Jean Reno plays a famous chef about to lose his restaurant to the whim of a nasty young man with no style but plenty of opinion, and whose father's company owns the business. Michael Youn plays Jacky, a novice chef with a passion for food and a deep reverence for Reno's character and the fabulous dishes he has created over the years. Jacky lurks around the thin edge of the ASD scale, cant keep a job and exasperating his girlfriend at every turn. Together the chefs work to keep the third Michelin star which will allow the restaurant to survive.
There is nothing untidy (or real) about the story - Beatrice gives birth without wrinkling her cardigan or messing her hair, Jacky survives kitchen disasters without raising a sweat, chefs in a nursing home happily take instructions on how to cook from a painter leaning in the second-floor window......... but I loved every silly minute of it. Who cares if you have to read sub-titles and suspend disbelief? Paris is beguiling, the accents make you melt, and the love stories (of COURSE there are love stories) work out as they should. See it.
Mmmmmaybe 7 out of 10?
