Le Chef Review

As I continue to read Honor Harrington books and really only play Path of Exile, many of my recent reviews have been things I have watched on TV (or on TV off DVD). This week is no exception. On Friday night, the family and I sat down to enjoy Le Chef, a French comedy written and directed by Daniel Cohen and starring Jean Reno.

We have liked Jean Reno movies for a long time, starting with The Professional and continuing with roles in French Kiss, Couple Retreat and others. We also have enjoyed several French movies in recent years like The Intouchables, so a comedy including Reno and cooking seemed like a good bet (and turned out to be much better than The Tasting Menu, which we watched a few weeks ago).

Le Chef is the story of Jacky Bonnot, played by Michael Youn, a cooking enthusiast who has had difficulty holding down a job, causing much consternation for his pregnant girlfriend, Beatrice. Jean Reno is Alexandre Lagarde, a famous chef with a 3-star restaurant and a cooking show who is under pressure from his restaurant's owner's son who wants to make the restaurant avant-garde. As the story progresses, Jacky and Alexandre are thrown together with their love for cooking after Jacky is found cooking clandestinely at a retirement home where he is a painter. Alexandre gives him a trial at his restaurant while Jacky tries to hide the fact he isn't painting from his long-suffering girlfriend.

The movie has many funny moments when Jacky and Alexandre clash over Alexandre's reluctance to give up control in his restaurant and Jacky's complete lack of a filter when it comes to what he thinks should be done. Throw in a trio of somewhat bumbling but completely fun cooks at the retirement home and some over the top bad modern cuisine to compare against Jacky and Alexandre's more wholesome fare, you have an interesting mix that comes out tasting good.

Nothing overly special or really new is on tap here, but there are pretty restaurants, food that looks like something you might actually eat and lovable characters. All in all, you can't go wrong with Le Chef. With all 3 of us at my house, Le Chef gets 4 Mick Happies. Now we are all looking forward to Jon Favreau's Chef next weekend.