Chef finds his mojo

Chef (15 - because of strong language)
Running time 114 minutes
Rating:***
My mother, who could whip up a mean steak and kidney pie in moments from almost nothing, always maintained that you should never eat anything that comes in a bucket, or has the slightest hint of grey.
While this would certainly strike out the products of certain fast food outlets whose lawyers would be delighted if I mentioned their name, it does not entirely eliminate the products at the centre of this week’s film helping, Chef.
Now, among the last films in recent years to have cooking and food at its heart was Ratatouille, the animated adventures of a culinary-gifted rat.
This film, happily, tells of a human chef who falls out with his restaurant owner, insults a powerful food critic online, loses his job, and finds his standards again. You get the idea.
It’s the ruse of executive producer of the Iron Man series, Jon Favreau. He wrote the story of chef Carl Casper, decided that he was just the right person to play the lead and that he should direct himself as well.
Bearing in mind that in Hollywood, Mr Favreau has what is called in the trade ‘pull’, he has managed to assemble a quite astounding cast for what would appear to be a fairly low budget rom-com. Playing a psychopathic restaurant owner, who forces Chef Carl to cook the same boring old stuff because it’s popular, is acting heavyweight Dustin Hoffman, who glares and throws things around as if he’s playing Richard the Third.
Robert Downey Jnr plays another character with similar psychopathic tendencies – this time the former husband of Carl’s ex-wife and providing the love interest is the toothsome Scarlett Johansson, a sommelier with the hots for the generously-proportioned Chef Carl, while there is Carl’s neglected son, Percy (Emjay Anthony), who just wants his old happy Dad back.
Scattered throughout the tale are a variety of Cuban native speakers who break into song at a moment’s notice, strange policemen, and an American public who have an inexhaustible appetite for anything made of corn, dipped in butter, teamed up with slices of dead animal and covered with what they call ‘cheese’, but we might describe as wood filler.
However, despite some of its shortcomings, and that having spent time in America I find it hard to be enthusiastic about some of its more popular food, this is a fine little film.
The jokes are good, the acting is better than you might think, and the whole story, about a man trying to rediscover his enthusiasm and his family, is well told.
I even found myself wanting some kind of Cuban speciality snack until I realised it involved the above mentioned ‘cheese’. So I gnawed on something called fruit – not heavily featured in Chef – until the feeling went away.
Nevertheless, Chef is well worth a trip to the movie ‘buffet’ table.