Masterchef Course

Description

Chef is a 2014 road comedy-drama film written, produced, and directed by Jon Favreau, who also stars in the film as a celebrity chef who loses his job at a popular Los Angeles restaurant following a public altercation with a food critic and begins to operate a food truck with his friends and his young son.

It co-stars Sofía Vergara, John Leguizamo, Scarlett Johansson, Oliver Platt, Bobby Cannavale, Amy Sedaris, Emjay Anthony, and Dustin Hoffman, along with Robert Downey Jr. in a cameo role.

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 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 in the United States on May 9, 2014, by Open Road Films.

It was well received by critics, who praised the direction, music, writing, story, and performances, and grossed $46 million against a production budget of $11 million.

Miami-born Carl Casper is the head chef of Gauloises in Brentwood, Los Angeles. Although popular with his kitchen staff and hostess Molly, he clashes with the restaurant’s owner, Riva, who wants him to stick to the same menu of classical cuisine rather than innovative dishes.

Carl also has a strained relationship with his rich ex-wife, Inez, and their tech-savvy preteen son, Percy.

When Carl has the chance to serve prestigious food critic and blogger Ramsey Michel, Riva demands he prepare old favorites at the last minute rather than the innovative ones he wants; Carl concedes, leading to a scathing review. Carl insults Ramsey on Twitter, not realizing that his reply is public, and gains a large online following. He comes up with a new menu that his staff loves and invites Ramsey to a « rematch », but quits after confronting Riva, who wants the old menu again.

At home, Carl prepares the menu he wanted, while his sous-chef Tony serves Ramsey the same dishes from his prior visit. Ramsey tweets negatively about Carl, provoking him into a confrontation at the restaurant. Videos of Carl’s meltdown go viral, leaving him humiliated and unemployable.

Carl reluctantly accepts Inez’s invitation to accompany her and Percy to Miami, where he rediscovers his love for Cuban cuisine. At her encouragement, her ex-husband Marvin offers him a dilapidated food truck. Carl and Percy bond while restoring the truck and buying groceries, and Carl gives him a chef’s knife. Martin, Carl’s friend and former line cook, turns down his promotion at Gauloises to join him, whose passion as a chef has been reignited.

Carl, Martin, and Percy drive the truck across the country to Los Angeles, serving Cuban sandwiches and yuca fries. Percy promotes them on social media, and they find success in New Orleans and Austin, where their daily specials include po’ boys, beignets and barbecued brisket, made with local ingredients.

Back in LA, having strengthened his relationship with Percy, Carl accepts his son’s offer to help with the food truck, with Inez also joining them. Ramsey visits the truck to explain his bad review: though an early fan of Carl, he was disappointed by a meal he felt was beneath Carl’s skills. Impressed with the chef’s return to form, Ramsey offers to bankroll a new restaurant where Carl will have full creative control. Six months later, the successful new restaurant is open for Carl and Inez’s remarriage ceremony.

• Jon Favreau as Carl Casper
• Emjay Anthony as Percy Casper
• John Leguizamo as Martin
• Sofía Vergara as Inez Casper
• Bobby Cannavale as Tony
• Scarlett Johansson as Molly
• Oliver Platt as Ramsey Michel
• Dustin Hoffman as Riva
• Amy Sedaris as Jen
• Robert Downey Jr. as Marvin
• Russell Peters as Miami Cop

Musician Gary Clark Jr., Franklin Barbecue owner Aaron Franklin, and general manager Benji Jacob make cameo appearances as themselves.

Jon Favreau; the writer, director, and star of Chef; wrote the film’s script in about two weeks.

He had long wanted to make a film about food and chefs, and felt that the subject was suited to a small-scale independent film rather than a big-budget production.

He cited Jiro Dreams of Sushi, Eat Drink Man Woman, and Big Night as inspirations for creating a food-centric film.

The script was semi-autobiographical, incorporating parts of Favreau’s life into the main character, such as being a father while having a busy career and coming from a « broken home ».Favreau also drew a comparison between his career as a director and Carl’s career as a chef; he stepped down from directing major studio films to go « back to basics » and create Chef on a smaller budget, much like Carl’s resignation from a popular restaurant to work in a food truck.

Favreau contacted Roy Choi, a restaurateur who created the Kogi Korean BBQ food truck, to serve as a consultant on the film; Choi was eventually promoted to co-producer. While the film was in pre-production, Favreau shadowed Choi in his restaurants and worked as part of Choi’s kitchen crew after training at a culinary school.

In addition to Favreau, the first actors cast in main roles were Sofía Vergara, John Leguizamo and Bobby Cannavale. To prepare for his role as Martin the line cook, Leguizamo spent time working as an actual line cook at The Lion in the West Village.

It was announced that Robert Downey Jr.‍—‌whom Favreau had previously directed in two Iron Man films‍—‌had joined the cast in May 2013.

Scarlett Johansson and Dustin Hoffman were cast later that month.Favreau felt the casting was one of the film’s biggest successes, which provided him with « a tremendous amount of confidence »; in particular, he was impressed by Emjay Anthony, who was ten years old at the time of filming.

Chef premiered on March 7, 2014, at South by Southwest, where it was the opening film of the festival and was attended by Favreau, Leguizamo, Anthony, and Platt.

It was subsequently screened at the Tribeca Film Festival in April.

On August 19, Open Road Films announced to re-release the film in the United States on August 29 for a Labor Day weekend, which would grow 100 screens to 600–800.

The film was released theatrically in the United States on May 9, 2014, beginning in limited release in six theaters and expanding throughout May and June to a peak of 1,298 theaters. Its total gross in the United States as of November 2, 2014 is $31.4 million.

Outside of the U.S., Chef performed best in Australia (earning $2.8 million), the United Kingdom and Spain ($2.6 million in each country) and Mexico (earning a little over $1 million). In total, Chef has grossed almost $15 million outside the United States.