Burnt: Fizzle or Sizzle?

Burnt is the story of hard-living American chef Adam Jones who drinks too much, snorts too often and beds too many. The character, played by Bradley Cooper (American Hustle, Silver Linings Playbook, American Sniper), may well remind you of one-time bad-boy chef Anthony Bourdain, before he became a TV star and daddy.

In general release today, the film’s story is this: Jones has been the enfant terrible of the Paris restaurant scene, earning two Michelin stars along the way, until he implodes one day. He returns home to New Orleans, where he punishes himself by taking a menial job shucking oysters. The day he opens his one-millionth oysters, he walks out, penance complete, and heads to London to conquer that restaurant kingdom and earn his third Michelin star.

Like other food-stained movies of recent years – Chef, The Lunchbox, Jiro Dreams of Sushi, The Trip, The Hundred-Foot Journey – close-ups of gorgeous food and its transition from ingredients to plated art generously lard the story. If you love food porn but couldn’t give a fig about Bradley Cooper’s blue eyes, you’ll probably still want to see Burnt.

But what would a kitchen drama be without a love story percolating through it? Jones’s love interest is sous-chef Helene Sweeney (played by Sienna Miller, also in American Sniper), and his noble and ever-forgiving sidekick is Michel Diome (Omar Sy, who was in The Untouchables).

Other roles are played by Daniel Brühl, who is London restaurateur Tony Balerdi and Jones’s long-time friend; a nearly unrecognizable Uma Thurman, who makes a quick appearance as restaurant critic Simone Forth; Matthew Rhys as chef Montgomery Reece, our hero’s fiercest cross-town competitor; and Emma Thompson as Dr. Hilda Rosshilde, who must provide the therapy that will help the chef channel his talent.

John Wells, who is more familiar to television audiences (he won a Peabody for The West Wing) than film-goers, directed.

The overall arc of the story is ultimately predictable, but there are some surprise twists that you probably won’t see coming. The dialogue is tight and fast, and, again, the food scenes are good enough to, well, eat.

And here’s a cool thing: English chef Marcus Wareing was the chef consultant on the film. Wareing has several restaurants, including Marcus at the Berkeley hotel in London, and is a judge on the BBC cooking show, Masterchef: The Professionals. His consultation (along with that of Mario Batali) gives the kitchen scenes the patina of truth. Some of Wareing’s recipes are even available on the Burnt website.