Written and Directed by: John Faveau

This film follows Chef Carl Casper’s (John Faveau) voyage of re-discovery of the important things in life after his termination from an exclusive restaurant by the unimaginative owner Riva (Dustin Hoffman) and following dispute with a restaurant critic Oliver Platt (Ramsey Michel). Along the way we see Carl’s handling of relationships with his son (Emjay Anthony), ex-wife Molly (Sofia Vergara), her second husband (Robert Downey Jr.), friend (John Leguizamo), kinda girlfriend Molly (Scarlett Johansson), and others.

This is just a wonderful film and stands out in a day and age where so many films overlook good old fashion film making. Faveau’s artfully blends comedy and drama and wraps them up in a flaky road trip crust.

Faveau’s believable handling of the interpersonal relationships is delightful. Where other writer/ directors push for heavy confrontation and outlandish stereotypical characters, the people and relationships in Chef are believable. I feel that I could run into any of them at my local watering hole, Peet’s, or supermarket.

Faveau shows maturity in making a road trip movie that is about, well, about a trip on the road. He foregoes the temptation to take a Home Alone approach and sacrifice quality for poor attempts at bad humor.

Chef also demonstrates exceptional film making. The films pace is just right. The visual double entandre when Carl makes a pasta dish for his kinda girlfriend demonstrates Faveau’s mastery of the art.

Best of all is the film’s two lessons: “Life does not always lead us where we want, but it will lead us where we need to go” and “Values and family are more important than money or success”.

A word of warning. This film will leave you hungry. But not to worry, if you can not find a good Cuban restaurant in your town the recipes for the “food of the film” are available on-line.