Chef! The Complete Collection (Series 1-3)

I just finished the first of the three Chef DVDs. I haven't watched him for years and I am having a huge ball! If TV were like this today, I'd be as addicted as some of my friends are! Almost every episode is stuffed with quotable quotes that should be mantras for anyone with a passion in their life and Chef stretches vocabulary to the fullest! Interspersed with the broad rants we find beautifully prepared foods and gastronomic incredulity. Obviously, I'm loving this.Watching one or two episodes per day, I can't help but notice how formulaic the episodes are but I don't see this as a detriment. Janice Wakes Gareth In Bed. Chef Berates Underling. Chef Forced To Admit Fallibility. Previous Situation Reappears. The combination of Chef's ultimate sense of fairness and self-awareness with his singular obsession with food allows us to venerate him despite his penchants for murder, dismemberment or torture.I'm watching on my laptop so I am able to rewind to be sure I catch every word when laughter chops off a line or when the accents seem too unfamiliar. (The laugh track, if it is one, sounds authentic, not canned.) I hit pause and savor the look of finished dinners before they are sent out of the kitchen (something I greatly enjoy) and I freeze and relive the immediate joy the hired help feels when sampling the day's cuisine. I admit, I take photos when presented with beautifully prepared food and one of the small pleasures in my life is when I encounter a morsel that does not want to be swallowed, but wishes to rest on my tongue like a floating pillow of flavor! I don't consider myself to be biased, only that I am relating to Chef! One bad point about watching with a laptop on my belly is that the screen bounces when I laugh!Chef, in case you are unaware, is a megalomaniac. "Here in my kitchen I have ultimate and terrible power." Each character relates to this epic leader with a sense of trepidation and respect. Everton, for the most part is able to maintain a blank facade when spattered with, "In a sanely ordered, civilized society, anyone making runny mayonnaise would be tortured to death slowly in front of a warmly applauding audience," but his is clearly a façade. His stoicism begs us to watch his character, even while in the background, and appreciate his own inner story and to value his strength. The same is true for the other characters, whose dialogue consists mainly of, "Yes Chef." We commiserate with the knowing looks exchanged by Pierce and Otto and we anticipate greatness in Lucinda's future. Lola and Janice are both gems and watching the episodes in order allows us to appreciate each character in a way I was unable to when I stumbled across the show on television. We are treated to a delicious sense of behind the scenes chaos of kitchen work!Season Two, a Sunday marathon, takes place two years down the road. Le Chateau Anglais is fully staffed now, bursting at the seams with a full compliment of new people with only Everton and Janice remaining! For the record, the computer isn't bouncing on my belly as much.It's very odd. This is a different series than the first season and I'm enjoying it but it is no longer due to delight in the characters or the appreciation of food. While I don't dislike the new characters, I don't really approve of them either. The writers are going for a more human touch all around, so the story lines are taking precedence. The new staff has lost its sense of regard for my hero as well as the camaraderie: the we're-all-in-this-together, suffering-under-a-brilliant-master angle. Where warm Lucinda appreciated her position and her rise with a confidence in her abilities Alice must have `arrived' in the interim. She's a haughty bitch who thankfully vanished after two episodes. The new drunk sous chef's recovering alcoholic-can't-I-have-one-drink schtick quickly becomes dull and Alfonse the sommelier is eye candy without Lola's passion for reveling in the beauty of the cuisine in her place of employ. Crispin has a contrived background so his place under a taskmaster has no real stakes. Donald has issues that Chef actually gives credence to (a sign of his humanity and maturation?) and Debra rolls her eyes in outright disrespect and fumbles quail as if she's never encountered livestock in its freshly deceased state. I don't care for Debra! Despite the shift, I'm still finding the show compelling in another warm and fuzzy way. Some of the minor characters have picked up Chef's speech patterns, so the sharp observations are preserved, but not as much of the material has my jaw dropping at the audacity of it all. It also changes dynamics when many of the kitchen staff believe they are Chef's equals, spewing diatribes. Chef has always had some regard for the people around him, but his edge is softened. He goes out of his way to be more sensitive and the shift is still agreeable.Ho dog-Season Three-I've never seen these episodes and I'm wavering. I'm beginning to look at the progression of this series as I view artists...their art changes, evolves, becomes something else over time but it is difficult and confusing to watch Season Three. The restaurant is now owned by a rich but crass businessman and staffed with his pampered daughter, a new Gustav and stalwart Everton. A ghastly Los Angeles stereotype rounds out the staff. Blame the director, the writers, and the actress, but I see Savanah as a gratuitous character that severely drops the quality of the series.Very little food preparation takes place and NO food is being savored, but the staff wipes down a lot of counters while banal insults are bantered about as they are in lame American sit-coms, to the raucous approval of the now-nightmarish laugh track. Gone is any remnant of background interplay that so intrigued me before.The gist of this season is that Janice has left Gareth. Out of the blue, she has had enough of his idiosyncrasies so now, instead of dealing with food, the show deals with relationships. Rene has dumped Everton for the hot Italian waiter who seems to have replaced Alfonse as eye candy, and then changes boyfriends as others change shirts while Everton pines. Cyril hungers, yearns, for Savanah, slavering at the window while she performs LA tai chi in the garden and Savanah shakes out her hair and sends herself flowers to make oblivious Gareth jealous. Oddly, at one point, I thought he was falling for her!We're straining for story and the sensitive parts of the first few episodes were touching and wonderful because we have come to love Chef and Janice but the forced parts (Cyril singing naked on a table, Gareth marching though the halls nude) are beyond the pale. Audacity has devolved into vulgarity. This is obviously a more physical season. Formerly, Chef might take a header and come up with a pithy remark, a missing crayfish in hand. Now he throws himself backwards into the arms of his fellows, thrashes and feigns heart attack. He takes the microphone from the piano man and becomes the Chateau lounge lizard, serenading applauding patrons while staff gapes approvingly through a window, serving utensils in hand. Some of the physicality is funny but again much of it is too broad and insincere. I felt sorry for the actors I've enjoyed forced to caper and mug this way.So the insipid acting and banality are appalling me and then suddenly and astoundingly, Gareth's wonderful father appears and with the breeze of his Jamaican self, we are swept back to familiar, welcome territory. We are laughing again, feeling warm. We have been won back then wham! We revert to the simply horrible Savanah subplot and my interest flags as the acting degenerates to lows unseen beyond the worst of high school musicals and then, out of nowhere we meet Everton's Aunti Clarice! Also Jamaican, the woman sincerely humbles Chef, charms everyone and whines at the wedding of her daughter at the Chateau. Rochelle has appeared, Chef's counterpart, who owns a successful chain of Jamaican take-aways and an old romance is rekindled. Suddenly there is dramatic tension; stakes rise and acting standards are again what they should be. I ignore a bit of over the top passion and think that not so far down, I do like this series. But mostly, I'm incredulous.Oh, and for a few insights into the food preparation, watch the extras!

Our local PBS station at one time offered a marvelous selection of Britcoms on Saturday night. Many of these gloriously funny comedies lit up the small screen like brilliant fireflies that lived only 3 or 4 of the short British seasons and (alas) vanished - Thin Blue Line, Murder Most Horrid, and others - and of course Chef!.Alas, now the station seems dedicated to the more heavy hitters: Waiting For God, Keeping Up Appearances, As Time Go By, what have you. These are worthy entries all, that lasted several seasons. They're long enough to bear repetition, although I'm not sure endless repetition works all that well. One really wishes for some variation . . . like Chef!.Britcoms, unlike a majority of Americoms, have interesting settings. The American standard seems to be somebody's house. Interesting comedies can be done in somebody's house; George and Gracie did it - but a house is a house is a house and it gets boring. Some Americoms have been done in interesting settings, such as a radio station, and that helps. But Britcoms are often more creative in the area of setting. Chef! is set in the kitchen of a gourmet restaurant. OK, there are some scenes in somebody's house, but it's still a great Britcom.Lenny Henry stars in Chef! as a very talented chef. Like many stars of sitcoms, he began his career as a standup comedian. His success is predicated on not stooping to the low-class sort of audience that believes swearing is funny and more swearing is more funny. Indeed, he has developed a style of invective that would send the swearing-is-funny types scuttling to the dictionary - if they knew what one was.The basic plot of Chef! is simple enough. Henry is Gareth Blackstock, a chef whose inflated opinion of himself is probably justified. The 2-star restaurant where he works, despite its success, goes into receivership. You know the sort of restaurant I mean - the kind that serves you a couple of tablespoons of really great ours d'oeuvres, and charges you a small fortune for the privilege of having to rush home and make a couple of sandwiches to fill up on.With great difficulty he and his wife Janice buy the restaurant. Most of the action takes place in the kitchen and other locations in the restaurant. Each episode is complete in itself, but there is an ongoing plot involving the fate of the restaurant and the relationship of Gareth and Janice (played with wit and charm by Caroline Lee Johnson). Also in the cast is Roger Griffiths, who plays Everton, a fine contrast to the urbane Blackstocks. These are the only members of the cast you will see for any longer than 1 season - although another character (Gustave LaRoche) appears in seasons 2 and 3, he is played by the estimable Ian Niece in Season 2 and by Jeff Nuttall in Season 3.On the whole, Chef! is a very funny series. In the last season, 3, things take a more serious turn. Seasons 1 and 2 appeared in 1993 and 1994, while season 3 appeared in 1996. The 1995 hiatus might seem to indicate a problem, and in fact no more episodes appeared after 1996. It's fair to state, however, that the ongoing plot of Season 3 is at least resolved at the end.I believe it's fair to observe that there is a very serious problem with this program. Save for the 3 main characters, the entire cast changes each season. One barely gets used to characters, and develops empathy for them, than they vanish and are replaced by strange faces. It doesn't seem reasonable to expect audience loyalty to a show when this sort of thing is going on.The DVD set is a set of the 3 seasons as they were originally put out, in normal-sized cases. The thinner cases now so often used in sets would have been much better.Alas, there are no subtitles. The English seem to feel that they don't owe the viewer any help in understanding what's being said - even down to the most outrageous Yorkshire or Welsh accents. This is the same country that, for years, didn't feel it necessary to label their stamps as to the country of origin. (Then, of course, there was the pre-WWI Times headline - I kid you not - "Storm in Channel, Continent cut off!".) Such hubris has only been partially punished by their having to endure a separate Scottish Parliament.There are some special features on the 3rd DVD in the set. They're OK, but a little on the thin side: primarily interviews with the 2 main principals and a segment of a British food show profiling Chef!. These range (timewise) from brief to extremely brief - the interview of Henry last little more than 3 minutes!The whiffy title music wears out its welcome by the 2nd episode, becomes even more obnoxious by the 3rd - and by the 4th you will be clicking the fast-forward button before the "ooooo" begins, with trembling hands and a hymn of thanks to the god of remotes.Nevertheless, it's pleasant to have a DVD collection of all the existing episodes to this fundamentally fine comedy.

This is such a good show. Thanks for the collection at a reasonable price.

I love this series and so does my mom so I bought it for her! I got it at a much lower price than average too!But of you are going to pay the crazy price that is one here... don't the box set was dented, had scratches on it and lookedrather faded... I have not opened it yet as it is a gift. I hope the DVD's play!

Hilarious show.My family randomly came across this show in the states on PBS. We instantly fell in love with it. I had to buy it when I finally found it again. I feel like a lot have people don’t know about this show and it’s a shame.

First two seasons of this show were some of the best britcoms on television for any one who is into cooking. The 3rd series was a disaster and shouldn't have been made. It is well worth destroying the disc it is on and throwing away. The first two series are 5 stars and the last season is a 0 stars which why the overall rating is 4 stars.

I love this show. It stands the test of time. Only issue is they made so few episodes