This 6-pillar curriculum teaches the basic literacy we need to be personally and financially successful and to do so in a manner in which together we evolve a culture that supports the emergence of an advanced human civilization.
As we move through the dog days of summer, it’s time for some lighter but satisfying movie fare. The 2014 “road comedy” Chef delivers.
Chef successfully weaves together several narrative threads. The main storyline is about a chef who pulls himself out of a creative rut and rediscovers his passion for his art, but the movie also has meaningful things to say about friendship and parenthood.
Actor-filmmaker Jon Favreau wrote, directed, produced, and starred in Chef as a “back to basics” project sandwiched in between his work on big-budget films in the Marvel and Lucasfilm universes. To prepare for his convincing role as Chef Carl Casper, Favreau studied under Korean-American chef Roy Choi, known for helping launch the gourmet food truck movement. (Favreau and Choi reunited in 2019-2020 to co-present the two-season television cooking series, The Chef Show.)
In addition to providing enough mouth-watering glimpses of Cuban sandwiches to make one want to run out and buy one, Chef offers up a great cast, including appearances by Dustin Hoffman (playing the restaurateur who wants Casper to “stick to his greatest hits”), Oliver Platt (playing a food critic who pushes Casper’s buttons), Robert Downey Jr. (who provides the food truck that gets the cross-country adventure going), and Emjay Anthony as Casper’s young but social-media-savvy son.
A Rotten Tomatoes verdict aptly sums up the reasons why Chef makes for an enjoyable watch, describing it as a “small, unashamedly feel-good film that makes up for what it lacks in dramatic jeopardy with gentle comedy, heartwarming family scenes, ladles of food porn, and time spent among characters you like.”
