A visual feast right from the beginning

CHEF, a feel-good film about food in the age of social media, starts off on an upbeat note and maintains the tempo throughout.

Jon Favreau, a filmmaker with indie roots before hitting the big time with the Iron Man franchise, serves up the cinematic equivalent of a perfectly grilled cheese sandwich - it tastes great but never challenges the palate.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. Favreau, who wrote, directed and stars in Chef, doesn't make any attempt to push the creative envelope because there's always another time and place - and movie - for that.