Chef! is a British sitcom starring comedian Lenny Henry (and based on an idea he had) that aired as twenty episodes over three series from 1993 to 1996 on the BBC. The show was created and primarily written by Peter Tilbury and produced for the BBC by Henry’s production company Crucial Films.
Henry starred as Gareth Blackstock, a talented and obsessive chef whose traditional French cuisine is served at “Le Chateau Anglais”, a gourmet restaurant in the English countryside, which is one of the few in the United Kingdom to receive “a two-star rating from Michelin”. The chef’s quest for perfection and his lack of awareness about the costs of that perfection means that the restaurant is on the brink of financial collapse when he and his wife Janice (played by Caroline Lee-Johnson) buy it early in the first series. The establishment mostly remains on that brink, despite Janice’s best efforts as manager, eventually coming under the control of Cyril Bryson (Dave Hill) in the final series.
Gareth’s obsessive nature meant he didn’t focus on the changing relationships in his kitchen and in his life. Gareth’s relationship with his wife, for example, was under extreme stress during it all. And we can also see Gareth’s staff developing over time.
One thing that didn’t change but didn’t need fixing was the show’s theme, by Omar Lye-Fook. Check it out in this intro.
After long wait, the series is available on DVD.
Lenny does really good work on “Chef!”, and I totally wouldn’t be surprised if a version of this show ended up on, say, NBC, because it’s a great show about something lots of Americans like to do — cook, and for as much as we all love Gordon Ramsay, reality TV can be a bit much sometimes. A 30 minute non-stressful sitcom about cooking, versus an uptight competition, would be a really welcome change!
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