Le Chef

What we do here is: "Steak with chips", "Bratwurst with chips" and "Chicken with chips". Applicant Jacky is literally "fobbed off" with these three greasy options in a truck stop. The highly talented amateur chef and his culinary ambitions are frustrated. His job search in expensive Paris has gone on far too long, while his wife is sitting at home, heavily pregnant and full of expectations. Things are not looking up for Jacky. For master chef Alexandre Lagarde, on the other hand, things are going downhill: his 3-star restaurant "Cargo Lagarde" is soon out of business, metaphorically speaking. Alexandre can no longer think of any innovative dishes. The uniformity of haute cuisine no longer knocks anyone's socks off, especially not the dreaded food critics. Alexandre, who owns restaurants around the world and his own cooking show, fears for his stars. If he loses even one, the nasty food company to which he sold his name will close the restaurant. So it's time for Jacky, who Alexandre discovers by chance while working as a "maid for everything" in a retirement home and hires on the spot. Not only does Jacky and the chef de cuisine quickly come to blows while the two of them tinker with the biochemical processes of molecular cuisine. He also has to cover up the new job from his wife... The result is a truly delicious comedy about the excesses of French cuisine and the people who practice it, criticize it and enjoy it. The bickering between the established star chef, played by the rather stoic action star Jean Reno ("Leon - The Professional"), and the jittery newcomer: France's showpiece comedian Michaël Youn, is also enchanting. Pixar's "Ratatouille" sends its regards. Et voilà, it's all set! "Director and co-writer Daniel Cohen plays virtuously with Reno's image. He has also provided him with the ideal partner in the form of Michaël Youn, who is constantly whirling back and forth in a highly neurotic manner. You are constantly wondering when Reno's Lagarde will finally lose his cool and how far Jacky will go with his hysterical behavior. But Cohen doesn't dare to take the final step into madness after all. Instead of a bilious farce in the style of Claude Zidi's "Breast or Thigh", he serves his audience an affectionate character comedy in which even molecular creations are appropriated and transcended by traditional French gourmet cuisine." (Sascha Westphal, at: epd-film.de)