Love's Kitchen

  

Love's Kitchen, the 2011 film starring Dougray Scott and Claire Forlani with a quick cameo by Gordon Ramsay was sweet but lacked real meat to the story. It was nice to see the two actors again in a film as I haven't heard much from either of them since 1998 in Ever After A Cinderella Story and Meet Joe Black respectively. The story is simple enough. Rob (Dougray Scott) is a chef in London but with the death of his wife he gives up on his cooking and his restaurant gets a horrible review. Enter Gordon Ramsay to go get his butt in gear and to get back into cooking. Moving out to the country to take up residence in The boot, the restaurant his wife had been looking at when she died, Rob meets resistance not only from the villagers but from American food critic Kate (Claire Forlani). Once people actually taste Rob's food they can't get enough of it, Kate writes him a fantastic review, his restaurant does well and Kate's father, who lives in the village, along with Kate's former lover with an underwear fetish try to shut him down. Of course there's a nice little romance between Rob and Kate that is eventually all squared away. The side story features Simon Callow as a food critic, one which Rob actually likes, who had a hit television show but is basically a drunk. That story lines adds a bit to the film as a whole but its necessarily needed.

I found the film to be very slow it was a strange combination of American romantic comedy and British drama without really pulling either off. There wasn't enough story there to really get invested. All the elements were there and the acting was fine but it wasn't a hit out of the park. The best part for me was the cameo by Gordon Ramsay playing himself. It doesn't bode well when I would rather see the cameo actor as the romantic lead. Michelle Ryan also pops here but I still haven't decided if I really like her or not.

 

I do have to say they handled some of the cliche things well like when the ex-lover hints to Rob who wrote the bad review Rob guesses that its Kate and waits to blow up later. It was a nice film but unfortunately I'm not sure if I would watch it again. There are plenty of films and television series about washed up chefs and this one lacks heat in the kitchen.