Chef!

When you get down to it, a Chef is an artist. They take ordinary ingredients and make extraordinary tasting dishes out of them. And like all artists they can be temperamental, demanding and demand nothing less than perfection from those around them. And if you've worked in a restaurant or kitchen at any point in your life you've run across such a person. Lenny Henry delivers this in "Chef!".

The plot is rather simple. Lenny Henry plays Gareth Blackstock, the head chef at the celebrated Chateau Anglais. It's a very exclusive, and expensive, restaurant. Gareth treats his staff like dirt, demands the very best from them and doesn't accept anything less than perfection. But that's only because he doesn't accept anything less than perfection from himself. Gareth is scathing in his critiques, quick-witted in his comebacks and not one to suffer fools gladly. Surrounding him are colorful characters that you find in all sitcoms, chief of which is Everton played by Roger Griffith. He's an aspiring chef with talent but he's a bit of a bumbler and often times is the source of Gareth's ire.

There's three seasons and I find the third to be the weakest of the lot. See it if you're a completionist or just stick to the first two if you want to laugh.

Lenny Henry has put together an excellent series about an ill-tempered, sarcastic chef in the English countryside. Seasons 1 and 2 are absolutely fantastic with a drop-off in season 3. The only real problem was that the show was plagued with heavy actor turnover making continuity difficult through the three seasons.

I think Chef! is one of the best BBC shows I have seen. It will make you laugh like crazy. Chef is cranky but very lovable. His wife is something else. His staff consists of several younger cooks all hoping to learn his secrets. His method of cursing out his staff is hilarious, not using traditional curse words, but thing you would never think of. If you know and love someone that is temperamental and boisterous, you will probably enjoy this even more. I own the first two VHS tapes of this series and we watch them periodically and laugh again. Chef is very entertaining and I can't wait for the full season DVD's to be released in August.

`Chef' is an utterly hilarious show that I love to catch an episode of on BBC America. Lenny Henry's portrayal of the short-tempered Gareth Blackstock is right on the nose. It's hard to believe, but I have met a couple people quite like him. Unlike them, here you can sit back and laugh at these poor souls who are forced to work with him. My dad says it's just a show about a guy shouting at people, but I disagree. Few if any people have such a great wit when they're angry. `Chef' is about a man who has a great deal of frustration like many of us, but, unlike most of us, he's not afraid to vent it at the people who much of time deserve it. It's painfully funny, too.

Chef Gareth Blackstock cares about nothing so much as preparing the finest meals for the guests at his restaurant, often to the frustration of his beautiful, intelligent wife and long-suffering staff. Chef understands how difficult he can be in his never-ending quest to be the best. He describes himself as knowing nothing else: he has no hobbies, doesn't help out friends, or go out at night. In fact, he (loudly) describes himself as "a personality problem under a silly white hat." The humor is rapid-fire and intelligent, as Chef verbally eviscerates anyone who dares to come between him and a perfectly prepared plate of food. Lenny Henry is acerbic perfection as Chef Blackstock, exhibiting both broad humor and extremely dry, biting wit, and still remaining a sympathetic character. Highly recommended for Brit-com lovers and anyone who enjoys sly, rapier sharp, lightning fast wit!