Redundant and unnecessary.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I was not expecting anything more than smiles, but midway I could not repress my laugh. The story is not following the straight path and is hilarious enough with some bon mots here and there. A TV comedy that holds on 6 years after release.

Did I already say that I love cooking and films about cooking? I probably did. For food lovers talking, reading, watching TV shows and - why not - seeing movies about food and the people behind food just amplifies the pleasure of enjoying good food and enriches the experience. We have been blessed with a few good movies on this topic, some older (who can forget Louis de Funes in L'Aille et la cuisse?) some recently like the American Chef with an almost identical title as the French comedy Le Chef.We may of course expect a lot from a French film about 'haute cuisine' - the subject should be part of the national expertise after all. Director and script co-writer Daniel Cohen has taken the easy path with this lighthearted comedy about a famous chef (Jean Reno) who is obsessed with keeping his three Michelin stars intact and an unemployed aspirant (Michael Youn) trying to find his way in the world of high-end cooking. Everybody has a good time and especially Reno who abandons for a short while his tough guy mask and lets us know that he owns a carefully suppressed comic talent.There is some serious background behind the light comedy which should not be omitted. Great chefs nowadays need to fight increased competition from street food and from the modern trends like 'molecular food' (which incidentally I hate as much as the folks who wrote the script of this film). Fighting kitsch or pretentious avant-garde artistic challenge that is not encountered only by artists in cooking but by many other fields. So are the crisis of creativity, the loss of inspiration, the need to change and do something else in certain turning points of lives and careers. None of these subjects are absent but none is explored to deeply either in 'Le Chef'. The result in culinary terms is a 'souffle' - light and pleasant when eaten but not leaving persistent memories after the consumption. I mentioned the American movie 'Chef' which also dealt with a famous cook in some crisis in his life and career turning to street food. Well, the food in the American 'Chef' may not have been as classy as the food in the French 'Le Chef' but the film that resulted was better.

This is laugh-out-loud funny. A French movie, with English subtitles, about a young overzealous chef in Paris, who keeps being fired because of his overzealousness. By bizarre happenstance, he becomes known to one of the great chef's of Paris. It pokes fun at molecular cuisine, something he must master or risk losing a star. It's hilarious. Don't know if one has to be a foodie to appreciate it. And on the same weekend I perfected my carrot soup recipe! C'est formidable, mais ce n'est pas molecular, mais c'est un peu foamy. I watched it on Netflix. You'll recognize one of the leads, Jean Reno, from Mission Impossible. The other lead actor I did not recognize, but he was formidable!

I found this movie on Netflix streaming movies. I like Jean Reno in everything I have seen him in and he is great here.He is famous chef Alexandre Lagarde at a 3-star restaurant. He also does a live cooking show. He is at odds with the owner's son who wants to oust him and seems willing to do anything to have him lose a star as a way to void his contract.Enter comic actor Michaël Youn as Jacky Bonnot, a bright guy who can't seem to keep a job. When he gets into food service he mistreats the guests who want certain food and wine combinations that Jacky knows are inappropriate. So the best he can do, to try to keep his pregnant girlfriend happy, is get a job as a painter.The other quality Jacky has is his sense of food combinations and preparation. He is a student of Lagarde's cooking, has all his books, knows all his recipes, even can recall when each live show was telecast. Eventually he and Lagarde team up.This is a comedy and a very good one. It was French with English subtitles.