Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

An under-cooked comedy about the food business. John Wells (“August Osage County”/”The Company Men”) uses the wrong ingredients in his directing, while writer Steven Knight fails to make Michael Kalesniko‘s story tasty. Adam Jones (Bradley Cooper) is a rockstar chef, an expat who shines as an American chef in a top Paris restaurant until booze and drugs crush him and he leaves town disgraced and with many enemies. He heads to New Orleans to get therapy and shuck oysters, and after three years penance heads to London to start his comeback. He’s obsessed with earning three Michelin stars. The arrogant but now sober Adam convinces his colleague from Paris, Tony (Daniel Brühl), to turn over his outdated London restaurant to him so he can cook his way to the top again. A love interest is thrown in when Adam hires the single parent Helene (Sienna Miller) as his sous chef. Their romance is as interesting as the menu at Burger King. As the whiny, bullying and unlikable master chef works his way back to the top, the story unloads with clichés about getting a second chance and taking advantage of it. It’s hard to connect with any of the robotic characters or even with the gourmet dishes that were displayed in such a passionless and unappetizing manner.