Chef Movie Blurb by Shale August 30, 2014 There were no new movies opening this weekend that I felt I must see but this one caught my eye. It is an independent film that had a limited release in May of this year but showed up this weekend on SoBe (where some scenes were shot). I decided to give a look after noticing some of the actors: Jon Favreau, Sofía Vergara, John Leguizamo, Scarlett Johansson, Dustin Hoffman and Robert Downey, Jr. This seems to be a labor of love for Jon Favreau, who not only played the lead of Chef Carl Casper but also produced it, wrote the story and directed. And, Jon apparently likes food, which was also very prominently displayed in this movie. (someone said this movie is food porn). The story starts in LA, where Chef Carl from Miami works at a restaurant and has creative differences with the owner Riva (Dustin Hoffman). He wanted to try something different for the prominent food critic who was coming that night and forced to offer the standard meal, which got a bad review. Chef & Owner Fight Unfortunately, Carl was not up on social media so when Percy (Emjay Anthony) his 10-year-old son shows him how to tweet, he sends the food critic a nasty personal message - not knowing it actually went to everyone and when the critic responded in kind, it went viral. Chef Unclear on Concept of Twitter Carl's ex-wife Inez (Sofía Vergara) has been trying to convince him to get a food truck and go into business for himself so when he quits his job at the restaurant and the fight with the food critic turns into a Web disaster so no restaurant will take him, they go to Miami and get an old food truck from Inez' first ex-husband (Robert Downey, Jr.) Martin (John Leguizamo) his former line cook from LA comes to town to help him get the food truck together and the two men and Carl's son clean it, fix it and get it ready for business serving Cubanos. They name the truck El Jefe. 3 Guys in Food Truck Sample Food Carl has had a hard time being a good father to his son, so he asks him to come with them taking the truck back to LA. The movie now begins a road trip with stops in New Orleans and Austin on the way. On the road, the Web savvy kid Tweets their locations with pix and there are customers following them and waiting at each city along the way. Food Truck Open for Business This movie was a real delight to see. It was actually filmed on each location, the food was real, as Favreau had Roy Choi a food truck operator working with him and after training in a culinary school he worked in Choi's restaurant. There were also familiar scenes shot here in Miami Beach & Little Havana and Café du Monde in New Orleans, all places with which I am familiar. So, if you like music and food and feel-good movies - go see this one. This post has been promoted to an article
