Samir (Aasif Mandvi) is a sous chef at an upscale modern New York restaurant cooking western cuisine. He works tirelessly and the head chef takes all the credit. When his expected promotion to head chef is taken away, he quits and decides to go to Paris to work for one of the greats. When his father has a heart-attack, he has to take over the family restaurant and hires a taxi driver (Naseeruddin Shah) to be his new cook. He falls for single mom Carrie (Jess Weixler).
Aasif is playing it with a bit too much anger. That particular spice can be off-putting if there is too much of it in the meal. He needs to dial it back a dash. There is some fine food porn early on but I'm surprised that the movie doesn't do more with the Indian cooking. The most memorable part of the cooking is the live chickens. That brings up the evolution of Samir's food. When the hipsters walk away from Samir's dad, I thought the movie would have Samir add Indian flavors to his western cooking to create a new food fusion. It wouldn't be a revolutionary idea but at least, it would look like it. I figured that his new old world cooking would be the talk of the town and overshadow his old boss with the 25 year old protégé. That's the move. Everything else is rather conventional despite its ethnic flavors. The flavors are interesting but it needs something more.
Aasif is playing it with a bit too much anger. That particular spice can be off-putting if there is too much of it in the meal. He needs to dial it back a dash. There is some fine food porn early on but I'm surprised that the movie doesn't do more with the Indian cooking. The most memorable part of the cooking is the live chickens. That brings up the evolution of Samir's food. When the hipsters walk away from Samir's dad, I thought the movie would have Samir add Indian flavors to his western cooking to create a new food fusion. It wouldn't be a revolutionary idea but at least, it would look like it. I figured that his new old world cooking would be the talk of the town and overshadow his old boss with the 25 year old protégé. That's the move. Everything else is rather conventional despite its ethnic flavors. The flavors are interesting but it needs something more.