Still: Chef (2014), © Open Road Films
The Cubano
Chef · 2014 · 2010s
Carl Casper rediscovers his love of cooking on a food truck, and the Cubano becomes the soul of his comeback.
- Character
- Carl Casper
- Director
- Jon Favreau
- Recreate-ability
- ★★★★★
- Rating
- 9.5 / 10
- In the film
- 1:02:30
The platonic ideal of a movie sandwich. Pure joy on screen.
The Cubano in Chef is the rare movie sandwich that drives the whole story. Jon Favreau’s Carl Casper rebuilds his career one pressed sandwich at a time, and the film lingers on every step — the mojo-marinated pork, the layering, the slow press until the bread shatters. Real-life chef Roy Choi designed the food, which is why it all looks so unfussily right.
What makes it land is restraint: no garnish, no trick, just pork, ham, Swiss, pickle, and mustard treated with total seriousness. It’s a sandwich as a love letter to doing the simple thing well — which is also, conveniently, the whole movie.