I had way too fun a time watching Chef, Jon Favreau's return to independent film after years of churning out big-budget summer blockbusters like the first and second Iron Man films. Ironically, by going small-scale, Favreau has delivered the biggest crowd-pleaser to come out so far in an already disappointing summer movie season.
Along with writing, directing and co-producing, Favreau stars as Carl Cooper, the titular culinary artist who seriously needs to get outta the kitchen when things get too hot. After a very public meltdown at the restaurant where he works (which, of course, gets recorded by customers and makes him a viral-video sensation), he goes back to the cutting board and decides to operate his own food truck specializing in Cuban sandwiches. With his son (Emjay Anthony) working the sandwich press and handling social-media publicity, Cooper takes his truck on the road, where he gets reacquainted with his passion for food while learning to become a better father.
You don't need a degree in flim studies to see what Favreau is doing here. As Cooper goes back to basics and does something small, independent and more rewarding, after being creatively stifled by clueless management who claim to know what the public wants and being lambasted by critics who don't know how much effort he puts into even subpar work, it's clear Favreau is doing the same thing with this labor of love.
Favreau calls in a lot of favors from his celebrity pals, who fill the cast of well-written characters. Sofia Vergara shows amazing restraint as Carl's concerned ex-wife, while Dustin Hoffman, Scarlett Johansson and a predictably nutty Robert Downey Jr. turn in brief but significant supporting roles.
Sure, given the bounty of mouth-watering food Favreau serves up throughout the movie — he got tips from L.A. food-truck wizard Roy Choi, and it shows — it's not surprising that Chef will make you quite hungry. What the movie makes me really hungry for, though, is more movies like Chef, which emits such infectious joy throughout its 115-minute length, I couldn't stop smiling even after I left the theater.
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