Celebrating 9 years of Chef
How Jon Favreau’s masterpiece sparked the journey of reconnecting with my roots
Sometime in the late 1990s. The sun is dipping slowly into the horizon, the sky is painted with strokes of amber, orange and yellow. We stand in front of a four-story tall building in a quaint neighborhood in Dhaka, Bangladesh. If you look through the apartment windows on the ground floor, you will see two little girls eagerly standing on chairs looking on to the table in front of them, where an older man in his 50s pour mishti doi (sweet yogurt), ice and a little bit of milk into a hari (a type of cooking pot), and starts swiftly working his two hands with a wooden masher (or dal ghotni for my fellow Bengali readers), mixing the ingredients into lassi. The two girls are mesmerized by the quick movement of the masher as the ingredients swirl and bubbles into lassi. The older man pauses to let his granddaughters taste the consistency of the liquid, and sometimes lets them take a turn with the wooden utensil. They try their best to mimic the hand movements of their nana (maternal grandfather), but they soon realize that the magic only exists in his hands to make the perfect lassi.
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A decade and a half later, when I sat down to watch Chef (2014) for the first time, I was instantly pulled back into the much relished memories of my childhood. See, food has and continues to be the primary love language in my family. Where that is munching on a guava jam sandwiches (made by nanu*) during lunch breaks, the family iftars* during Ramadan, or Friday visits to my grandparents house for lunch. Breaking bread with family was a sacred ritual, and it has remained a fundamental aspect of my being, like many others before and after me.
Watching Favreau take his on-screen son around streets of New Orleans and try beignets reminded me of me and my sister going to the mela* with my nana. My nana was quite strict about eating “outside” food, so we would have to beg him to buy us some of the delectable treats on display. Some days we would wear him down, and he would give in and buy us batasha* or goja*.
What makes Chef stand out from other cooking related movies is its storytelling. There is no denying that Favreau remains one of the most prolific storytellers of our time (I may be biased, I am a hardcore Mandalorian fan after all). But you can’t deny there is a certain charm to the film’s protagonist rediscovering their love for cooking and also using it as a means to nurture and work on their strained family relationships. I am a sucker for reluctant father-child dynamics where the dad ultimately redeem themselves (e.g. the Last of Us, Mandalorian, Prospect, I am just listing Pedro Pascal movies at this point).
Another pivotal moment in Chef I must talk about is that pasta scene. You know, the one where Favreau’s character makes pasta aglio e olio for Scarlett Johansson, his on-screen partner. While clothes remains on throughout this scene, I must admit it awakened something in me. Nothing remains more romantic and seductive than your partner cooking a delicious meal for you.
Which brings me back to the point of showing love through cooking. Chef inspired me to reflect on my own relationship to food, how it shaped my family’s history, and a reminder to connect to my roots. It sparked my hobby of learning new and old recipes, exploring and learning about other cultures through the art of cooking.
One of my biggest regrets is that I did not begin the preservation of my family recipes early enough. By the time I realized, both my grandparents have passed. However, I continue to take pride in introducing Bangladeshi food to my non-Bangladeshi friends. It took me a while to get there, as the pressure of assimilation forced me to shed parts of myself, that I am slowly picking up and threading together again.
I continue to create new traditions to showcase my love for friends and family through food. Whether that’s making holiday cookies, or being the family’s residential baker, it brings me immense joy to cook for others. A few weeks ago, a former partner fondly remembered how I made a bowl of tomato soup and grilled cheese for him, it was a simple enough meal but a memory he holds on to till the present.
In a not-so odd way, the film also reminded me to enjoy the small things in life, and cherish the present. I found my way back to writing upon a recent rewatch, and hope to do this on a regular basis.
So reader, I invite you to watch Chef if you haven’t already. If you are remotely interested in anything food related, or a fan of Jon Favreau, this movie has something for everyone.
You’ll certainly find me celebrating with a plate of pasta aglio e olio tonight.
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Chef (2014) is available to stream on multiple platforms.
The Chef Show is available to stream on Netflix.
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Iftar- Describes the meal where Muslims break fast
Nanu- word for maternal grandmother
Mela- a fair
Batasha- type of sweets made from sugar and jaggery
Goja- sweet made from flour and ghee, deep fried and soaked in a sugar syrup
