Texas, where the daily specials
include items made with local ingredients such as po' boys and barbecued
brisket.
Back in Los Angeles, Carl realizes the importance of his relationship
with his son and accepts Percy's enthusiastic offer to help out on
weekends and holidays. Ramsey visits the truck to explain that he wrote
the bad review as he knew Carl's creativity did not suit a restaurant
which had been serving the same menu for years. He leaves with an offer
to bankroll a new restaurant. In a flash-forward set six months later,
the new restaurant is a hit and closed for a private event: Carl and
Inez remarry.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chef_(film)