Chef’s released and it’s not getting the kind of reviews the Nawab of Pataudi would have expected. It’ll be wiser to skip this in multiplexes and watch John Favreau’s original movie itself, which starring Favreau himself along with other actors like Sofia Vergara, Scarlett Johansson and Robert Downey Jr. 

The film’s plot is close to Favreau’s own life, even though he is a director whereas the film’s protagonist is a chef. To prepare for his role, Favreau did train as a chef under Roy Choi who owns food trucks in LA. “Roy Choi was a guy who came on, at first as just a consultant, but really he ended up being a co-producer on it and the guy who oversaw my training and oversaw the menus. He was there on the set every day we did any cooking. He really put me through the paces. I started off by just shadowing him in his kitchens. Then he sent me off to a really intensive, week-long training at a culinary school. I was there from six in the morning on, one-on-one, getting a concentrated version of what a chef would have gone through. So a very traditional French training with knife skills and mother sauces and all cooking techniques. I had a basic overview. Then I started doing prep for his kitchens and then I started working on the line as part of his kitchen crew,” he revealed in an interview with Vulture.

The film received rave reviews across many reputed publications. “No one is a villain in this aggressively feel-good movie. On the evening Ramsey appears, Carl is pressured by the restaurant’s owner (Mr. Hoffman) not to follow his instincts and experiment but to serve the same-old, same-old dishes; he is predictably pilloried on Ramsey’s blog. Making matters infinitely worse, Carl, who is naïve about social media, is brought up short when his venomous response to the review goes viral and is followed by an angry face-to-face encounter with Ramsey that is captured on diners’ smartphones,” read an NY Times review.

You can watch the trailer here: 

The Favreau film was a success, that was made on a low budget but garnered a lot of love from audiences.