Poking fun at the restaurant world, French helmer Daniel Cohen’s genial, broadly played comedy The Chef dishes up easily digestible laughs.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Daniel Cohen's Le Chef does little more than illuminate the superficiality of the restaurant business.
The New York Times by Ben Kenigsberg
For a film about mouthwatering cuisine, it offers only fleeting delectable sensations.
Chicago Sun-Times by Bruce Ingram
It’s meant to be a soufflé-light charmer, but the bland, predictable French comedy Le Chef basically falls flat.
New York Daily News by Elizabeth Weitzman
Daniel Cohen’s genial French comedy is as airy as a soufflé. Alas, it’s not nearly as satisfying.
The Hollywood Reporter by Frank Scheck
With its clichéd characters and situations, formulaic subplots (Alexandre neglects his grad student daughter to concentrate on his career) and overly cutesy comic tone, Le Chef is a cinematic dish best sent back to the kitchen.
Roughly a more broadly comic French version of John Favreau’s “Chef,’’ this film stars veteran Jean Reno as a longtime celebrity chef who may lose control of his Paris restaurant because the young new CEO thinks he’s old toque.
Le Chef involves a showdown between traditional French cuisine and molecular gastronomy, but the film very much serves as the cinematic equivalent of fast food, offering generic, processed menu items that are practically pre-digested.