Le Grand Chef review

I’m surprised that they don’t make more films about cooking. If anyone has ever watched Iron Chef then you would see how tense it is to produce five plates within an hour. And this type of setting seems fitting to translate to film. Cooking is chaotic yet there is a certain art that comes to the finished dish.

LE GRAND CHEF (aka Sikgaek), inspired by the popular manga of the same name, is a Korean movie directed by Yun-su Jeon (Yesterday, My Girl and I). The film begins with two chefs vying for the prestige of becoming head chef at the culinary school where they honed their skills. When Sung-Chan’s golden blowfish (which can be deadly if prepared improperly) poisons the judges, he quits and moves to a rural village selling produce. He lives with his senile grandfather who has a fussy palate and who is prone to knocking his meals to the floor. After an artifact which looks like a stone knife is discovered that is said to belong to the last royal chef, a national competition is held to find the best chef in the country. Sung-Chan reluctantly comes out of retirement after persuasion from a mentor and a meddling female reporter. Old rivalries soon surface as Bong-Joo enters the competition as the favorite. He is the head chef of the culinary school and has branded his name into sauces and restaurant franchises. The competition takes place over several thematic rounds where they whittle the contestants away until only one chef is left standing.

LE GRAND CHEF intertwines the main storyline with several flashbacks scenes which enrich the narrative. The grandfather narrative and Sung-Chan’s days during culinary school are interesting but I felt that the flashbacks of the charcoal maker and of how Sung-Chan met his pet cow didn’t really need a back story. Maybe in the manga series these characters were fleshed out and deserving of more visibility but for a movie it was a little too much. It almost seems that they were trying to cram in as much story as possible in a two hour movie. I wished they spent more time developing the romance between the lead and the reporter. But if anyone has viewed the ending of “My Sassy Girl” then you may recognize a certain moment that pays off.

The dishes were aesthetically pleasing, and I swear that I could almost smell the steak wafting through the auditorium. Or maybe my Pavlovian response kicked in when I heard sizzling meat on the grill. I almost wished they devoted more time to the cooking process instead of just showing off the finished product. Aside from my nitpicking, LE GRAND CHEF is a terrific movie with great characters, good food, and genuinely funny moments. Even a cow sheds a tear; who can ask for more?

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