Chef Carl Casper (Favreau) is that guy that’s let himself go, he’s heavier than he wants to be, at work he’s not cooking the food he wants to cook, his relationship with his son leaves his kid desperate for quality “dad” time, and he’s on the outs with his wife.

This is Chef, a new movie by Jon Favreau. Getting into the nuts and bolts of the film, the “surprise” moment when our lead didn’t know his son was grown up enough to have a smart phone won’t win any awards for originality and really isn’t much of a surprise, but this isn’t really an original story. With a somewhat cliche setup you might think it would be boring, but it’s not. And it’s probably more real than some would like to admit. Sometimes that’s okay.

Carl is oblivious to the fact that he’s unhappy until one of his first forays into social media, which plays a refreshingly interesting part in the film, thrusts him into a Twitter battle-royal with a hugely popular LA food critic. When it goes viral, Carl’s reputation and life are chopped and tossed.

As much as social media has a role in the movie, food is an even bigger player and is worth mentioning. You get angry you can’t sample what’s on the screen. Favreau must have worked the line in a kitchen, because I have and he’s dead on with the bad language, it is true to life.

With this cast of characters to work with (including John Lequizamo, Scarlett Johansson, Dustin Hoffman, Oliver Platt and Robert Downey Jr.) and tight and honest dialogue, Chef is sometimes very funny and sentimental when it should be. It moves right along and has a bit of everything you’d expect and might hope for.

I liked it and I give it a Zagat rating in the mid-twenties (better than average).