If you’re looking for a movie to tease your tastebuds and excite your appetite, Chef may be cooking up something just for you.

Image Source: Chef Movie – Teaser Trailer

Jon Favreau–writer, director, and star of the film–offers the right amount of excitement and heart in this culinary comedy film that celebrates food, family and the adventures that come with it.

As Chef Carl Casper, a high-profile, hard-working executive chef at a time-old five-star restaurant who struggles with being creative because of his boss’ (Dustin Hoffman) insistence on serving the same traditional dishes, he struggles with creating the food he wants to create along with redeeming himself as a husband and father.

But, after one blow-out occurrence in the restaurant with a popular food critic that becomes viral, he is plummeted into Twitter stardom–for better or for worse.

This film offers up a bounty of delectable food preparations and scenes of mutual love over foods that visually tantalizes your senses. The bright colors of the restaurant, food, farmers markets and popular Miami and New Orleans streets make the screen pop. And, the general camaraderie over food and the communities it can bring together is widely felt.

With ex-wife (Sofia Vergara) and wide-eyed son Percy (Emjay Anthony), Carl soon finds himself creating his own Cubano Sandwich-selling food truck “El Jefe Cubanos” in Miami with the help of his best assistant chef Martin (John Leguizamo) and own son. And, throughout their cross-country journey, many heart-warming moments happen.

There’s distance between father and family. There are strains of being creative in food art. And there’s the power of social media to propel careers.

As Percy constantly updates the truck’s Twitter and Vine accounts, he makes the food truck a nationwide hit while doubly capturing the journey between father-and-son. From their travels to New Orleans with beignets and jazz, to an ex-wife who just wants to see her ex-husband happy again, this film really is a celebration of life and culture driven by the simple pains of family and connection that aren’t too unfamiliar to us.

Nothing is quite over-done or over-exaggerated in Chef, which gives it a mark of sincerity. Dealing with moments in a languid and honest manner, it provides you with a satisfying appetite for life, food and culture with all the travels around Los Angeles, Miami and New Orleans. And, with a star-studded cast with the always-attractive Scarlett Johansson and hilariously-conniving Robert Downey Jr., Chef provides you with all the cheeriness that comes from enjoying a scrumptiously good meal.

Simply put, this film, although not one that particularly sticks with me, is an enjoyable breeze of a film. With all its food-truck gatherings, outdoor festivals, communal fun under-the-sun activities and general camaraderie, the excitement for summer is present. And, the father-and-son relationship that genuinely develops between Carl and Percy is absolutely heart-warming.

With hard work, the best of intentions and a genuine love and passion for something, it’s inspiring to see individuals follow their bliss. And isn’t that what life’s all about?

Misc. If I do have something else to add, this film is another prime example of the almost non-importance of women in film. The two main women in the film, played by Sofia Vergara and Scarlett Johannson, make little and ineffective appearances that merely serve to go easy on the eyes. Inversely, if these roles were played by the men in the film, they would have utterly been bored. Primarily a male-driven plot, I wonder what it would have been like if the women’s perspective came through. More equal representation would have made a more delightful and interesting plot, I feel, rather than just a mere bro kind of camaraderie that develops, beside the father-son relationship. Food for though, eh?

Watch the movie trailer here: