Cooking with Love

Kelly is a producer on a cooking show for kids and when the host is injured she needs to find a replacement as soon as possible. She suggests Stephen Harris, a famous chef, with a famous restaurant who lately acquired a bad reputation so this show is the perfect opportunity to improve his image.

I'm not gonna lie: I didn't have a good first impression of this movie. While I thought the theme was original I did find it quite boring and I didn't actually got into it after the first half.

The leading actors deliver an acceptable performance given the characters they had. But I didn't connect with any of them. Chemistry? I'm still not sure. I got the sense that they got along just fine but I didn't sense any romantic chemistry between them. I did find two of their scenes lovely but nothing that makes me melt inside like some Hallmark movies have before.

There were not any jokes, and while the ending was pretty predictable I was surprised there was no pre-ending drama between Kelly and Stephen.

Why is Kimberly Sustad here? She has been in this type of movies as the leading lady and she always delivers.

To sum up, this movie is not disaster, but I felt something was missing and I did not enjoy until the second part of it. Did I regret watching it? No. But Hallmark has provided much better material than this.

This film is a perfect watch for a Sunday afternoon with the whole family.

The story is that of a TV producer and a chef with attitude, who get wrapped up in making a children's cooking show, work out their differences and finally fall in love! So the backdrop is the set of Little Gourmet, which is the show within the show. The challenges that it throws up with the producer Kelly feel very real - promotion, politics, diva chef, illness of the previous presenter.

The transformation of the successful nasty Ramsay-style chef played by the handsome Brett Dalton is pleasing to see! The chemistry between the leads is completely plausible. Who wouldn't be tempted by a Michelin starred chef and the cute girl-next-door producer??

The real highlight of the film is the children, who instead of being the downfall for the film via patchy acting, but instead they were a real joy! The acting solid and the stories moving.

The film is pretty great: cute, kids, nice acting, chemistry and casting, pretty great!

Cute story. Fine actors. But something was off with the lead actress and her eyebrows. Ugh, distracting through the whole movie!

Watchable if you like the actors.

I liked the premise of this Hallmark outing. Something just seemed off to me, and I think it was that there just wasn't any chemistry between Kelly (Ali Liebert) and Stephen (Brett Dalton). Ali is a fine actress but I think she works much better as a supporting character or villain than a romantic lead. I think this movie would have actually been better served by having Kimberly Sustad (Jessica) as the love interest. I would have found her more believable. I also appreciate the light humor she always brings.

Its not an awful movie by any means. Its a good movie for a relaxing rainy afternoon.

Week 7 -- Valentine -- Premiered: 2/11/2018

Hallmark hit a home run pairing kind hearted television producer Kelly (Ali Liebert) a producer for kid cooking show The Little Gourmet with the cocky hot-headed chef Stephen Harris (Brett Dalton). The chemistry between them almost feels real and very believable. What I really liked about this movie is: (1) Kelly and Stephen helped inspire the children chefs to achieve great things; (2) there were no intruding/competing girlfriends or boyfriends; (3) supporting actress Jessica (Kimberly Sustad) is always lovely and delightful; (4) child actor Becca (Aria Birch) won my heart from beginning to end.

Ali Liebert is beautiful and quickly becoming one of my favorite HM leading ladies, I hope we see her in many upcoming movies!

Through the first seven weeks of the Hallmarks 2018 movie season this is by far my favorite HM movie of the year.