By Kate Caperan
If you have a healthy appetite and great music taste, the movie Chef (2014) is for you. Directed and starred in by Jon Favreau, Chef tells the story of an uninspired professional chef who embarks on a cross-country food truck journey to reconnect with his passions for food and family.
Chef’s soundtrack consists of a mix of music genres. From latin boogaloo to reggae, R&B, Texas blues and no wave, this soundtrack seems to consist of as many different music genres as U.S. states Favreau’s food truck travels to throughout the movie.
In Chef, every song is distinct and is expertly aligned to fit each scene. The combination of a heart-stringing plot, mouth watering food cinematography, and a diverse arrangement of songs come together perfectly to tell a wholesome story.
One of the greatest scenes that highlights Chef’s soundtrack has to be the grilled cheese scene, where Favreau’s character cooks his son possibly the greatest grilled cheese in existence. As the butter sizzles, you are immediately met with the soft, upbeat reggae love song “Lucky Man” by Courtney John. A love song may seem like an unlikely choice to encapsulate the relationship between a father, son, and a grilled cheese sandwich (the holy trinity?), but it fits this scene perfectly.
The time and care Favreau’s character puts into the creation of this perfect cheesy sandwich reflects the love he has for his son and his craft. In Chef, Favreau’s character isn’t always able to outwardly express his love and gratitude for his son, but his cooking always does. As the creation of the ultimate grilled cheese is beautifully filmed (it truly is beautiful), you feel the love that goes into creating something as simple as a grilled cheese from a father to his son.
Now I don’t want to spoil the whole movie, so I decided to stick to one scene, because in Chef, it’s pretty hard to separate its soundtrack from the plot of the movie. I guess this is a good problem to have; the soundtrack sure did its job. You’ll have to watch the rest of Chef (if you haven’t already) to see, and hear, how the rest of the movie’s soundtrack perfectly melts into the plot of one of my favorite movies.
