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Chef

year 2014decade 10sdirector Jon Favreaugenre Comedygenre Drama
host Bill Simmonshost Dave Changproducer Craig Horlbeck
All 30 categories

The Stephen A. Smith Hottest Take Award · 1:03:23

One participant demands Chef 2

Bill Simmons: Chef 2 is pitched with the kid grown up, a newly struggling Carl, and a return of the original crew.

Dave Chang: The competing take is that the remarriage collapses forty-eight hours after the restaurant wedding.

The film

Chef (2014)

Directed by Jon Favreau · Comedy

114 minutes

IMDb Letterboxd JustWatch Find on Rotten Tomatoes
Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Jon Favreau Carl Casper
Oliver Platt Ramsey Michel

Everything from the episode

In the order the hosts got to it. Open a row for the discussion.

1:05:00

Casting What-Ifs

No historical casting what-if found

No historical casting what-if found

In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 01:05:00Read transcript
  • The participants explicitly report that they could not find a casting what-if for the film. — Bill Simmons
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1:07:28

Recasting Couch

A Dave Chang cameo; Danny Trejo for Bobby Cannavale

A Dave Chang cameo; Danny Trejo for Bobby Cannavale

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 01:07:28Read transcript
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1:08:41

Half-Assed Internet Research

Leguizamo’s line-cook preparation, filming locations, improvised truck scenes, The Chef Show, First Fridays, Kogi, an...

Leguizamo’s line-cook preparation, filming locations, improvised truck scenes, The Chef Show, First Fridays, Kogi, and digitally composited travel footage

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 01:08:41Read transcript
  • John Leguizamo spent time as a line cook at the Lion and may also have staged at Noodle Bar. — Dave Chang
  • Miami locations included Versailles, the observed “Flante Blue Hotel,” and the unresolved observed venue name “Hoycoma air.” — Bill Simmons
  • The transcript names the New Orleans stop as “Café Man” and the Austin stops as “Franco Barbecue” and “Gueros” on South Congress. — Bill Simmons
  • The three truck performers improvised many food-truck scenes to capture kitchen rhythm. — Bill Simmons
  • The Chef Show with Favreau and Roy Choi began on Netflix in 2019 and returned in 2020. — Bill Simmons
  • The final food-truck event is based on Venice’s First Fridays, where Choi’s Kogi truck briefly appears. — Bill Simmons
  • Director commentary says some road scenes combined stock footage with the truck digitally. — Bill Simmons
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1:16:25

Picking Nits

Inez’s wealth and acting past, Carl’s earlier Miami fame and marriage, and whether Twitter could draw a New Orleans c...

Inez’s wealth and acting past, Carl’s earlier Miami fame and marriage, and whether Twitter could draw a New Orleans crowd so quickly

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 01:16:25Read transcript
  • Inez’s wealth and implied acting career are left unexplained. — Bill Simmons
  • The panel questions how a thinner early-2000s Carl became prominent enough in Miami to marry her. — Bill Simmons
  • The movie does not explain the signature dishes behind Carl’s Miami fame. — Bill Simmons
  • Twitter drawing a huge French Quarter crowd to the truck in 2014 is questioned but defended as period-accurate discovery behavior. — Bill Simmons
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1:19:25

Best Double Feature

Swingers, Burnt, Eat Drink Man Woman, and Ratatouille
Chef
Swingers
Burnt
Eat Drink Man Woman
Ratatouille
In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 01:19:25Read transcript
  • Swingers is proposed as a Favreau career pairing. — Bill Simmons
  • Burnt is proposed for a two-film mid-2010s food-movie program. — Bill Simmons
  • Eat Drink Man Woman is the main food-film choice, with Big Night explicitly rejected by that participant. — Dave Chang
  • Ratatouille is added as one of the best fine-dining movies. — Dave Chang
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1:19:50

Probably Unanswerable Questions

The panel asks whether a Cubano can be this powerful and how Carl built careers in Miami and Los Angeles; the desired...

The panel asks whether a Cubano can be this powerful and how Carl built careers in Miami and Los Angeles; the desired answer is a prequel.

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:19:50Read transcript
  • A standard-ingredient Cubano may not have the extraordinary power the movie assigns it, unless the bread and sauce are custom. — Dave Chang
  • Carl’s unexplained path from Miami prominence to Los Angeles remains the central career question. — Dave Chang
  • A prequel is requested as the answer to the missing career history. — Bill Simmons
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1:24:00

Producer review

Producer Craig loves the movie, its food content, social-media accuracy, parent-child dynamics, and grilled-cheese sc...

Producer Craig loves the movie, its food content, social-media accuracy, parent-child dynamics, and grilled-cheese scene.

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 01:24:00Read transcript
  • The producer says he has seen the movie many times and considers well-made food content exceptionally enjoyable. — Craig Horlbeck
  • He calls Chef one of the most accurate social-media movies. — Craig Horlbeck
  • The child understanding the emerging platform while the parent thinks Twitter is private is cited as especially accurate. — Craig Horlbeck
  • Carl’s rushed child drop-off is praised as a realistic parenting detail. — Craig Horlbeck
  • The cinematic grilled-cheese preparation and the kid’s understated approval capture the father-son relationship. — Craig Horlbeck
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