Chef is a 2014 road comedy-drama film written, produced, and directed by Jon Favreau. Favreau plays a celebrity chef who establishes a food truck business with his friends and young son.
The script was semi-autobiographical, incorporating parts of Favreau’s life into the main character, such as being a father while having a busy career and coming from a “broken home”.[7] Favreau also drew a comparison between his career as a director and Carl’s career as a chef; he stepped down from directing major studio films to go “back to basics” and create Chef on a smaller budget, much like Carl’s resignation from a popular restaurant to work in a food truck.[5]
Favreau contacted Roy Choi, a restaurateur who created the Kogi Korean BBQ food truck, to serve as a consultant on the film; Choi was eventually promoted to co-producer. While the film was in pre-production, Favreau shadowed Choi in his restaurants and worked as part of Choi’s kitchen crew after training at a culinary school.[8] Choi oversaw the menus prepared for the film and created the Cuban sandwiches that form a central part of the storyline.[9]
Food prepared for the shoot was eaten by the cast and crew after filming.[8] Much of the dialogue in the food truck scenes between Favreau, John Leguizamo, and Emjay Anthony was improvised in order to capture the banter of a kitchen environment.[25]