Chef's portrayal of food
Written by :Elena Espitia
From the sizzling cheese on the grill to the tender beef the food shown in this movie is nothing if not desirable. The presentation of the food and plates highlights the fact the food isn’t just something made for nourishment but something enjoyable. It can be art.
For the main character in the movie chef Carl Casper food is a part of his identity. He loves cooking. In several scene of the movie you can see how much he enjoys cooking for people and see how much pride he takes in what he does. For example carl cooks pasta for Scarlett Johansson’s character Molly and you see how pleased he looks when he sees her enjoying the food. Likewise when he is cooking with his son and his son burns a sandwich and is going to serve it to a customer because he says it doesn’t matter and they aren’t paying for the sandwich anyway. He pulls his son out of the kitchen and lectures him because he takes pride in making good food for people and he loves cooking. It is clear food and cooking are a part of him.
For the main character in the movie chef Carl Casper food is a part of his identity. He loves cooking. In several scene of the movie you can see how much he enjoys cooking for people and see how much pride he takes in what he does. For example carl cooks pasta for Scarlett Johansson’s character Molly and you see how pleased he looks when he sees her enjoying the food. Likewise when he is cooking with his son and his son burns a sandwich and is going to serve it to a customer because he says it doesn’t matter and they aren’t paying for the sandwich anyway. He pulls his son out of the kitchen and lectures him because he takes pride in making good food for people and he loves cooking. It is clear food and cooking are a part of him.
That also ties into the concept of responsibility because he feels obligated to feed people good tasteful food. He feels the responsibility to his craft to be good to it. He also teaches his son about the responsibility to care for a chef’s knife. He tells his son that it’s a tool that should be respected and it’s a chef’s job to take care of their knifes. The strongest sense of responsibility chef Carl Casper has is to the creative art of cooking. He feels oppressed by his boss and a food critic. He feels his boss keeps him in a box with a limited menu and no room to grow. The food critic labels him and his entire skill set on one meal. Due to this lack of creative freedom he goes back to his roots. This home brings his cooking identity to the surface and he gains his confidence back.