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Rent Chef on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

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Chef 's charming cast and sharp, funny script add enough spice to make this feel-good comedy a flavorful -- if familiar -- treat.

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

Jon Favreau

Carl Casper

Sofía Vergara

John Leguizamo

Scarlett Johansson

Dustin Hoffman

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SXSW 2014: CHEF Review

Chef Movie Review. Perri reviews director Jon Favreau's new film Chef from SXSW, starring John Leguizamo, Sofia Vergara, and Scarlett Johansson.

Jon Favreau very clearly has something he's eager say in his latest directorial endeavor, Chef , but there's no harm in letting him use the film to express his feelings when he's doing so in a highly entertaining and motivating manner.

Carl Casper (Favreau) is a talented chef working in a popular Los Angeles restaurant. The problem is, it's not his restaurant and the owner is afraid of losing a good thing so demands that Carl push creativity aside in order to maintain their clientele with the familiar menu. When a popular food critic calls Carl out for playing it safe and sticking to the same old dishes, Carl loses his temper in the midst of a packed night and winds up an Internet sensation. Trouble is, Internet infamy doesn't equal job opportunities and now, the only way for Carl to clear his name and get back on his feet is by taking the plunge and finally trying to do things his way - in a food truck.  Hit the jump for my full review of  Chef  from the SXSW Film Festival.

We might as well address that elephant in the room right off the bat; just ahead of Chef 's SXSW world premiere, Favreau took the stage and dubbed it a very personal film and it's easy to see why he calls it that. Chef is essentially Favreau's way of expressing how he feels about pouring his heart and soul into a movie, only to have the piece torn apart by critics. It's incredibly heavy-handed, but he still manages to present that blunt plea in a relatable and highly entertaining fashion.

Carl consumes your attention right from the start. He's got some serious flaws, but he's a fun, lovable guy that you want to see succeed, and if you've ever believed in a personal endeavor to the utmost extent, it's only natural to connect. No matter your profession - and no matter what Favreau is really getting at with this narrative - it's effortless to understand where Carl's coming from. He wants to be a good father, but is distracted by his demanding job and then at work, it's meet his boss' demands or get the boot. You know that Carl is capable of so much more, but get why he caves and serves the regular menu and, in turn, understand and feel his devastation after getting hit with the abysmal review.

Even though Favreau always keeps the effects of that inciting incident in the background, he also maintains a proper balance of fun and heart. Chef is a long one, clocking in at 115 minutes, but Favreau establishes this rip-roaring pace backed by a highly appropriate sound track that will send you into each new scene with a palpable jolt of energy. Bolstering that momentum further is the fact that the story and the characters are both a pleasure to track.

This is an interesting, engaging and often mesmerizing world that you'll fall for the moment you see Favreau whipping up the very first of a variety of dishes. It's a working environment brimming with passion and politics, and it's highly engaging watching Carl attempt to manage both so he can have a career with stability and fulfillment. The narrative does lag the slightest bit at the midpoint when Carl decides to leave LA behind for a quick trip to Miami and the script loses its focus, but as soon as he gets his hands on that food truck and he's back to being a man on a mission, the film takes off with even more momentum than before.

Favreau's also got himself a stellar ensemble here. Scarlett Johansson actually manages to lose herself in the role of Carl's hostess in the original restaurant. The role isn't just a flashy cameo like Robert Downey Jr. 's over-the-top portrayal of Carl's wife's other ex-husband, but rather, Johansson is working with a layered supporting player that in no way relies on a famous face, but rather honesty and how she enhances our main man. Sofia Vergara steps in as Carl's ex-wife and does show off quite a bit of her familiar bold, brash humor, but she also manages to sell her character as a responsible, loving mother. However, she still is one of the film's more predictable components.

The big winners on the supporting roster are John Leguizamo and Emjay Anthony . Leguizamo plays one of Carl's dedicated employees from the old restaurant that decides to take a chance and join him on this food truck endeavor. Similar to Vergara, his character is familiar and is essentially the same guy from start to finish, however, whereas Vergara pops up intermittently, Leguizamo's character is so well woven into the script, he becomes essential to the tone and environment established in the second half of the film. Anthony has a similar effect as Carl's son, Percy. Percy's got that adorable, innocent kid effect, but he's also got some serious bite. He's mature and smart, and that sparks a number of amusing and less likely back-and-forths with his father. Carl may be the expert chef, but Percy's got skills of his own and Favreau embraces that, letting Anthony turn his character into a vital component of the story rather than just a cute prop.

It's very fair to point a finger at Chef for being an overdone attempt at sending a personal message and there are very few surprises in the narrative, but what's wrong with that when the film works so well? Simply put, Chef is a pleasure. The jokes are on point, the material is interesting, the characters are all highly likable and, to top it all off, you truly walk out with the determination to believe in yourself and fight for your passion.

Click here for all of our SXSW 2014 coverage. Click on the links below for my other reviews:

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‘Chef’ movie review: Jon Favreau makes a satisfying return to his indie roots

In culinary terms, “Chef” is comfort food. It’s not great art, but it’s wholly, deeply satisfying, down to the soul.

The feel-good story of a Los Angeles chef who opens a food truck after he loses his job in a high-end restaurant marks the return of writer, director and star Jon Favreau to the kind of character-driven indie he was once known for. Since 2008, the writer and co-star of " Swingers ," his 1996 breakout, has been better known as the director of the first two " Iron Man " movies (also " Cowboys and Aliens ," but who's counting?). With "Chef," it's great to have the old guy back.

In a somewhat meta story line, Favreau plays Carl Casper, a once-celebrated kitchen hotshot who is trapped in a restaurant bankrolled by a guy (Dustin Hoffman) who won’t let Carl cook what he likes. The place is popular, but safe. After 10 years, Carl is miserable, despite an ex-wife who still kind of digs him (Sofia Vergara), a girlfriend who clearly does (Scarlett Johansson) and a son who adores him (Emjay Anthony).

Things come to a head when a food critic and early champion of Carl’s (Oliver Platt) writes a scathing review. Carl’s subsequent attempt to win the critic back with a more daring menu falls afoul of his boss, and our hero suddenly finds himself out of a job. A run-down food truck and a hankering to make Cuban sandwiches suddenly offer an opportunity for redemption.

The food shots in this movie are absolutely incredible. Sequences filmed on the truck — which Carl picks up in Miami and drives back to L.A. via New Orleans, Austin and other foodie meccas — are the kind of culinary porn that you see on the Food Network. One scene featuring the brisket at Austin's Franklin Barbecue focuses so sensuously on a knife cutting through the char of the meat to its tender pink center that I almost had to look away in embarrassment.

Even a short bit in which Carl makes his son, Percy, a grilled-cheese sandwich — gently moving it around on the butter-slathered grill with his hand — is filmed like a boudoir scene. (Stay for the closing credits, where you can watch a food consultant teach Favreau how to find the grill’s slippery “hot spot.”)

But the movie is about more than food. The real, more involving story — even beyond the one about Carl getting his mojo back — is about the relationship between a boy and his father. As the film opens, we see that Carl, a workaholic, hasn’t always been the best dad. But over the course of a month together on the food truck, where Carl has somewhat reluctantly agreed to let Percy help him during summer vacation, their partnership evolves from a half-baked notion into a beautiful thing.

"Chef" is filled with rich, spicy flavors, from its soundtrack of Cuban and New Orleans jazz and Texas blues to the colorful supporting cast, which includes funny cameos by Robert Downey Jr. and Amy Sedaris. John Leguizamo is particularly good as Carl's profane, motormouthed assistant, Martin. Everyone in this movie feels like they have a life outside the edges of the screen. And the humor, which features running gags about the explosive growth of food-centric social media, is wryly observant.

There’s nothing terribly profound about “Chef.” But its message — that relationships, like cooking, take a hands-on approach — is a sweet and sustaining one.

R. At area theaters. Contains obscenity and sexual humor. 115 minutes.

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Summary Chef Carl Casper (Jon Favreau) loses his restaurant job, so he starts up a food truck in an effort to reclaim his creative promise, while piecing back together his estranged family.

Directed By : Jon Favreau

Written By : Jon Favreau

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A Philosophy of Pleasure in “The Taste of Things”

By Anthony Lane

The stuff you learn at the cinema. For example, until I saw the latest film from Trần Anh Hùng, “The Taste of Things,” I had no idea that the French for “Baked Alaska” is omelette norvégienne . Weird. Elsewhere, the movie offers an everyday tip: gently work your fingers under the skin of a chicken and insert thin slices of truffle, the better to infuse the tender flesh. Probably a good idea to kill the chicken first.

Most of Trần’s movie is—or appears to be—about food and drink, and it is set in, around, and near a manor house in provincial France. The date, by my calculations, is the mid-eighteen-eighties. There’s a sprightly walk by a river, and a paradisiacal lunch at a long table under the trees, but we never see the bustle of a town or hear the hoot of a train. The house is owned by Dodin (Benoît Magimel), whose vocation is that of a gourmet. He has a loyal cook, Eugénie (Juliette Binoche), although, from the start, there is an unusual blurring of social boundaries. The kitchen is Eugénie’s dominion, yet Dodin is often to be found there, helping to prepare the next meal, and at one point he takes over entirely, devising an incomparable dinner for her alone. (This is where the truffle trick comes in.) As she sits and savors it, resplendent in a butter-yellow dress with a high lace collar, one has to ask, Who is at the service of whom?

This being France, one pleasure drips into another. Now and then, Dodin goes to Eugénie’s bedroom door, seeking admittance. There is no sense of droit du seigneur; it’s more as if they have agreed upon a discreet romantic affinity, and the question of why they have never wed, and whether the knot might yet be tied, is openly aired. “Marriage is a dinner that begins with dessert,” Dodin says. The casting helps; Magimel, stocky and solicitous, is the opposite of rakish, and Binoche, as ever, is nobody’s fool, with a laugh as nourishingly earthy as the vegetable that she holds, uprooted from the soil, in the opening moments of the film. (The two actors were formerly a couple in real life, and had a daughter in 1999.) Invited to join Dodin and his friends—all of whom are rightly in awe of her—to consume a sumptuous feast that she has made, Eugénie demurs, preferring to stay in the kitchen. “I converse with you in the dining room through what you eat,” she says.

The creation of that dinner fills the first half hour of the story. If too many cooks on TV, factual or fictional, have led you to expect a steaming jambalaya of shouts, showoffs, panic stations, and free-range oaths, Trần’s film will come as a calm and clear surprise: a consommé devoutly to be wished. The action is purposeful and brisk, but unrushed, as if practice had long ago made perfect. Eugénie says little as she labors, aside from polite requests for the next ingredient (“the loin of veal, please”), and we stare in amazement as a fish the length of an arm is coiled into a copper pan half the size of a bathtub. Not that the monster of the deep will be eaten; it is but a single component of a stock that will then be reduced and strained, the better to invest a silken sauce. And the moral is: you can’t have a molehill without a mountain, and you’ve never tasted molehills like these.

Trần’s concern with food, and with how it can both bind and divide those who consume it, was already evident in his début feature, “The Scent of Green Papaya” (1993). It was set in his native Vietnam, though filmed in France, where he had moved at the age of twelve. Frequent tracking shots lent the movie its tranquil poise, but there were also gleaming closeups of greens a-sizzle in a hot pan, and “The Taste of Things” takes that curiosity to a more complex level, with the camera moving around Eugénie’s kitchen as if under her confident command, and rising over the rim of a pot to inspect—practically to inhale—the fragrance of whatever miracle is unfolding within.

One person guiding us through “The Scent of Green Papaya” was a young servant girl, and the same is true of the new film. Pauline (Bonnie Chagneau-Ravoire) is on hand to learn the culinary ropes, yet she is, despite the face that she pulls when sampling marrowbone, more than a novice. She is a prodigy. “Mushrooms, fennel, tomatoes, oranges, wine,” she says, listing what she detects in a sip of sauce bourguignonne . “Bay leaf, cumin, juniper berry, clove.” She can’t stop. “Astonishing girl,” Dodin murmurs to Eugénie. Were the French ever to make their own version of “X-Men,” Pauline could appear as a character named Palate or Gustator. If I had to pickle and preserve one frame of Trần’s movie, it would show the expression of infinite wonder with which Pauline greets a mouthful of crayfish vol-au-vent. How about the omelette norvégienne ? “I almost cried,” she admits.

For all this rapture, however, “The Taste of Things” is not a foodie film. It doesn’t belong on the shelf beside “Tampopo” (1987), “Babette’s Feast” (1988), or “Chocolat” (2000), an earlier and less digestible Binoche project. I didn’t run out of the cinema and race to the nearest Michelin-starred restaurant, or immediately buy a large rhomboid vessel for poaching turbot, as deployed by Eugénie. I had a glass of wine and a bowl of potato chips. What Trần delivers, in other words, is not always an incitement to drool (look at Dodin, reaching into a bird to drag out the guts), and Dodin and his confrères are amused, rather than impressed, by an overstuffed banquet—“no air, no logic, no line”—that is forced upon them by a visiting nobleman. In return, Dodin dares to propose a simple pot-au-feu.

So what kind of movie is this? A conservative one, I would say, not in politics (a topic that never arises at the table) but in its devotion to long-ripened skills and to the sheer hard work that goes into the giving of pleasure. “One cannot be a gourmet before forty,” Dodin remarks, and his dining pals are neither snobs nor swaggerers but comfortable, solid professional men, including a doctor and a notary, who meet to eat: the very picture of the bourgeoisie. If that turns your stomach, it’s worth pointing out that “The Taste of Things” is crosshatched, in ways that I didn’t foresee and won’t disclose, with shadows of ailing and grief; its closest predecessor, in this respect, is Bertrand Tavernier’s beautiful “Sunday in the Country” (1984). These are films about the grave comedy of being alive, and about submitting to the seasons by which a life is meted out. Mortality is no more of a natural shock than the onset of winter. As the Duke in “Measure for Measure” informs us, “Thou hast nor youth nor age, / But as it were an after-dinner’s sleep, / Dreaming on both.” If you had just enjoyed Eugénie’s roast veal with braised lettuce hearts, plus a bottle of Clos Vougeot, you could die happy and sleep for good.

The new documentary about the composer Ennio Morricone, Giuseppe Tornatore’s “Ennio,” is not new at all. It was screened at festivals as far back as 2021; only now has it earned an American release. This is a welcome prospect, not least because of the revelation that, although the young Ennio’s ambition was to be a doctor, his father demanded that he study the trumpet instead. Listen out for a loud collective crack, as the jaws of a hundred New York parents hit the floor.

The roster of directors who employed—or yielded to—Morricone is laughably distinguished, and headed by Sergio Leone. (As an old photograph shows, they were schoolboys together.) “Ennio” confirms the legend that Morricone’s score was played on set during the shooting of Leone’s “Once Upon a Time in America” (1984), as if to steep the actors in the desired emotional mood. No one is more indebted to Morricone than Tornatore, whose “Cinema Paradiso” (1990) might well have slipped the world’s attention without Morricone’s music. In repaying the debt, so to speak, “Ennio” turns out to be overlong, overblown, and larded with such praises that Morricone, a modest if determined soul, would blush to hear them. The jazz guitarist Pat Metheny describes “Cinema Paradiso” as “one of the profound, iconic, artistic places for me that I reference constantly.” As a rule, distrust those who use the word “iconic,” unless they specialize in the art of the Orthodox Church.

No Morricone score is more delicious, or more devilish, than the one he wrote for Henri Verneuil’s “The Sicilian Clan” (1970), concealing within it a coded tribute to Bach. The film has a mythologically strong cast—Jean Gabin, Lino Ventura, and Alain Delon—and I revere it so much that I even have a Hungarian poster for it, with a grainy Delon wearing shades and gripping a gun. But here’s the catch: not once have I actually watched “The Sicilian Clan.” I’m told that it’s O.K. but not great, so why devastate the ideal by embracing the merely real? Instead, I intend to keep the film forever out of reach, tormenting myself with Morricone’s music, which glides around in circles and fades away as if reluctant to end. For those of us who still retreat to the cinema’s womb, our most joyful agony is not to encounter movies that are foolish or horrible or broken-backed. It is to imagine, eyes wide shut, all the movies that we shall never see. ♦

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As writer, director, producer and actor, Jon Favreau has toiled for so long on the epic Hollywood battlefields of the Iron Man franchise and Cowboys & Aliens that you may forget his unique indie start with Swingers and Made . Chef marks Favreau’s triumphant return to personal filmmaking. It’s an artful surprise and an exuberant gift. Once you get past the big names in the cast, Chef sits you down to the modest pleasures of a dish served with simplicity and loving finesse. It’s one from the heart.

Favreau, an underrated actor in his best screen performance to date, stars as Carl Casper, the master chef at a chic L.A. restaurant. His workaholism has cost Carl his marriage to Inez (Sofia Vergara) and a fulfilling relationship with their 11-year-old son, Percy (a terrific Emjay Anthony). Carl enjoys a casual hookup with Molly (Scarlett Johansson), his floor manager. But, creatively, Carl is stuck in a successful rut. If you’re thinking there are parallels here between Favreau and the chef, you may be on to something.

The catalyst for change comes in the person of Ramsey Michel (Oliver Platt, superb), a much-feared food blogger who decides to review Carl for the first time in a decade. Foodies will salivate at the scenes in the kitchen, as Carl preps a new menu with the grill chef (John Leguizamo) and the sous-chef (Bobby Cannavale). Favreau makes these moments come vibrantly alive. Creativity, unencumbered by compromise, is a thrill for anyone, chef or director. It’s the restaurant owner (Dustin Hoffman) who interrupts Carl’s orgasmic joy. Citing the expectations he’d have at a Stones concert, he insists Carl serve his greatest hits.

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Carl complies. The review is scalding. Carl retaliates on social media, castigating the critic (“You shit on my shit”). Viral combat breaks out. Having lost his job, Carl refurbishes an old food truck, supplied by Inez’s ex-husband (a tangy cameo from Robert Downey Jr.), and hits the road (Miami, Austin, New Orleans), making gourmet Cuban food with his friends and his son by his side.

Don’t let the uplift get you down. Chef is deliciously entertaining, comic, touching and often bitingly true, since Favreau is happily allergic to jokes without a character base. All the actors are aces, with Vergara showing a subtlety and depth outside the range of her role on Modern Family . Buoyed by a Latin-flavored score and Favreau’s knack for improv inspiration, Chef is the perfect antidote to Hollywood junk food. Like the best meals and movies, this irresistible concoction feels good for the soul.

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Review: Art is on ‘The Menu’ as biting satire serves up some mean cuisine

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An elite, motley crew assembles for a very special dinner in the deliciously dark thriller satire “The Menu,” a philosophical deconstruction of artists and their enablers. Written by “The Onion” veterans Seth Reiss and Will Tracy and directed by Mark Mylod, who made his name in prestige television directing episodes of “Game of Thrones” and “Succession,” “The Menu” is a tightly wound, sharply rendered skewering of the dichotomy between the takers and the givers, or in this case, the eaters and the cooks.

The recipe for “The Menu” is one filet of bloody class warfare à la “Ready or Not,” a dash of cultish folk horror in the vein of “Midsommar,” a puree of “Chef’s Table,” dusted with a sprinkling of “Pig,” and spritzed with an essence of “Clue.” We go along for this ride through the point-of-view of a classic Final Girl, the spunky, sarcastic and street-smart Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy), a late addition to the guest list who is an unexpected and unpredictable element in the sauce.

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The restaurant is Hawthorne, located on a remote coastal island in the Pacific Northwest; the chef is Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes). The guests include a food critic (Janet McTeer) and her editor (Paul Adelstein), a group of finance guys (Rob Yang, Arturo Castro, and Mark St. Cyr), a diehard fan (Nicholas Hoult), a movie star ( John Leguizamo ) and his assistant (Aimee Carrero), and a pair of regulars (Reed Birney and Judith Light). The group submits themselves to the culinary experience they are about to have at the hands of Chef Slowik, his cult of sous chefs, and his stern hostess, Elsa ( Hong Chau ).

At first, it all seems painfully pretentious as the guests are served up dishes such as “The Island” (a scallop perched atop a rock) and the “Unaccompanied Accompaniments,” which take deconstruction to a whole new level. Then the menu becomes a walk down memory lane for Chef Slowik, taking a turn toward the uncomfortably personal, then accusatory, shocking, aggressive, and violent.

The central metaphor is plainly obvious. “The Menu” is not about food, or eating, but about the consumption of art, as well as the forces the artist finds himself subjected to while attempting to create. Chef Slowik has sold his soul for success, subjecting himself to the whims of the big money investors, the critics, the celebrities, his mindless consumers, and worst of all, his fanboys, who think they know more than the experts, and are willing to meddle too (the fanboys get it worst of all here). That’s not to say that Chef Slowik is a victim. No, he’s the antagonist here, but Fiennes plays him as a tortured soul who is attempting to reckon — violently — with his own selling out, and takes no pleasure in the process.

Reiss and Tracy have borrowed the increasingly pretentious and over-the-top world of high-end dining experiences to craft a screenplay that feels like an exorcism of sorts; a cathartic primal scream about the state of the industry of art, be it film, television, literature, visual art or food. The artist, despite his or her inclinations or inspirations, is always beholden to the critics, the investors and the fans, and “The Menu” is both a violent rejection of that paradigm as well as a darkly humorous acceptance of it all.

Mylod has taken this script, a wordy, writerly existential crisis, and presented a slick, somewhat cold, offering. The acting is flawless, Peter Deming’s cinematography crisp, Colin Stetson’s jaggedy score appropriately unsettling. If the outré ending jumps the shark, well, it’s been earned — the satisfying “Menu” has already left us much to chew on.

Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.

Rated: R, for strong/disturbing violent content, language throughout and some sexual references Running time: 1 hour, 46 minutes Playing: Starts Nov. 18 in general release

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The Menu review – Ralph Fiennes celeb-chef horror comedy cooks up nasty surprise

Fiennes plays a culinary wizard to the super-rich who’s grown sick of his vain and greedy clientele

F oodie films come in two flavours: joyous life-affirming celebrations of family, community and sharing (Babette’s Feast, Big Night) or horrifying denunciations of consumerism and despair (La Grande Bouffe, The Meaning of Life). This horror comedy about a hyper-exclusive restaurant which must be visited on its own island comes from screenwriters Seth Reiss and Will Tracy and director Mark Mylod, and it is very much in the latter category. Its chapter-heading intertitles are the menu items as the meal progresses and they become increasingly alarming.

The Menu has something in common with that recent much-praised award winner Triangle of Sadness, about plutocrats gorging themselves on a luxury cruise ship; in both, a humble burger is presented in contrast to the culpable fine dining. But The Menu is more controlled and more interesting, with one or two actual laughs – though I have to admit as always to being impatient with the expectation that at some level, and whatever the satirical context, we are supposed to swoon at all these connoisseur gourmand details.

Ralph Fiennes, his face a mask of fastidious hauteur, plays Julian Slowik, the head chef at the legendary establishment where the super-rich and super-important fight to get a table. Excitably, a new batch of customers have shown up on the boat that takes them over to the remote island like an Agatha Christie ensemble. Among the guests is Nicholas Hoult playing Tyler, a wannabe chef and Slowik fanboy who is obsessed with the great man and with the suspicion that Slowik despises him. His date for the evening is Margot, who has a level-headed scepticism about all this dining-as-theatre display; she is charismatically played by Anya Taylor-Joy who makes an entrance with a delicate showpony gait. The always formidable Hong Chau plays Elsa, front-of-house manager and high priestess of the Julian cult.

And so the evening begins, with emperor’s-new-cuisine touches including a “breadless plate” with no bread, just tiny globs of flavoured goo around the side. It becomes clear that Slowik has become wearied with humanity and their vanity, greed and inability to appreciate his artistry, wearied also with his business investor and wearied with himself. Like Marlon Brando’s Colonel Kurtz, he has seen into the heart of degustation darkness. Tonight’s menu will be his climactic masterpiece – and guess what’s on it?

The Menu’s basic ideas are pretty obvious and its cartoony unreality only goes so far, with nothing of the authentic pain of, say, Bennett Miller’s Foxcatcher, which showed Channing Tatum’s wrestler in his hotel room, sick of his fitness regimen, simply ordering everything on room-service and gobbling it all in an orgy of self-hate . But it is well-acted and well directed by Mylod with tasty side plates of droll humour.

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‘the menu’ review: anya taylor-joy, ralph fiennes and nicholas hoult headline mark mylod’s tasty satire.

A group of epicureans travel to a remote island for the ultimate dining experience in the 'Succession' director's feature premiering at the Toronto Film Festival.

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Mylod is best known for his television direction —  Shameless, Game of Thrones and most recently Succession (for which he’s nabbed an Emmy nomination) — but he’s not new to film. His earlier projects The Big White (in 2005) and What’s Your Number (in 2011) are mostly forgotten, but with The Menu , a movie that flaunts a sharp vision, the director makes an exciting, confident return to film.

Written by Willy Tracy ( Sucession ) and Seth Reiss ( Late Night with Seth Myers ), The Menu follows Tyler ( Nicholas Hoult ), an insufferable epicurean, and his date Margot ( Anya Taylor-Joy ), a woman shrouded in mystery, for dinner at Hawthorn. They are among the restaurant’s 12 guests, who also include a never named actor trying to resuscitate his career (John Leguizamo) and his unhappy assistant, Felicity (Aimee Carrero); Lillian Bloom, a delusional restaurant critic ( Janet McTeer ), and her spineless editor, Ted (Paul Adelstein); Anne ( Judith Light ) and Richard (Reed Birney), a wealthy couple; and Bryce (Rob Yang), Soren (Arturo Castro) and Dave (Mark St. Cyr), a trio of obnoxious tech bros whose boss is Hawthorn’s main investor; and a mystery person I won’t spoil here.

An efficient but unhurried introduction sketches each character enough for us to understand the outlines of their personalities. Everyone, except for Margot, shares a reality of wealth, access and privilege. When we meet the pair, Tyler is admonishing Margot for smoking cigarettes, insisting that she will char her tastebuds. Margot doesn’t care: She can’t relate to Tyler’s reverence of expensive culinary experiences, and finds his devotion humorous.

The Menu is structured around Hawthorn’s tasting menu, and the film’s arresting visual language is reflected in the meals, which are each presented with brief, witty title cards. Elsa leads the diners to the main dining room — a steely open-concept kitchen that flirts with a brutalist aesthetic — after the tour. In Ethan Tobman’s clean-cut production design, grays and cold blues dominate the color palette. The orange from the fireplace lining the walls and the kitchen’s open flames merely add an illusion of warmth.

The guests are seated. The servers push their chairs in and lay napkins on their laps. A chipper sommelier floats through the room offering aged reds and chilled whites. When Chef materializes to greet his captive audience, the buzz dies and eyes settle on him. His introduction is a poetic recitation of his food philosophy. There are sinister undertones, but the enamored diners don’t realize they are caught in a malefic game of cat-and-mouse until the second course (raw diver scallop, pickled local seaweeds and algae). By that time, it’s too late.

Tension builds with the courses, each more outlandish than the last. Tracy and Reiss’ slick, inventive screenplay pokes fun at the stresses of culinary life without cheapening the level of creativity and trust it takes to serve high-caliber meals each night. Collin Stetson’s score — imposing, nail-biting, swelling — further immerses us in the Hawthorn kitchen’s spell.

Myod’s film is strongest when it focuses on process, and portrays just how the staff sautés, cures, ferments, measures, flavors, garnishes and obsessively constructs each dish. In those moments, executing a tasting menu begins to resemble the spectacle of theater: There are high stakes, bigger egos and an endless pursuit of an ephemeral feeling.

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Jon Favreau steps away from helming blockbusters such as “Iron Man” to write, direct and star in this congenial fable. Carl Casper (Favreau) is a one-time culinary wunderkind who’s now middle-aged, with a wide midriff and middling reputation. His loyal staff includes efficient hostess Molly (Scarlett Johansson in a cameo) and chatty sous chefs Martin (John Leguizamo) and Tony (Bobby Cannavale).

When the restaurant gets a visit from an influential food critic, Carl wants to prepare something extraordinary, but the restaurant’s owner (Dustin Hoffman) orders Carl to do nothing special. The result: A scathing review, a Twitter war of words between Carl and the critic — and a chef without a job.

Trying to land on his feet, Carl, his ex-wife Inez (flighty but pleasant Sofia Vergara) and their 10-year-old son Percy (Emjay Anthony, quite the pro) go to Miami, where Inez’ slick first husband (Robert Downey Jr.) donates a rickety food truck. Carl and Co. give it a fresh paint job and drive it from Miami to L.A., selling Cuban sandwiches like hot cakes all the way. By the time they get to California, Carl’s got his groove back.

Favreau has always been a cool, amiable presence, all the way back to “Swingers” (1996) and his mini-gem feature directorial debut, “Made” (2001). His Queens-kid persona is impossible not to like. Scenes of Favreau at the grill bantering with Leguizamo and Cannavale could almost sustain an entire movie.

It does for a while. The moments when Carl connects with his kid click, too. But there’s a whole patch of “Chef” that feels wayward, as if Favreau has gotten so accustomed to Big Studio demands to cut details and get to the next explosion that he decided to stretch out every single small moment in “Chef.”

The good news is that his slow simmer approach here never puts us off for too long as the camaraderie between him and his cast gives “Chef” its mild yet tasty spice.

Catch “Joe Neumaier’s Movie Minute” throughout the day Thurs. – Sun. on New York’s WOR 710 AM and at wor710.com.

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The obscenely wealthy are having a tough time at the movies lately. Last month, Ruben Östlund stuck a bunch of them on a luxury yacht and watched them projectile vomit all over each other in “ Triangle of Sadness .” Next week, Rian Johnson will stick a bunch of them on a private Greek island to watch them wonder who among them is a killer in “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.”

But this week, members of the extreme 1% just get stuck—as in skewered, and grilled—in “The Menu.” Director Mark Mylod satirizes a very specific kind of elitism here with his wildly over-the-top depiction of the gourmet food world. This is a place where macho tech bros, snobby culture journalists, washed-up celebrities, and self-professed foodies are all deluded enough to believe they’re as knowledgeable as the master chef himself. Watching them preen and try to one-up each other provides much of the enjoyment in the sharp script from Seth Reiss and Will Tracy .

But the build-up to what’s happening at this insanely expensive restaurant on the secluded island of Hawthorne is more intriguing than the actual payoff. The performances remain prickly, the banter deliciously snappy. And “The Menu” is always exquisite from a technical perspective. But you may find yourself feeling a bit hungry after this meal is over.

An eclectic mix of people boards a ferry for the quick trip to their storied destination. Chef Slowik’s fine-tuned, multi-course dinners are legendary—and exorbitant, at $1,250 a person. “What, are we eating a Rolex?” the less-than-impressed Margot ( Anya Taylor-Joy ) quips to her date, Tyler ( Nicholas Hoult ), as they’re waiting for the boat to arrive. He considers himself a culinary connoisseur and has been dreaming of this evening for ages; she’s a cynic who’s along for the ride. They’re gorgeous and look great together, but there’s more to this relationship than initially meets the eye. Both actors have a keen knack for this kind of rat-a-tat banter, with Hoult being particularly adept at playing the arrogant fool, as we’ve seen on Hulu’s “The Great.” And the always brilliant Taylor-Joy, as our conduit, brings a frisky mix of skepticism and sex appeal.

Also on board are a once-popular actor ( John Leguizamo ) and his beleaguered assistant ( Aimee Carrero ); three obnoxious, entitled tech dudes ( Rob Yang , Arturo Castro , and Mark St . Cyr); a wealthy older man and his wife ( Reed Birney and Judith Light ); and a prestigious food critic ( Janet McTeer ) with her obsequious editor ( Paul Adelstein ). But regardless of their status, they all pay deference to the star of the night: the man whose artful and inspired creations brought them there. Ralph Fiennes plays Chef Slowik with a disarming combination of Zen-like calm and obsessive control. He begins each course with a thunderous clap of his hands, which Mylod heightens skillfully to put us on edge, and his loyal cooks behind him respond in unison to his every demand with a spirited “Yes, Chef!” as if he were their drill sergeant. And the increasingly amusing on-screen descriptions of the dishes provide amusing commentary on how the night is evolving as a whole.

Of these characters, Birney and Light’s are the least developed. It’s particularly frustrating to have a performer of the caliber of Light and watch her languish with woefully little to do. She is literally “the wife.” There is nothing to her beyond her instinct to stand by her man dutifully, regardless of the evening’s disturbing revelations. Conversely, Hong Chau is the film’s MVP as Chef Slowik’s right-hand woman, Elsa. She briskly and efficiently provides the guests with a tour of how the island operates before sauntering among their tables, seeing to their every need and quietly judging them. She says things like: “Feel free to observe our cooks as they innovate” with total authority and zero irony, adding greatly to the restaurant’s rarefied air.

The personalized treatment each guest receives at first seems thoughtful, and like the kind of pampering these people would expect when they pay such a high price. But in time, the specifically tailored dishes take on an intrusive, sinister, and violent tone, which is clever to the viewer but terrifying to the diner. The service remains rigid and precise, even as the mood gets messy. And yet—as in the other recent movies indicting the ultra-rich—“The Menu” ultimately isn’t telling us anything we don’t already know. It becomes heavy-handed and obvious in its messaging. Mind-boggling wealth corrupts people. You don’t say.

But “The Menu” remains consistently dazzling as a feast for the eyes and ears. The dreamy cinematography from Peter Deming makes this private island look impossibly idyllic. The sleek, chic production design from Ethan Tobman immediately sets the mood of understated luxury, and Mylod explores the space in inventive ways, with overhead shots not only of the food but also of the restaurant floor itself. The Altmanesque sound design offers overlapping snippets of conversation, putting us right in the mix. And the taunting and playful score from Colin Stetson enhances the film’s rhythm, steadily ratcheting up the tension.

It’s a nice place to visit—but you wouldn’t want to eat there.

Now playing in theaters. 

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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The Menu (2022)

Rated R for strong/disturbing violent content, language throughout and some sexual references.

107 minutes

Ralph Fiennes as Chef Slowik

Anya Taylor-Joy as Margot

Nicholas Hoult as Tyler

Hong Chau as Elsa

Janet McTeer as Lillian Bloom

Judith Light as Anne

John Leguizamo as Movie Star

Rob Yang as Bryce

Mark St. Cyr as Dave

Reed Birney as Richard

Aimee Carrero as Felicity

Arturo Castro as Soren

Cinematographer

• Peter Deming
• Christopher Tellefsen
• Colin Stetson

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Next Level Chef Season 3 Winner Controversy Explained

Next Level Chef , Fox's hit reality cooking competition, had an explosive Season 3 ending with controversy.

Led by Gordon Ramsey, Nyesha Arrington, and Richard Blais, Next Level Chef separates competing chefs into three teams with kitchens on top of each other, each kitchen filled with equipment of varying quality.

A winner is eventually picked through a series of intense challenges and cooking assignments. The victor earns $250,000 and a one-year mentorship under all three celebrity chefs.

[ Next Level Chef 2024 Cast, Contestants & Hosts In Season 3 (Photos) ]

Next Level Chef's Season 3 Results

Next Level Chef Season 3 ended on May 9, closing out with social media chef Gabi Chappel winning the competition.

The 29-year-old Chappel is from Brooklyn, New York, and she is a popular social media personality thanks largely to her Instagram page, which boasts over 63,000 followers.

She came out victorious over home chef Christina Miros, who finished as one of two runner-ups in the Season 3 finale.

This episode gave the final three competitors 90 minutes to use all three levels of the kitchen, making appetizers, a seafood course, and an ultimate main course.

Chappel made a ground pork appetizer while Miros went for Asian flavors. Chappel finished work on her appetizer with 67 minutes remaining on her time while Miros went into the second kitchen with 64 minutes left.

As the judges tasted the appetizers immediately, Miros earned excellent reviews on her food while Chappel's was criticized for looking slightly "basic" and feeling somewhat "murky."

Miros took lobster for her seafood dish while Chappel went for seabream. The final round left Chappel with 37 minutes on her clock while Christina had 34, and both of them earned solid reviews on their second-round dish.

With a two-minute advantage, Chappel took a New York strip as her final ingredient before Miros took a venison wrap, both of them finishing off in the knick of time.

Miros earned massive praise from the judges for her final dish. Richard Blais called her rack of venison one of the best-looking plates he had ever seen while Nyesha Arrington was at a loss for words and praised Miros' confidence.

Meanwhile, Blais complimented Chappel on her New York strip, highlighting the taste of the sauce and how well the steak was cooled. Gordon Ramsey also said she elevated the dish, making for a tough final decision before Chappel took home the prize.

Following the competition, Miros shared a post about her experience on Instagram.

She looks to take the weekend to “unwind from this majorly emotional experience,” as rewatching the show makes her relive her high and low moments.

She also teased that she has “a lot to say” as she spends time with her family:

"And that’s that! I have seen a lot of your messages and support and I will be responding in time. I have been taking today to relax and unwind from this majorly emotional experience. We have been done with the show for some time now but reliving all these moments takes a lot out of you and it’s as if you are experiencing it all over again in real time. I promise I have a lot to say and so much joy and gratitude are at the forefront but for today, I will be on my couch snuggled up with my incredible little family."

Chappel responded to that post with gratitude for having competed against her and becoming friends with her.

She praised Miros for her abilities as a chef, calling her “such an incredible chef” and looking forward to seeing where she goes in the future:

"I feel so incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to not only compete with you, but get to know you as a person and friend, laugh with you, dance to ABBA with you, cry with you…you are such an incredible chef and I cannot wait to see where this experience takes you you are a light in every way and I know the world sees that too"

The Next Level Chef Season 3Controversy

Following the Next Level Chef Season 3 finale, its results are causing controversy amongst the fan base on X (formerly Twitter) as many feel that Miros deserved to win instead of Chappel.

The consensus is that Miros performed better and with more consistency all season and that she also cooked better food in the finale itself even though she lost.

Additionally, viewers were convinced Miros was going to win based on what the judges were saying about her dish compared to Chappel before the results were announced.

@veejoyy thought Miros would win the competition based on the commentary offered about the dishes, leaving her in shock:

"yikes. based on what they were saying about the dishes.. Christina should've won 'Next Level Chef'"

@Michael_Toms bluntly said Chappel had "the worst entrée & frickin meatballs," although he would not have liked Miros winning either since he felt "Chef Ramsay cooked half her dish for her:"

"Baffling finale 'Next Level Chef.' The worst entrée & frickin meatballs wins it for Gabi? Thought Christina was going to win which would have been erroneous since Chef Ramsay cooked half her dish for her. Zach clearly the best but got judged way harsher as the only pro chef left"

@SirAntawn put it simply by saying, "I definitely thought Christina should have won."

@_pinkofcourse also felt Miros had the win in her pocket, noting, "The way they spoke about the dishes I thought Christina had it."

A Look at Past Next Level Chef Controversy

Even with only three seasons on the air, Next Level Chef cannot seem to avoid controversy. Fans have been up in arms for various reasons all three years.

In 2023's Season 2, social media chef Jade Greenhalgh won the competition, leading many fans to believe that Callum Deboys should have won instead.

Before that, Season 1 concluded with Pyet Despain winning the inaugural contest in favor of Mariah Scott and Reuel Vincent. A big portion of the fan base thought the latter two competitors were more worthy of winning the title after they performed consistently well throughout the season.

It's tough to tell if comments like those from fans will influence the future of Next Level Chef . 

Cooking competitions (and competition shows of all sorts) are never completely predictable, and there are always twists, turns, and plenty of drama built up on screen.

All viewers can do is wait until Season 4 brings the next round of competitors.

All three seasons of Next Level Chef are now streaming on Hulu and Tubi .

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Chefs vs. Wild

Two chefs are dropped into the wilderness and have to survive and create a five-star meal out of foraged ingredients. Two chefs are dropped into the wilderness and have to survive and create a five-star meal out of foraged ingredients. Two chefs are dropped into the wilderness and have to survive and create a five-star meal out of foraged ingredients.

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The President’s Chef vs. the Food Snobs

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By Nicolas Rapold

• Sept. 19, 2013

Resembling a Francophile fantasy yet based on actual events, “Haute Cuisine” recounts Danièle Mazet-Delpeuch’s tenure as private chef to President François Mitterrand. Plucked from the Périgord region of France, Ms. Delpeuch — here renamed Hortense Laborie — yields to no one in cooking the grandmotherly comfort food desired by her country’s patrician leader. As flatly directed by Christian Vincent, “Haute Cuisine” is a reserved, très simple tale that raises the occasional smile and tummy rumble but keeps hiccuping because of the drawn-out parallel story about her subsequent tour of duty.

Installed in a private kitchen at the Élysée Palace, Hortense (Catherine Frot) is polite but strict on matters of culinary principle, an old hand at populist fare though not a popularizer. (Her male sous-chef dismisses “the phony populism of jelly beans.”) This Gallic drama hinges, to an extent remarkable even for the material, on the correct and timely preparation of traditional recipes.

Truffles, stuffed cabbage, Rochefort jonchée and St. Honoré cake are essentially this static film’s plot points. These dishes strengthen Hortense’s bond with the president, daintily played by Jean d’Ormesson, the novelist and dean of the Académie Française. Mr. Vincent, who wrote the screenplay with   Étienne Comar, throws in some perfunctory pressure from the palace’s bean counters, weight watchers and disdainful main kitchen.

Regular interruptions come from dull flash-forwards to Hortense’s next job, at an outpost in Antarctica. Her home-style cooking may melt Mr. Mitterrand’s heart, but the filmmaking in “Haute Cuisine” lacks her skill.

“Haute Cuisine” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned) for strong language.

Opens on Friday. Directed by Christian Vincent In French, with English subtitles. 1 hour 35 minutes

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