Handsome men tossing food in pans.
The soundtrack to Dinner Rush, a foovie (food movie) starring acting great Danny Aiello is horrible. Almost every song choice is worse than the last, ending in a track I’m too embarrassed to look up for reference.
It’s a pity. The movie is not as bad. Set in a sexy restaurant owned by Aiello’s character. His handsome son is the maverick chef, and yes, they disagree on everything, including traditional Italian comfort food versus modern and profitable fusion. Oldest foovie storyline ever.
It’s set over one evening’s dinner service. Panning from one table to another, into the kitchen, characters revealing themselves gradually. Among them are arrogant phonies sparring with no-nonsense wait staff, mob underlings looming and eating with gusto, a mystery man sitting at the bar.
Meanwhile, food things go in and out of pans, the chef yells at staff, then working in slow-mo (as all chefs do in real life) he drizzles and adorns his creations before they are whisked to tables and shoved in mouths. Some of the “this is divine” banter is banal, and the Very Impressive Dish, a lobster served with a fried jumble of pasta looks not only dated but bad. But golly gee, I love seeing people in movies cook and will even watch Danny Aiello to get it.