Chef (2014) Sharing your Passions with the Ones you Love | Becoming your True Self - The Fandom Portals Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
What happens when the fire that once fueled your
career begins to fade?
Do we lose ourselves when wechase approval instead of
creativity?
In this episode, you'll learnhow Chef from 2014, directed by
Jon Favreau, shows us thatsharing your passions with those
that you love is the key tobecoming your true self.
Hello everybody, welcome to theFandom Portals podcast.

(00:34):
This is the podcast thatexplores how fandoms and film
can help us learn and grow.
I'm Aaron, a teacher and alifelong film fan, and each week
on the podcast, we explore thestories we love to learn more
about ourselves and the worldsthat shape us.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
As always, I'm joined by brash hello everyone, I am
brash and I am here and we didchef, which was the 2014 movie
starring john favreau.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
I wouldn't call it an indie movie, but it's not as
well known as some of the othersthat we've covered on here.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Brash yeah, it took me a while to watch it because I
like john logan and I was like,look, I'll watch that because
he's in it, and then I justnever really did.
And then we're like, oh, we'lldo it for the podcast.
I'm like, oh, I've got to watchit now absolutely so.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
This episode here is part of our theme arc on
becoming your true self, wherewe're exploring the stories
about breaking free fromexpectation, silence and
smallness and stepping into thepeople that you were always
meant to be.
Now this one here is looking ata gentleman who's stepping out
of a toxic work environment orredefining success, and we kind
of wanted to look at chef,because it reminds us that our

(01:39):
passions were never meant to behidden or hoarded away.
They were kind of meant to beshared with those that we love,
and you know, it's all aboutsharing what we love with who we
love.
So that's what we're kind oflooking at today.
But before we dive any furtherbrash, you're going to give us
one of your all-time famous filmsynopses.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Chef Paul Casper, played by Jon Favreau.
He is the main character and isa talented but frustrated chef
working at a high-end LosAngeles restaurant.
Though brimming with creativity, he is stifled by his boss's
insistence on playing it's Safewith traditional menus.
When a harsh food criticpublicly ridicules him, carl's

(02:21):
outburst goes viral, costing himhis job and reputation.
At first, carl spirals angry,prideful and disconnected from
what truly matters.
But his journey takes a turnwhen he starts a food truck With
the encouragement of hisex-wife, inez, and support of
his loyal friend Martin.
Driving cross-country, carlreconnects with his passion for

(02:43):
cooking by serving honest,soulful food.
The biggest transformationcomes through his relationship
with his young son, percy.
By the end, carl isn't just abetter chef.
He's a better father, friendand man.
His growth comes from lettinggo of ego, embracing creativity
and recognizing that truefulfillment comes from both
passion and the people you shareit with.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
Perfect.
I love that.
I love how the answers to allof his problems in this movie
was indeed a food truck.
Yeah, food.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Absolutely Just food.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
Food.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
Food solves all your problems 100% Upset Eat some
food.
Sad Eat some food.
Angry Eat some food.
Happy Eat some food.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
Well, not that we're sponsored or anything, but
Snickers made a whole adcampaign about that exact thing.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
You're true Not?

Speaker 1 (03:30):
yourself eat Snickers .
Yeah, you're not yourself whenyou're hungry.
But yeah, what were youropening thoughts or first
impressions about this movieBrash?
Because, yeah, we've saidalready that it kind of was a
bit of a sleeper, a bit of asleeper.
So what were your initial?

Speaker 2 (03:43):
thoughts.
Yeah, I really enjoyed it, butI found it to be lacking in, I
think, the part that they neededthe most, which was the food
truck.
It's a very good point.
There's a whole hour and a halfof this opening and then you
get the last half an hour of themovie is a food truck and

(04:04):
anything it's like they shouldhave.
I reckon they should have triedto compress the start a little
bit more so you could, so youcould spend more time on the
food truck and the actual growththe scene.
Because, like it was like, ohyeah, I see this guy emotionally
distant from his son becausehe's working so much, tries to

(04:24):
sort of not fake it, but hetakes his son on like trips to
the movies or theme parks orsomething fun for like the hour
or two he can spend with him andthen drops him back off with
his mums and he thinks, oh yeah,I did a good job because I went
and spent some money and didsomething fun with the kid, when
the kid actually just wants himto be around and present more,

(04:48):
his growth just happens, it justall.
It also just seems to happenreally quick that you don't
really get to take it all in,and by the time the movie ends,
you're like, ah, that was it?

Speaker 1 (04:59):
Yeah, all right.
I think the trip does end quiteabruptly because we do only
spend a little bit of time withthe food truck and the worst
part of that for me is the factthat I love those scenes so much
in the food truck I, like Percy, did not want it to end.
I, like the movies of FoodLovers, dream and everything in
the food truck was just.
It was really awesome to seethose three individuals just

(05:21):
like working in a state of likeflow and and being connected to
one another and sharing passion.
And even though, like a lot ofit was travel, but even the
travel in between for me seemedlike it was a really good
experience.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
So yeah, yeah, it's like.
It's like they get back intothe back to los angeles and like
they don't really spend anytime for the food truck there.
It's like they get somethinglike los angeles straight away
any time at the food truck there.
It's like they get something atLos Angeles Straightaway meets
up with the food critic and thenthey jump like another six
something months and they've gota new restaurant and the movie
ends.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
And they're getting married, yeah.
Spoiler alert.
They're getting remarried.
Yes, true, correct.
Yeah, so I can see where you'regoing with this.
I think the pacing is a littlebit of a snag for some people.
For me, I did like thoseestablishing scenes at the start
where it showed Kyle Casper'sinitial sort of character
introduction, where he was seenas like an up and coming star of

(06:16):
a chef who really did enjoy hisfood and really took pleasure
in the passion of cooking.
And then it sort of placed usinto this situation about where
he is now and he's very sort ofmorose with his job.
That's where we kind of meethim.
He's not looking at it with thebest attitude and then he gets
this opportunity to really goand show some creative flair and
then that's taken away from himas well.
So it all leads up to thatpivotal scene which is like the

(06:39):
one where most audience membersfeel secondhand embarrassment
for Jon Favreau who plays a CarlCasper.
He also directed this movie.
We will note that as well.
But it's the scene where heabsolutely loses his stuff in
the restaurant at the FoodCritic which causes his sort of
transition as well.
But very star-studded movie,this one Brash, that was another

(06:59):
thing.
I noticed too Lots of famousactors in here.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
I don't know about you, but when the scene where he
loses his shit, oliver Platt,who plays the critic, rems
Michael but before that he wasat his place and he cooked up
this 10 course meal at his placeand I was like I for sure, when
he saw that Rems was at therestaurant and he's like, no,
screw this, he leaves.
I thought that he was going topack up and bring that food and

(07:29):
bring something to the food.
Be like, this is what I wantedto serve you and then throw it
at him.

Speaker 1 (07:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
And then have a go of ballistic and then storm out
and then the actual guy maybetries some of it Shit.
This is actually really good.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
Well then it would have been like movie over,
wouldn't it?

Speaker 2 (07:44):
Well, no, but it was because he still doesn't have
his job and his reputation isalready ruined.
But then because Ramsey triessomething and goes, oh that's
really good, and he goes off,goes off and does the food truck
thing.
Then he comes back and thenRamsey can and it was really
fucking good, and I've triedsome of this food and it's even
better.
Let's go into a partnershipLike.

(08:06):
I can see what you want to doand I can see that you were held
back.
Let's go, because otherwise theEast Coastal Food Truck goes.
I tried some of his food truckfood and goes.
Oh yeah, this is awesome.
Let's make a restaurant.
This is fantastic.

Speaker 1 (08:17):
Yeah, I think that scene shows a lot of various
different aspects of thecharacter, but it would have
given it a little bit more depthto that resolution.
So one thing I did like aboutthis movie that I noticed is

(08:37):
that Jon Favreau obviously doeshave a passion for food himself
and I think that is displayed onparade here in the movie of
Chef.
So one thing that I noticed wasthere was extreme close-ups of
food in all different kinds ofways, and there is also when the
close-ups of the food arehappening or when somebody's
working on food or choppingsomething.

(08:57):
They really zoom in on thatprocess and the background is
always blurred.
And whenever Carl Casperstarted to cook something and he
started to get really creative,that Cuban music would start
playing.
So they also used color reallywell.
So you'll notice that hisapartment, like Carl Casper's
apartment, is lots of grays andmellow browns and things like
that.
And then the vibrancy comeswhen he put that food on the

(09:20):
table and it's all just full ofcolor and you can see the
passion that goes into it.
And I think that thatcinematography was really well
used because there was a sceneafter the initial credits where
Roy Choi, who was an actual chefthat trained Jon Favreau in
this role was telling him how tocook a grilled cheese sandwich.
And he goes your attention andfocus is right here and he's

(09:41):
pointing to the grilled cheesesandwich.
And he goes nothing existsoutside of this.
And he points to the grilledcheese sandwich again and he
goes your attention and focus isright here.
And he's pointing to thegrilled cheese sandwich and he
goes nothing exists outside ofthis.
And he points to the grilledcheese sandwich again and he
like, flips it over and pausesfor a bit and Roy Choi goes and
if this messes up, theneverything in life fucking sucks
.
So and that's absolutelyapparent through the whole movie
is just that love of food, thatpassion and the bright colors
that they use really sort ofemulate that.

(10:03):
But also the way that CarlCasper, john Favreau, just comes
alive or just is in the momentwhen he's engaging in his
passion, which is cooking.
I also thought and we notedabout this before we started
recording that John Leguizamoand John Favreau's friendship in
this, or Carl and Martin'sfriendship, is probably one of

(10:23):
the greatest male friendshipsthat I've seen on screen, or I
was surprised by it at least,coming from this movie.
I thought it was amazing.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
What were your thoughts?
Yeah, well, I love JohnLeguizamo.
I've watched, I think, every,though there have been some hit
in this movie is looking at you.
Mario Brothers.
I absolutely, absolutely lovedit.
And and like I remember when,um, when we were doing this very
just for like in ourrelationship, sort of like
there's, uh, I got to dosomething and you just come

(10:54):
along you like and just jump inwith joy, yeah, that's like this
podcast journey exactly I kindof started it like like carl
casper did, and then, uh, youjump on and just yeah, because
in the movie obviously he goeswhenever you get a job you call
me and I'll be there even.

Speaker 1 (11:08):
And then you know you never thought he would actually
come to join him on the foodtruck because it paid nothing,
but he did, he came straightaway.
I love the scene where he was onthe phone talking about that
too, because you saw that he waslike on the phone in the old
restaurant and martin wastelling him that I've just got
sous chef and Carl was reallyhappy for him.
But the way they positionedthat shot was that Martin was

(11:29):
really close to the phone and hewas in focus, like full focus,
and the restaurant in thebackground was all blurred and
in really sort of dull colors aswell.
Even when he was talking to theother gentleman, tony, who's
played by Bobby Cannavale, hecouldn't even see him and his
words were really muffled.
So it's almost like Jon Favreau, directing that scene, wanted

(11:50):
to show the audience thatMartin's heart wasn't really in
that restaurant, because wecan't even focus or see what's
behind him.
His heart and focus is on theconversation he's having with
Carl right now.
And then the next scene.
You see him coming out of thattaxi and really pulls him out of
the fire.

Speaker 2 (12:07):
Because it's almost like Martin and Carl's
characters are, I wouldn't sayidentical, but they're very
similar.
They both have this passion andthat restaurant just wasn't
fulfilling their passion.
Because when Martin joins themand helps out the food truck,
you see arton's the one thatlike, like you'll see carl steps

(12:31):
back and martin does the actualcooking the first time and
makes the food and like he orhim yeah, he pretty much he does
yeah, you see him doing thecooking for all the guys that
helped him put the oven into thetruck.
It's like when two people havea similar passion and they're
also friends just creates thissort of I don't know like.

Speaker 1 (12:54):
It's like a vehicle for authenticity and healing and
deep connection and they becomereally close because they've
got that shared passion and theyjust have this symbiosis of
like yeah, yeah, they just meldtogether so well, like they
don't need to like overcommunicate, they know what
they're doing and they just,they just feel it together yeah,

(13:14):
and then the sun comes along onthat journey too, because
initially they share theirpassion with each other, martin
and carl and then percy seesthat friendship and sees that
passion and that connection andhe's then drawn into the truck
and wanting to be a part of itas well, because he's obviously
wanted that relationship withhis father.
But there has been debate onsome of the things that I've

(13:36):
read.
That character of Carl reallyonly uses Percy because he is
advantageous to his business,because he works on the truck
for him for free and also socialmedia markets him.
And you know what?
There is anous to his businessbecause he, like, works on the
truck for him for free and alsosocial media markets him.
And you know what?
There is an argument to saythat yeah, there is an argument.
There is an argument to say thatthat's the case.
But I think what that'ssupposed to represent was that
Percy's passion was that socialmedia marketing and showing

(13:59):
outwardly like his technologicalAckerman was what he really
liked.
Bonding with his father on Likewhen he asked him to make the
Twitter profile earlier in themovie, it was like I kind of
like doing this, and that's whenhe had that realization.
Carl had the realization that,oh, you don't like going and
doing stuff.
You like working on things withme and spending that quality
time and sharing passiontogether and building something

(14:20):
like that.
That's where that sort of camefrom too.

Speaker 2 (14:22):
So Like scrub those pants.

Speaker 1 (14:24):
Yeah, well, that was at that fridge, yeah, yeah who
hasn't been there with theirparent, though just like honest
moment right now, I've I've beenthere.
Absolutely.
You get the cruddy job fromyour, your father or your uncle
or something like that, and youknow it too, because you're they
don't want to do it.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
Yeah, I did.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
It's the same as the same with apprentices yeah you
have an apprentice, you get themto do all the shit.
Well, that's exactly what hewas treating him like.
That's what he was treating himlike to start with, but then
that's when his character, carl,he started to realize.
Oh wait, a minute, he's hereconnecting with me.
Yeah, that's my child, that'sactually my child, yeah, yeah.
And then he runs away.
But the good that Carl does isthat he actually goes and owns

(15:07):
his shit.
Basically, he goes and heapologizes and he says hey, do
you want to go and get someingredients?
He goes and actually initiatesthat, which is a good role model
.
One for his son.
He realizes he made a mistakeand he apologizes for it and he
shows that vulnerability.
But also two it starts to thenunderstand why this is going to
be an important journey for bothof them and he sort of starts
to transition and change fromthat point on.

Speaker 2 (15:26):
And then I don't even think like throughout the whole
trip.
There's sort of like slightmoments where he, like when he
makes that grilled cheese andit's burnt and he's like takes
it out and he's like I live forthis, this is everything to me
Like.
So you like having it burnt asa sandwich and saying, oh,
that's all right, they didn'tpay for it, is it's no,

(15:48):
everything, everything goes outof this truck has to be with our
full heart like.
And it's throughout the wholetrip.
It's almost like there aremoments where he's like he sees,
like his son as a son insteadof slave labor and just a media
market, and it's not until thevery end when he's going through

(16:12):
all the photos and he seesphotos of both him and his son
smiling and happy.
When he's like when it finallyI think that's when it finally
clicks.

Speaker 1 (16:22):
He's like we're both enjoying ourselves right here
and I sort of took that forgranted yeah, I think that's
absolutely true, because thosethe one second a day video, the
the beautiful part about thatwas that carl was seeing that
journey from percy's perspective.
So it's that's a very hardthing to do when you're in it

(16:42):
and you're experiencing it aswell.
But after the fact he got tolook at what that journey meant
to Percy through that one seconda day video and he did show
different sort of pictures ofthe food which was Carl's focus
and passion and where all of hiscolor came from.
But for Percy, a lot of thosephotos, as you said, were with
the connection along the way andthe laughter and the joy that

(17:04):
they were experiencing throughthere and the authenticity and
how they were able to align whatthey loved doing with who they
loved, and I think that was theimportance of a part of it and
that's what our most valuabletakeaway from this movie is as
well.
So we'll get into that now.
Our most valuable takeaway forthis movie is that fulfillment
doesn't come from externalsuccess or approval.
It comes from the alignmentwith what you love and who you

(17:27):
love.
So when passion is shared withothers, especially the closest
ones to us, it becomes thatvehicle for authenticity and
healing and closer connection,which is what we're looking at
here in our arc of becoming yourtrue self.
So finding your passion and whoyou want to share it with is
very important to being thatauthentic version of yourself

(17:48):
and allowing yourself to havethat sort of creative passion
process.
It's something that we all gothrough.
Have you ever gone through thisthing, brash, where you're
doing something and youcompletely just lose track of
time?
You have this sense of intensefocus and concentration.
There's amazing control overthe task.

(18:10):
It's almost like a loss ofself-consciousness.
You're just like doing, you'rejust moving through this thing
and you're just doing and theactivity itself feels rewarding,
or not even you don't even know.

Speaker 2 (18:20):
It feels rewarding, but you're just doing it because
it feels good to do it's likeI'll play video games and I'll
get lost in it and then likefour hours will pass and I'll be
like have so much fun playingthe game, but then afterwards
I'll be like oh, I could havedone so many other video games
for four hours.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
That's the adult brain coming back yeah, that's
the adult in me.

Speaker 2 (18:43):
Some I don't get all the way through, but I'll start
a project and I'll do startdoing something and I'll just
lose myself in it for ages andages, because I like working
with my hands, like so putting,I put a gate and a drop down
table in my fence with myneighbors because I'm really
good friends with my neighbors,so that was a lot of fun that
and that took me like I justspread it out over two weekends,

(19:04):
like I lose myself a lot anddoing stuff like that and even
just the excitement of potentialprojects, I can lose myself and
actually like I can sit therefor like oh, thinking of a
potential project and then sitthere for hours and just like
try and plan and map it out.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:22):
I think you know you.
You describe it as being awaste of time or you could have
spent your time in a better way.
But like the joy that you feelwhen you do it is exactly that
deep enjoyment of thatexperience and being fully
present is a feeling that Ithink a lot of people sort of
take for granted, like I used toget it when we.
I get it too.
No, I get it doing three things.
I get it when we play Dungeonsand Dragons, like you just get

(19:42):
into the complete moment of itand
time just disappears, and Ithink a lot of people can relate
to that too.
I get it when I'm playinggridiron football.
So the thing with that one isthe challenge and the skill are
sort of perfectly balanced.
So there is a challenge infront of me and my skill level
is either just good enough ornot good enough to meet that
challenge, and that is a reallygood sort of balance and gets me
in this sort of state of flow.

(20:02):
And the other thing is likeplaying games with my kids that
can, that can do it to me aswell.
So it's like nothing elseexists, to the point where you
know.
That's why a lot of the timewhen we were kids, when the
street light would come on,you'd be like, oh crap, okay, I
got to go back inside becauseyou just lose that complete
track of time.
But I think that, back to themovie that we're talking about,
that state of flow is exactlywhat Carl gets into when he's

(20:23):
actually starting to let go ofthose restraints.
That is put on him by reaver, Ibelieve his name is, who's
played by dustin hoffman, theboss of the restaurant that he
was working at.
Yeah, and he he tells him youknow, play the classics, and
that's like the worst thing thatyou can do for sort of creative
is tell them what to do and howthey should do it, because then
it literally makes them notwant to do it anymore.

Speaker 2 (20:45):
Can I say, though, Dustin Hoffman in this movie.
I think this is probably one ofthe most surprising
performances.
I actually felt in this movie,like because Kyle's like oh
sorry guys, I'll handle this,it'll be fine.
Blah, blah, blah.
And then the way he justdismantles him, yeah, without
like Completely.
He just dismantles him, yeah,without like completely, just

(21:09):
without even like raising hisvoice or saying he's wrong or
something like that.
He's just like just explainsthis stuff.
Even though I was like goodpoint, yeah, fair, yeah good
point, like he's like, because Idon't think of the punk he hits
.
I'm like fair.
I'm like if I went to, like,say, a Blink-182 concert, like
I'd want to hear some of those,like the old songs I listen to,

(21:30):
like some of the new songs isjust as good, but you know, I
want to listen to those old onestoo.
So I was like I sort of had tolike agree with him and I was
like it's that creativity.

Speaker 1 (21:52):
That's literally what Jon Favreau was doing in that
scene with Dustin Hoffman andJon Favreau himself, because
obviously Karl Kasper wants tobe creative and he wants to show
what he can do and he's gotthis passion inside of him that
he wants to let out.
That he eventually does on thefood truck and also at his
dining room table after he getsall the ingredients and cooks it
for himself.
But then you've obviously gotthe logical side, which is Reva
and Dustin Hoffman saying youknow, business is what we need,
the money is what we need.
And that sort of comes back aswell to this thing that's called

(22:14):
the over-justification effect.
So sometimes we use it inschools and it happens when
you're already intrinsicallymotivated to do something, like
to do an activity which, forKyle Casper, is cooking, but
then you're given like anextrinsic reward which is like
you're paid to do an activitywhich, for Kyle Casper, is
cooking, but then you're givenlike an extrinsic reward which
is like you're paid to do it,and sometimes that can be or a
prize sometimes, or a star ifyou're at school or free time,

(22:34):
whatever.
But that can be used as like alittle carrot, but it can also
be something that is Change.
Yeah, it change you to people.
And obviously Reva in this caseuses it then as a weapon to say
like these are my napkins, hersalary is what I pay.
Like I pay for all your staffsalary, I pay you to do this job
and that's why you have to doit my way.
So then it sort of underminesthe original joy of the process

(22:57):
and instead of strengtheningCarl's motivation to cook, it
actually has it reliant uponthat external reward.
And then it ends up being thathe sort of lets it go in the.
In the long run it ends up beingthe justification for his
meltdown, because he's lookingfor that external approval over
the internal joy, because he'sdoing it all for the critics and

(23:20):
he's doing it all for thereview.
And you can see at the start ofthe movie, when all the people
were sort of gathered around toget that guy's review to, to get
Ramsay Michelle's review, theywere all really excited until it
got to the point where itwasn't a good review.
And then it wasn't then abouthim cooking for the passion and
the joy of it, it was more thanabout he had been publicly

(23:40):
ridiculed.
And then that can go two waysas well, for students and for
people.
You can look at it and be like,now that that's happened, I
don't want to do that thing thatI was passionate about anymore.
But for Carl and for some otherpeople it made him like double
down.
He was like no, I'll show you,and that's the two sort of ways
that it can go.
But it's a dangerous game whenyou start to monetize or put an

(24:00):
external reward on the thingsthat you're really sort of
motivated to do's very sort ofdangerous.
And you see a lot of podcastersdo it too.
When they monetize theirpodcast they're like I don't
want to do this anymore or itgets that, that expectation to
create and that's the worstthing for creatives too.

Speaker 2 (24:17):
Yeah, and I I did one part that.
Um, the part we're talkingabout this did confuse me a
little bit, because even Revawas like talking about his,
about the review and howimportant it is, and then they
get the review and it's fuckingpretty, oh it's how you're going
.

Speaker 1 (24:36):
It is how you're going, yeah.

Speaker 2 (24:37):
Pretty horrendous.
And yet when then the secondtime, when John was like would
you do something different?
And he's still like no, no, no,no, I play this.
It's like did you not read thatreview?
He's like did you not read thatreview?
He's like he's like yeah, butwe're fully booked out, we're
all sold out.
But yeah, like yes, becauseit's not going to happen
straight away, but this reviewdown the line in the long run

(24:59):
can have detrimental effects onthe business but yeah, yeah and
that's what I saw like I was alittle bit confused with how
like stuck to his guns Reva wasabout this, I'm like yeah, yeah,
I think.

Speaker 1 (25:12):
Yeah, that was definitely a part of the movie
that was showing how, like Reva,dustin Hoffman was really
doubling down on the fact thathe is catering and cooking for
lots of people, not just his egoand one critic or himself in
Carl Casper.
So that was sort of making thatpoint known that you're not

(25:33):
doing this for your enjoyment,you're doing it for their
enjoyment out there, like thehundreds of people that have now
booked to be in the restaurant.
That's who you're doing it for,not for yourself and not for
the accolades that are comingfrom the critic.
But he then goes and sort ofgets into that state of flow
like we were talking aboutbefore, and he cooks the most
vibrant meal that you've everseen and the Cuban music starts

(25:55):
to play, which is a technique heuses to emulate that sort of
flow state that Carl gets into.
And he hits the sweet spot,which is what we look for as
teachers as well.
You kind of look for the sweetspot where something is
challenging enough to engage you, but also you have the skill
level there that you are able toachieve it with support or
without support, and I thinkthat that is used throughout

(26:16):
this movie at different sort oflevels of Carl's journey.
First, initially, they're inthat cooking scene in his home,
but then, after they start tosort of make the sandwich, and
when he starts to then teachPercy, it happens as well.
So he puts Percy into thissweet spot, which in schools we
call a zone of proximaldevelopment or ZPD, and if

(26:36):
students aren't in that space,you can see things like task
avoidance, disengagement, youcan see disruptive behaviors,
all of which we saw from KyleCasper when he absolutely
exploded at Dustin Hoffman too,because he wasn't in that space.
That was challenging him,allowing his creativity but also
allowing him to use the skillsthat he had there.
And it's really really powerfulto find that space and be able

(26:57):
to learn and work in that space,because from there and what he
did as well was he removed thatextrinsic weight, he removed the
pressure of the critic, heremoved the approval, he removed
the money, he removed any ofthe things that would drain him
from joy, and he took a stepback and was able to then

(27:18):
actively and privately, andalmost imperfectly as well,
continue on his cooking journeywithout any sort of validation.
Because I was watching this withKalia and one point that she
actually made about this was.
I thought what he wanted to dois create all these really
creative and awesome foods thathe made, and he didn't want to
just keep repeating the same oldfoods over and over again.
But then he went to do a foodtruck and he's just cooking

(27:40):
sandwiches over and over again.
So how is that feeding hiscreativity?
And I thought that was a reallygood point.
But I don't think the point isabout what the food is that he's
cooking.
I think the food is that he'scooking because he enjoys to do
it, and it's also a connectionto the people he loves in Inez,
with the Cuban sandwich and hisfriend as well, martin so I

(28:02):
think that was the sort of pointis just like the passion feels
heavy for him at the restaurantand he was able to take it back
to that playful space, which iswhat I think he needed to do as
well.

Speaker 2 (28:14):
Yeah, and I'm pretty sure like they had other food
besides the sandwich.
I think the sandwich is just amain point, because that was
something that like they couldall focus on yeah At the start
as well.

Speaker 1 (28:22):
But one thing Kalia pointed out to me as well I
didn't pick it up on my firstwatch, and she picked it up when
we watched it together wasevery single time they visited
somewhere new and theyexperienced something new.
They imported that experienceinto their menu.
So it was almost like thepassion that they were
experiencing as they were movingthrough, like when they went to
New Orleans, for example, andCarl and Percy had that amazing

(28:43):
moment together where they justwent out to try one of those
donuts I forgot what they'recalled, but they just did it
because they wanted to do thatand Percy even said you know, do
we have to get anything else?
And he goes nope, just thistoday.
And then they put those on themenu as well.
So it was almost like thepassion that they shared
together was then sort of movinginto this space where they were
creating the things they wantedto eat and the things that they

(29:05):
wanted to share with others too, and they're doing it all for
themselves.
So I really liked that part ofthe movie too.

Speaker 2 (29:11):
Yeah, that was definitely one of the highlights
.
Then I was going to say thoseare pretty much the highlights.
Were always like the food truckmoments.

Speaker 1 (29:18):
Yeah, I definitely agree your point earlier that
you made about the pacing andthe start of the movie being
quite extended.
I do agree with that because Ithink, like you, start to see
hints of the fact that this iswhat Karl Kasper wants to do,
like in that initial scene.
Whenever he's talking to Molly,who's played by Scarlett
Johansson, he kind of starts tobecome this vulnerable sort of

(29:38):
version of Karl where he'ssaying, like, why don't they
like my food?
And then eventually he goes andcooks her a meal and that's
sort of like the first spark ofit that you see that, oh okay,
he actually really has a passionfor this, because you can see
the way that Molly is looking athim while he's cooking it.
It's almost like she's in aweof the fact that he is in this
state of flow.
He's in this state of like he'sdoing something he absolutely

(30:01):
loves, which is awesome to watchanyone do.
Like if you watch a painter andthey're an amazing painter and
they love to paint it's good towatch somebody that is good at
what they do but also reallypassionate about what they do.

Speaker 2 (30:16):
so I think ross yeah, bob ross exactly also really
calming to watch the rest of bobross.
I just had to re-up.
When we went to the trip tomelbourne we was at bar and I
had just bob ross playing in theback of the tv.

Speaker 1 (30:27):
I don't know how long I was just in the stair and
just watching that just while Iwas having a drink yeah, oh,
that was la la land, wasn't itshout out la la in melbourne.
So yeah, before we went to yonyayeah, yeah, yeah, that was a
really good place.
But yes, I completely agree,because I wasn't.
I was intoxicated by that too.
I was looking at it and go.
But yeah, let's, let's talk alittle bit about motivation,
because I don't know if you'veever experienced this, but I

(30:48):
definitely have.
Like it's that that sort ofspace where you feel like you
want to do something, but thenyou like somebody either tells
you to do it a particular wayand then you just lose all
motivation to do it, or it goesback to that sort of area of,
like, intrinsic motivation andextrinsic motivation.
Have you ever heard of thosethings before Brash?

Speaker 2 (31:11):
Yeah, just on Friday so it was afternoon Friday I had
to do that exact thing.
So one of our guys at work hewas told, well, he used to do a
job and he was told by someoneelse how to do the job and he
was like I don't like that wayof doing it.
And he came and talked to meand I said, well, don't do it
that way.
I'm like someone can show youhow to do something or tell you

(31:33):
how to do something, but as longas you do the job, it works and
it looks good, it doesn'tmatter how you do it, I don't
care, like you don't have to doit their way, do it your way.
And then I'm like like, look,I'll show you my way and if you
don't like that, take what youknow from my way his way, make
your own way yeah, that'sexactly it, because I think the

(31:54):
it can rob you of that joy, butit also robs you of that
autonomy which is there's.

Speaker 1 (31:58):
There's three things that sort of lead to to
motivation.
There's that autonomy, there'scompetence and there's
relatedness.
So the autonomy that you'retalking about for your story,
and if we relate it back to themovie of Chef as well, is where
Carl gets his autonomy when hestarts to run his own food truck
and cook his own foods.
If you get to perform a projectin a way that is chosen by you

(32:19):
or in a way that suits yourabilities, then you're more
likely to want to do thatintrinsically, like internal
motivation.
You want to do it because youwant to.
If somebody else is telling youhow to do it, then it becomes
extrinsic motivation because youwant to then impress them or do
it their way or satisfy a needfrom them.
So external, extrinsicmotivation.
So it hits when you're lookingat kids, too, in a school system

(32:41):
, because obviously it's mucheasier for them to do any sort
of learning that you want themto do or that they need to do if
they're intrinsically motivatedto do it.
And I think teachers sometimesget caught up in justifying
learning by saying, oh, why dowe need to learn this?
So you can get a good grade andthen you can get a good job and
then you can get good money?
And to kids yeah, that'simportant and it probably causes

(33:03):
anxiety, but honestly theydon't really care.
Like at that point I don't.
I know I didn't.
When I was at that age I didn'treally care about 10 years in
the future because I was worriedabout what was going to happen
at the playground at lunchtime.
I was wondering who was goingto be on whose team in the footy
field.
So you have to kind of findthat space of relatedness as
well, which is another thing forintrinsic motivation.

(33:23):
And for percy and for martin itcame from being like passionate
about the same thing as carlwas.
So that was their relatednessfrom the movie too.

Speaker 2 (33:32):
So I think that's an important part.
Talking on your point with like, in terms of like children,
like, I think it's moreimportant, like you said, we use
like the old date they dobecause they did for us in
school as well.
Yeah, they use the thing.
This is for your future, however, many years ahead, when
realistically it should be, thisis for you now yeah like show,

(33:56):
like show you this in a waythat's is useful now, yep, and
then that will entail more,because it's like oh shit, yeah,
we can do like what I can isthis now exactly it doesn't.
It doesn't motivate me to wantto learn it for something that's
so far off yeah like it feelsto motivate me to learn
something that I could usetomorrow.

Speaker 1 (34:17):
But hell yeah absolutely because it's
something new, something new,something new to do that you can
do now yeah, and I think that'sreally important, especially
when you're dealing with withstudents, because it allows them
to then gain that sort ofcompetency towards a skill that
they value now, as opposed to askill that you perceive they
will value in the future.

Speaker 2 (34:38):
How often do you use that in your daily life?

Speaker 1 (34:40):
The thing with, like maths and things like that.
When people say, oh, when am Igoing to use that?
I always relate it back to theprocess, like you don't use
those math skills all the time,but you follow a set of
instructions and you haveperhaps an equation that you
then follow these steps throughto get to the answer and that's
the life skill that you'reteaching through math.
It doesn't have to sort ofrelate to that trigonometry, but

(35:00):
I think for this one, whenwe're talking about Carl, he
does chase that critic and thatfame and that pleasing of the
restaurant owner and Reva, andthere is an argument to be said
that he kind of comes fullcircle in the end when he does
end up pleasing the critic andthe critic offers to be his
partner and then he opens hisown restaurant.
So he's almost then going backto that point of risking falling

(35:22):
into the over-justificationeffect, where he's now got a
burden upon him to do that andcreate that.
So therefore he may not want toanymore.
So that's the sort of risk thatyou can look at of the movie
sort of going full circle.
But I think the key differencefor this one is that he got to
that point through following hisown passion and through

(35:44):
connecting with people that heloved.
And it seemed like to me hecontinued that on into his own
restaurant at the end, because,if you noticed, when they had
the scene with the remarriagebetween Inez and Carl, they
closed down the whole restaurantto have that event.
But they're also like playingCuban music, which you know he's

(36:06):
passionate about.
They were serving food that youknow he was sort of passionate
about as well, and they had thatsort of display, very colorful
too.
Actually, that's a goodjuxtaposition between the
kitchen he was in at the startwas really dull and gray and
then his one was really colorfullights, beautiful food.
So I think that's the maindifference is that he did it his
way.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
Remember Billions everywhere, like.

Speaker 1 (36:30):
Absolutely, and I think that's the important part
that we sort of have to thinkabout in terms of his motivation
and his intrinsic desire tothen create that in the end and
build.
It was not kind of where hestarted as well.
But one thing that you can doif you're starting to sort of
find that motivation is lackingand Carl sort of did this too,

(36:51):
and we do it at schools as wellis sometimes you can increase
the support and reduce thedemand.
So Carl did it obviously not bychoice.
He left his job and then had tofind something to do.
But he got very authentic andvulnerable and ended up going
and taking Inez's idea to getthe food truck, which reduced
his demand or pressure.
And then the support wasincreased when his son, percy,

(37:14):
and martin sort of joined.
But also inez was sort ofnurturing him through that
transition process too, so shedidn't expect anything of him in
terms of care for their son.
She was very supportive of that, but she also sort of
encouraged him because she knewthat that's what he kind of
needed and wanted as well, andin carl saw that as well yeah,

(37:35):
and that's a big thing too, isthe support, like your support
system in this, like he had, youknow, martin, his son, even
scarlet in a sort of way?

Speaker 2 (37:46):
yeah even the other ex-husband for five seconds
marvin bought him or got him thefood truck, I think think which
was just a huge rundown, yeah.

Speaker 1 (37:57):
He's like don't thank me until you see it.
Yeah, yeah.
I thought that was that Ithought the way that I watch
movies as well, and what wasdifferent about this one and
what I liked was I expected thatmoment to come back around and
be like a point of conflict, butit just never.
It never ended up happening.

Speaker 2 (38:13):
It was just Robert Downey Jr was in it.

Speaker 1 (38:17):
He did a kind gesture , yeah, he did a kind thing,
yeah, but yeah, it's thatsupport system.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
Like your partner or your friend or something like
that, they have something thatthey're passionate about, that
they want to do.
Like it may not exactly besomething that you're also
extremely passionate about, sois it the fact that, say, marvin
Carl and Inez Inez is an overlya foodie but finds a passion in

(38:44):
his passion?

Speaker 1 (38:47):
Yeah, and helps him discover it or rediscover it.

Speaker 2 (38:49):
I think that's a big thing.
It may not be exactly yourthing, but you should find.
Well, I know for me personallyfinding happiness in helping
friends, partners with theirprojects, hyping them up because
it's something that they love,and seeing them love something
like that like also makes mehappy, seeing them happy.

Speaker 1 (39:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (39:13):
And it's just like, it's's just one, it's just all.
Just full circle.
Comes back around, right?

Speaker 1 (39:18):
yeah, yeah and that's why you're martin in this
situation of our podcast here,because that's exactly what he
did.
If we're talking about the sortof the two things we're talking
about with this podcast rightnow, is is obviously the passion
part, which is exemplified byby carl.
He has that passion but then helearns the connection side,
which I think is exemplifiedthrough his very awesome
friendship with martin.

(39:39):
He does nothing in this moviebut build that man up like yeah
everybody wants an ally yeah,like martin, even even when he
was like getting that run downby reva, and there was a silent
moment where he's just likegoing and collecting his knives
and these things because he'sjust got laid off.
There was that moment where,like tony and martin were there
and then there was that pauseand he was like my god, what's

(40:00):
gonna happen?
And then carl said you're likecome on, guys, let's go.
And tony was like standingthere, no, and then obviously
martin was just like nah, stuffthis, I'm coming too.
And he, yeah, but then carlobviously told him to stay, but
there was that sort of ride ordie support, which was awesome
to see.
And you know what?
According to Film Freak as wellI read this from 2014, when

(40:21):
they tested this movie, johnLeguizamo's character of Martin
tested higher with audiencesthan Carl Casper did in terms of
likability, and that tracks,because he is absolutely the
star of the show.

Speaker 2 (40:33):
Oh, it's simply the same.
Like they're saying, like, likethey're gonna do something,
like you gotta kill a man, yeah,yeah, you're gonna do so, good,
well like or, yeah, just even,just simple things just to help
the other person you know fullycommit to their, their passion,
and yeah, it could be as simpleas just hyping them up
absolutely, and martin says itas well.

Speaker 1 (40:53):
he says this line.
He goes I've never been thishappy cooking.
I forgot what it felt likewe're doing something real here,
like there's that moment thathe actually sort of puts that
forward into the universe andthen they share that really
awesome connection after they'vefinished doing the job of
cleaning out the truck.
There's that scene of CarlMartin and Percy sitting outside

(41:15):
of it having the Mexican beersthat aren't really alcoholic or
there may be, I don't know, butthey're having the cigars as
well and they're just reallyrelishing in the fact that
they've just done somethingreally great together.
And then this movie is justfull of those sort of authentic
connection moments and the factthat Carl and Martin's
friendship on that is just areally great representation of

(41:37):
two males enjoying the samethings together.
But also sort of bonding andshowing masculinity in a really
healthy way to Percy, who's agrowing young man as well, was
something I really enjoyed andloved about this movie too,
because that's somethingpersonally I want to show to my
son.
I want to show him how I'mfriends with some of the great

(41:57):
men that I have in in my life,because I want that to obviously
be emulated in his life, andI'm fortunate enough to be
surrounded by some really greatfriends that he will then have
access to when he starts comingalong to the things that I start
to do as well.
So I think, think that thatfriendship is rooted in passion
and therefore Carl in this moviewas really able to heal and

(42:20):
then obviously sustain itthrough to his growth at the
very end, and I honestly thinkthat friendship was the anchor
that everything else developedfrom, because he had that ride
or die, that person that wouldhelp him out in this situation,
and I would probably say as wellthat carl would do the same for
for martin maybe not the startof the movie, but definitely

(42:43):
yeah, yeah, in a way he sort ofdid like when he left and he's
like, oh, everyone's gonna leavewith me and no one sort of left
.

Speaker 2 (42:50):
And then he's like, and I'm gonna go, and he's like,
oh, no, I don't want to fuckhim.

Speaker 1 (42:53):
If no, you just stay for now at least anyway, and he
was really supportive when heannounced that he was the sous
chef.
He was like that's reallyawesome this is great
championing for him as well.
But he always kept that dooropen and offered him like he
felt he not fell through but hefollowed through on his promise
to to give him a job wherever hewas.

(43:14):
But I really liked howvulnerable they could both be
with one another as they weresort of they were talking about
really getting into their sortof passion project, and also how
much of a great influencemartin was on percy like even
though he was that a bit of likethe weird uncle's sort of vibe
with the baguette and also the,the cornstarch and things like

(43:36):
that.
Like those moments were justsort of really awesome to show
that sort of connection.
But I thought it was goodbecause a lot of men sort of, or
young boys, grow up and they'resort of taught not to be weak
or not to feel pain or don'tshow emotion or don't fail, and
the sort of script is changingon that now, which is good.
But I thought that thisfriendship in this movie really
sort of changes the script onthat too, and percy actually

(43:58):
says it too.
He's just like like dad, thisis amazing when they're talking
about the food and they'retalking about the thing that
they shared together and evenmartin and carl when they're
eating the, the, the meat andthey're eating the and it's not
store-bought and they're sort ofpoking a bit of fun at Percy
when he's sort of trying toreally sort of join in on what
they're doing.

(44:19):
I thought was really good too.

Speaker 2 (44:21):
Yeah, no, the connections in this movie is
definitely one of the highlightsof the movie and sort of helps
alleviate the sort of lacking ofthe pacing.

Speaker 1 (44:32):
Yeah, I think so too.

Speaker 2 (44:33):
Because they do, I I'll say, I'll say cram.
They do cram a lot of thecontext and what makes this
movie great in such a shortamount of time.

Speaker 1 (44:44):
But yeah, again, it would be nice to have that
expanded yeah, and I think thoseare the most vibrant parts of
the movie is when they're on thetruck, because at the start
there was hints of little piecesof sort of Cuban music coming
through and all that sort ofjoyous vibes through the
soundtrack, and then, as theywere going through the food
truck parts, it was literallyconstant.

Speaker 2 (45:05):
I almost think it's moved in another half an hour.

Speaker 1 (45:08):
I think it could have that end portion.
Really could have worked wellif they did a little bit more in
maybe California and then yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:16):
Because even when it finished I was like, oh, it's
over.
I'm like that was really quick.
I was expecting it to go for abit longer.

Speaker 1 (45:22):
I feel like an after-after on that maybe
wouldn't have made it drag onand probably could have helped
to extend the road trip orextend the food truck part, like
have him get back and use afood truck for a while before he
all of a sudden gets a newrestaurant yeah, yeah, before we

(45:44):
move on from this one, onething I also wanted to mention
in terms of like the friendshipand the masculinity side of this
was carl does sort of exhibitthat bravado at the start and
he's talking to Percy in termsof food and telling him all the
great things that sort of areabout food, and Percy asks him
if he could ever go to NewOrleans and he's like, oh, yeah,

(46:06):
one day, you know we'll go.
But then towards the end hekind of does model that
vulnerability and thatauthenticity because he takes
him.
But then also, whenever hemakes a mistake, he always is
pretty honest about that andshows up for Percy and talks to
him about it, like even on thephone, when he says you know, I
can't go to New Orleans with youanymore.
And Percy does sort of show abrave front in that moment where

(46:29):
he's just like, yeah, that'sfine, that all good.
But he does break that downtowards the end because Percy
shows that brave front once morewhen he says, oh, we got to go
back to how it was.
I just don't want to disruptyour expectation Like, this is
not how it's going to be all thetime.
And Percy does show that bravefront again, which is that old
sort of your masculinity wherehe can't really show his sort of
feelings.
But then he opens up and says,hey, you know what, I would

(46:51):
really like to spend this timewith you.
Or he says, hey, you know what,that wasn't a really good way
to speak to you.
I'm really sorry when he'stalking about the dinner pan and
he's just really able to sortof speak to him from this space
of hey, I made a mistake, Imessed up and I'm really sorry.
And as a teacher I've done thatin my classroom as well and
it's so effective because itthen allows your classroom to be

(47:12):
okay with making those mistakestoo.
And I think it's good for youngboys to see like a male teacher
in myself doing that, becauseyou never know, if they've seen
it before for one but two,whether they've seen an adult in
general sort of apologize tothem.
So that's really powerful forrespect, but also for that
modeling of masculinity, I feel.

Speaker 2 (47:34):
Yeah, and it just shows that respect as well.
That's really powerful forrespect, but also for that
modeling of masculinity.
I feel, yeah, and it just showsthat respect as well, because
you can't just ask or demand forrespect, you've got to show it
now and then, Well, that'sexactly it.

Speaker 1 (47:47):
There's this question that goes around all the time I
think it's on social media, butit's also something that we get
taught is they say, how do youearn respect or how do you get
respect from your students?
And the answer is you show itfirst.
That's literally 101.
But I think that he does areally good job.
Carl does a really good job ofdoing this with his son over
time, which is something we'reall learning to do as well.

(48:08):
And yeah, I think it startedwhen there was that pivotal
scene where he pulls him out ofthe truck and he says what does
he say?
I may not do everything greatin my life.
I may not have been the besthusband.
And I'm sorry if I wasn't thebest father, but I did as well.
Yeah, but I'm good at this andhe also disclosed and was

(48:29):
vulnerable about the fact hegoes.
Everything good in my life hascome because of that.
Like that thing there and hewants to.
I want to share it with you.
Like I'm vulnerable right now.
I'm telling you I'm I'mbreaching out for connection.
I want to share it with you.
Is that something you want to?
And you and percy says yes, sothat's also.
That was actually the quote inthe moment that I saw that made
me want to watch this movie,because that's the trailer sort

(48:52):
of quote.
But but I thought that was areally great representation and
I didn't want to pass before.
We sort of mentioned that.
But yeah, all right, do youwant to get into our best scenes
, best quotes, etc.
Etc.

Speaker 2 (49:04):
Yep, all right.

Speaker 1 (49:06):
I will go first with the best scenes we'll do first.
I think the best scene for mewould have to be the scene where
Marty and Carl are sitting downafter a really hard work on the
food truck and they're having asip of those beers and Percy
takes that sip.
And you can see just MJ Anthonywho plays Percy.
His face is just really screwedup and his dad goes huh Like

(49:29):
piss right.
And then he says you rememberthat when your friends offer you
a beer, right.
And then he says you rememberthat when your friends offer you
a beer.
And I think like those sort ofparenting moments was good for
me because obviously I've got mya son of my own and that's
probably a moment that's goingto happen in my son's
development for sure.
But I like that one.
And but then also I can't passup the, the quote where he says
or the scene where he says youknow, everything good in my life

(49:50):
has come because of that,because I can relate to the fact
that something I'm passionateabout has led to a lot of good
things in my life and I thinkthat everybody can sort of
relate to that fact and I likedhow raw and authentic that was
in this movie.
What about you best scene?
What do you think?

Speaker 2 (50:05):
best scene there, I'm gonna say the whole food trucks
is amazing.
I think, bringing up from whatI brought last time why some of
my favorite scenes are actuallythe fallout of Carl, and when he
has the talk with just DustinHoffman's performance Like he's

(50:26):
just because out of all theacting and everyone acting it
was great, but for some reasonjust Dustin Hoffman just caught
me off guard.

Speaker 1 (50:33):
He's a brilliant actor man.

Speaker 2 (50:34):
He's a brilliant actor man.
He's fantastic actor.
He just caught me off guard andyou cause he was just.
His delivery was just sopoignant that I couldn't not
accept what he was telling me.

Speaker 1 (50:46):
Yeah, and he was.
He was almost casual, but veryfirm.

Speaker 2 (50:50):
Yeah, and he could have played that in so many ways
too.

Speaker 1 (50:53):
He could have played that in so many ways too.
He could have yelled it.
Yeah, he could have yelled.

Speaker 2 (50:55):
Yeah, but the delivery was pretty good and
like he did raise his voice andlike I think, but like for the
most part, it was almost like hewas father scolding his son
yeah, but you couldn't even lookback at that scene and be like
Reva's, an arsehole.
You can't, because no, I thinkyeah, because you're like and

(51:16):
from like his perspective.
Absolutely yeah, he shows youhis perspective and it's like
dude, this is my restaurant.
Like this is what I want to do,Like I pay for everything.
I pay for you guys to make thefood.
I want this food made, you guys, chefs make the food Exactly.
And it's just yeah, it doeshappen.

(51:38):
It's just yeah fantastic.

Speaker 1 (51:40):
Yeah, I agree, he's definitely one of the I wouldn't
say better because they're allreally good, but his performance
definitely shone in terms ofthe small cameos that some of
the people are playing in thismovie.
All right, what about yourquotes?
Do you have a quote, brash, ordo you want me to go first?
You can go first.
I think I've got one.

Speaker 2 (51:57):
Yeah, I'll see what yours is first.

Speaker 1 (52:00):
Okay, so I've got a couple, obviously, the first one
being I get to touch people'slives with what I do and I love
it and I really want to sharethis with you.
That's a quote that Carl saidto his son, percy, that I really
liked.
There's another quote where itsort of explains how I don't
want to be in this box.
He says I want to cook what Iwant, which is showing that he's

(52:20):
really intrinsically motivatedto cook the food that he wants
to cook.
And there's also, like momentsbetween Carl and Marty where he
goes I don't want to hear aboutyour salty balls, like that was
a good one.
Yeah, I think that any sort ofscene between Carl and Marty was
really good and it's not reallya quote, but I liked how Marty

(52:40):
was just like, hey, percy, andthen Percy looked towards him
and he's got this baguette andhe's using it like a thing.
You know, I like that scenebecause, yeah, weird, uncle
vibes, it was pretty cool.
What about you?
Because, yeah, weird unclevibes.

Speaker 2 (52:53):
It was pretty cool.
What about you?
So one of my favorite scenes orquotes from the movie is when
both Carl and Martin startsinging sexual healing.
Yes, great scene.
Percy's there, just like he'stoo old a guy For me.
It was just because that'ssomething I do.

Speaker 1 (53:10):
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (53:10):
I just sing some Raiders of England, yep.

Speaker 1 (53:13):
I liked it.
There was no premise for themto be good at singing that song
either.
They were just like yeah, thisis happening.

Speaker 2 (53:21):
Also the cornstarch boat, and I did have it.
He's like, oh yeah, he's likewhat are you doing, dude?
I'm putting a little cornstarchon my huevos.
It's a little tissue fit downhere.
He's like dad, I got my mom'scornstarch on these bowls.
Yeah, I expected, I expected ascolding.

(53:44):
He's like want some.

Speaker 1 (53:46):
Really good Cause.
Yeah, when that happened Iexpected, like Carl to wake up
and sort of slap Martin.

Speaker 2 (53:52):
But yeah, apparently that's a young.
In the morning you can dip yournuts in oil and make hush
coffees, yeah.

Speaker 1 (54:01):
Apparently, that's actually something that chefs do
sometimes in the kitchen,because they're obviously really
cold places and humid places towork.
I don't know if they do, and ifthey do, probably don't tell the
workplace health and safety guy.
But yeah, apparently that's alittle technique.
All right, what do you got for?
We sort of talked a little bitabout our nitpicks.
I think my biggest nitpick forthis one is that Robert Downey

(54:21):
Jr, scarlett Johansson andDustin Hoffman had very small
roles in this.
But from talking to you, I alsothink that the pacing at the
start also kind of needs to be abit kind of adjusted, because
it is a bit of a slow start.
And more time with the foodtruck, please.

Speaker 2 (54:34):
That's my things, that's my net fix yeah, my, my
biggest grub with this was themiddle needed more.

Speaker 1 (54:40):
Yeah, yep, too much start, not enough middle and
pretty much a non-existent endyeah, I think that the end was
really sort of pushed in termsof, like we got a six month
later cut after the.

Speaker 2 (54:53):
The food critic, ramsey michelle, that's probably
something I hate most aboutmovies is when they do that kind
of like.
I don't mind that kind of thingat the start, like they do,
like their quick start, and thensix months later, you have so
many movies, do it, I think too,which is, yeah, I.
I always want to know whathappened in between, but I guess
like you can like sort of dosomething, like you can do a
montage of the different kindsof foods that they make and then

(55:16):
at the end of it have it likethe six months later.

Speaker 1 (55:20):
Yeah, I think that would have given us a little bit
more, even though I did likethe ending where Inez and Carl
got back together.
I would have liked to see thatdevelop a little bit more,
because I think that they gavethe audience credit in a way
where when they went back toCalifornia, they'd obviously
reconnected enough, where Inezwas then working on the food
truck.
Two things immediately enteredmy mind.
One, how good they're backtogether.

(55:41):
They're working together fortheir son.
That's really awesome.
Their connection is growing.
Two Inez really should have herhair tied up in the food truck
because that's a danger.
That was my first spiritualthoughts.
Where are the hair nuts?
Yeah, that was that was myfirst two initial thoughts.
Where are the handouts?
Yeah, it's a fear of the guy.
There you go.
There's another nitpick there.
But one thing I will say, brash, is if you liked this movie and
you liked that food truck vibe,there is actually a show from

(56:04):
2019.
They made it five years laterand john favreau made it with
roy choy, and there's 25episodes on netflix yeah, I've
seen and it's called the ChefShow and they go around and they
talk to celebrities about foodand it's just the biggest
comfort watch and they share ameal and they chat and they have
like the Avengers people on itas well.
Like Tom Holland is on there ona few episodes.

(56:26):
It's just a really good one.
Like, if you love food and youlove this movie and you want a
little bit more of it, Idefinitely recommend going and
watching that too.

Speaker 2 (56:33):
It's a bit of fun.
Actually, I've watched a few ofthose episodes.

Speaker 1 (56:37):
Yeah, kalia is a foodie, so I knew that as soon
as I watched this it'd be onethat she would want to see, and
she did enjoy it.
And at the end of it she saidthat was a really warm,
feel-good movie, which is alsogood for her because she hates
any of sadness or unhappy ending.
But, yeah, after he exploded inthat restaurant, there was
pretty much no sad parts in thisstory, which she kind of liked.

(56:59):
So, yeah, if you're a personwho loves those happy stories
and those really uplifting onesand you haven't seen this and
you're not deterred by all thespoilers you heard tonight,
definitely go and give it awatch.
All right, so ratings Brash.
I will say that I have put thison my favorite movies list and I
gave it five out of five.
Despite the nitpicks, I justloved the feeling of this movie

(57:23):
and there is too many goodpoints for me to detract at any.
I would slip it down to a 4.5after chatting with you and
talking about those pacingissues and how it could possibly
be improved if we were bothmulti-million dollar directors,
but I think I'm I'm comfortablewith it sitting at a five for me
.
What about you?

Speaker 2 (57:38):
well, I was initially going to give it a three, but I
think it might bump it up.
It's so good and even like thestart.
The start was good, likethere's nothing wrong with the
start.

Speaker 1 (57:49):
I think it was we wanted the food truck party oh,
it should be equal parts.

Speaker 2 (57:53):
It seemed like there was a massive part at the start.
They should have that sameamount of time at the end, but
it seemed like the end wasreally short.
It might be interesting to.

Speaker 1 (58:02):
Sorry to interrupt you there.
It would actually be prettyinteresting to have a look at
what the timestamps are, becausethe first part felt long and
the middle part felt quick.
But maybe it's because we werehaving a great time and we
entered that state of flow thatwe were like actually that was
40 minutes we didn't even knowabout.

Speaker 2 (58:18):
Could have been I don't know, but it's all that
thing I don't really count untilthey actually, until they go
and see that food truck thefirst time.
That's when I reckon that partstarts.

Speaker 1 (58:28):
When it rolls around.

Speaker 2 (58:30):
So this has a long time in between those parts.

Speaker 1 (58:32):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (58:33):
But yeah, so I might give it three and a half stars.

Speaker 1 (58:37):
All right.
So that means Chef, directed byJon Favreau, gets a combined
rating from Brasher and I of4.25 for this week.
So, after discussing PhantomPortal's friends, brasher and I
have decided that the movie Chefis now our fifth place movie.
It sits above the Phantom ofthe Opera and it sits below Crow

(58:57):
, which is the Crow, which islike two really dark movies to
sit in between.
But yeah, it's a little brightray of sunshine in between those
two dark stories.
So yeah, sits in fifth.
I like it All right.
So that was our episode on ChefEverybody, and it was all about
talking about how passion andconnection can help you become a

(59:17):
true version of yourself.
This is the third movie in ourarc so far of Becoming your True
Self and next week we'rerunning into a really big
milestone.
And I said running for a reason, because we are doing the movie
Forrest Gump in 1994 starringTom Hanks, and this is gonna be
not only the grand finale of ourtheme for Becoming your True

(59:39):
Self, but it is also our 50thepisode that we're going to do
together.
So 50 episodes of PhantomPortals podcast, wow, 50.
50.
50.

Speaker 2 (59:50):
Half the country.

Speaker 1 (59:51):
Yeah, we want to thank everybody that's stuck
around from one to 50, or evenif you're just from 49 to 50 or
if you're just listening to thisfor the first time ever.
Thank you so much, guys.
We appreciate the listens.
It really does make adifference for small podcasters
like us, and the best andbiggest thing you can do is
share this with a friend likeword of mouth, talk about it

(01:00:11):
with your mates, do some of thatconnecting we were talking
about before and share somethingyou love.
If you both love podcasts,throw ours into the ring.
We'd love it.
And if you want to talk to ussocial media, we're at fandom
portals everywhere, mostlyInstagram.
So that'll be next week thatyou can get our 50th episode on
Forrest Gump and we'll beexploring how Forrest is a true

(01:00:34):
example of how being your trueself can lead to a really full
life.
So I hope you can join us andcelebrate the close of this arc
and a huge moment for ourpodcast.
Brash, I want to thank you forjoining me along the ride for
being my.

Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
That was cool.

Speaker 1 (01:00:47):
Martin Love it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:48):
And he's on.
I love it.
It's an enjoy.
Yeah, makes me happy.

Speaker 1 (01:00:57):
Me too, my gratitude.
That was one of my gratitudes,but my second gratitude I want
to shout out my friend Waynethis week, because I have been
searching for ages to get myrepresentative jersey for
Queensland football, because Imade the Queensland team a state
team for Groudon as aquarterback and unfortunately I
was unable to go down to playbecause I had to have surgery
and I never ended up getting myrepresentative jersey.

(01:01:18):
But after some detective workand tracking it down, this fine
gentleman, my friend Wayne,found it.
So now I've got it.
It's here.
So even though I didn't get toplay, I can commemorate the fact
that I was selected for stateball level.
And yeah, I want to shout himout Gratitude, grateful for you,
mr Wayne.
Thank you, thanks Wayne, thanksWayne.

(01:01:38):
What's your gratitude, brash?
What are you grateful for thisweek?

Speaker 2 (01:01:42):
I'm grateful for my friend's partner, who's also my
friend, for doing house callsfor veterinary work and getting
ACEs shots for less than what itwould be to actually go to a
vet.
Fantastic Also grateful to you,Erica.
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:01:59):
Awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:02:00):
And thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:02:01):
Erica for looking after our third unofficial
co-host, ace, who's very upsetwith me right now because he
hasn't had dinner yet.
Yes, he is going to get itright now.
All right, this is Aaronsigning off.
Keep learning, keep growing,keep loving fandoms.
Goodbye.

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Chef (2014) Sharing your Passions with the Ones you Love | Becoming your True Self

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Chef (2014) Sharing your Passions with the Ones you Love | Becoming your True Self