Film Review: Cooking up a good life

Taking a break from the world of blockbusters like Iron Man, director and actor Jon Favreau has returned to the indie roots of his earlier work with Chef, an old- fashioned, slightly sentimental but endearing story about the good things in life - food, family and music.

Favreau plays Carl Casper, a once hip and happening chef who is now working in a restaurant run by a stickler named Riva (Dustin Hoffman).

Riva is less interested in Casper's new menu ideas than in keeping his customers happy by delivering them what they want.

Casper is frustrated, divorced and less than willing to let his son Percy (Emjay Anthony) tag along with his dad to learn the ways of the kitchen. When Casper gets a scathing review from a powerful food blogger (Oliver Platt), he freaks out, becomes an internet and Twitter sensation and decides to start all over again working a food truck in Miami with his best friend Martin (John Leguizamo) and Percy in tow.

Along the way, thanks to social media and good old-fashioned Cuban sandwiches, he remembers what is important and repairs his domestic relationships and his big-hearted soul.

There is more than a whiff of The Wire creator David Simon's New Orleans series Tremé here, and Favreau keeps things light and ticking to a Latin-flavoured soundtrack. He gets help from a bunch of his famous friends in cameo roles, including Robert Downey Jnr, Scarlett Johansson, Bobby Cannavale and Sofia Vergara, who plays his long- suffering but still caring ex-wife.

Though the script takes a little long to get to the food truck, and Favreau's use of onscreen tweets and other social media tropes becomes tiresome, it is hard not to be charmed by the enthusiasm and good-natured celebration of great food and fun times.

It is not a masterpiece but Chef shows that sometimes getting back to basics is the best medicine. Its generally sharp jokes and the obvious enjoyment of everyone involved are infectious.

It is also nice to know that Favreau has not been completely lost to the world of superheroes and adrenalin junkies. Like Casper, he is a director who remembers what it was that got him into his game in the first place.

• 'Chef' opens at cinemas nationwide today