In Hollywood, Jon Favreau stands out because of his diverse skill set. On the one hand, he’s a memorable actor, someone who even played a leading man for Courteney Cox’s Monica in the hit sitcom Friends at one point. At the same time, Favreau is also unafraid to experiment behind the camera, which may explain the visionary director’s 10 best movies so far.
At the same time, Favreau has also successfully dabbled in the world of streaming with The Chef Show, which is one of the best shows about food on Netflix today. Here are its best episodes so far:
10 Skywalker Ranch, 8.0
Skywalker Ranch may be familiar to you because it happens to be owned by George Lucas, a man who is best known for creating and writing both Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises. Aside from these, the 10 best movies he’s ever written also includes American Graffiti and Willow.
While the episode doesn’t really discuss Lucas’s best films, it does showcase the fresh produce available at the property. Using these, Favreau and Chef Roy Choi cook dishes such as the Hangtown fry and tomato carrot salad. The men are also joined by Dave Filoni who created Star Wars Rebels.
9 Jessica Largey, 8.1
As the title suggests, this episode features Largey, who is a James Beard Award-winning chef. She is largely known for her work in the restaurant Simone but she left the establishment in 2019. While hanging out with Largey in the kitchen, they prepared dishes such pork meatballs en brodo and grilled cabbage.
From the very beginning, Largey has always made vegetables a star of her meals. “I’m not vegetarian, but I do myself eat very produce focused,” the chef explained while speaking with Zagat. “I love the variance in vegetables, no two turnips taste the same.”
8 Roy’s Italian Cuisine, 8.1
In the world of cinema, we’ve come to know some unique Italian film genres over the years. These include the (weirdly) delicious Italian cannibal movies and Italian Western films.
Meanwhile, on The Chef Show, we’re treated to some incredible Italian food from courtesy of Choi himself. In the episode, he takes the time to teach Favreau how to whip up dishes like artichoke salad, $24 spaghetti sauce, lasagna, and crowd-favorite pasta dish, spaghetti and meatballs. If you must know, Choi also shared the recipe for his spaghetti sauce for Food and Wine.
7 Remembering Jonathan Gold, 8.1
If there was anyone intimately familiar with the incredible restaurants featured on Netflix’s Chef’s Table, it would most likely be the late food critic Jonathan Gold. Throughout his career, Gold’s reviews helped a lot of restaurants and chefs get recognized.
For readers, Gold was essentially the man they turned to for tips on where to eat. Aside from Favreau and Choi, radio personality Evan Kleiman and Jitladala’s Jazz Singsanong, who has also appeared on Guy’s Grocery Games. To honor Gold, the group prepare dishes such as peach galette, green curry, and pad Thai.
6 Robert Rodriguez/First Friday, 8.2
Like Favreau, Rodriguez is a filmmaker who has been around for years. And when one ranks his films, some of those who stand out include Sin City, The Faculty, From Dusk Till Dawn, and El Mariachi.
Meanwhile, one of the things fans never knew about this filmmaker is that he happens to love food, so much so that he took the time to hang out in the kitchen with Favreau and Choi. Together, the men make pizzas, including one that is topped with a generous drizzle of honey.
5 Chef Film Recipes, 8.2
Chef is, undeniably, one of the most delicious movies you can watch today. The film stars Favreau as a chef who decides to quit his job and start a food truck. The movie features one of the most incredible food scenes that made fans hungry.
This is none other than the sequence where Favreau’s Carl is making Cubanos. In this episode of The Chef Show, Favreau and Choi whip up the garlic pasta that Scarlett Johansson can be seen enjoying in the film. Later on, they also make a decadent lava cake.
4 Avengers Atlanta, 8.2
In this episode, we see Favreau sit down and enjoy a meal with some of the most recognizable figures in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Among the guests for this episode is Tom Holland, who is a fan favorite Spider-Man/Peter Parker for several reasons.
Aside from Holland, the show also features actor Robert Downey, Jr. the Russo brothers, and Marvel boss Kevin Feige. While enjoying a meal, Favreau reveals how he and Choi came to know each other. Interestingly, Choi also serves Holland his first oyster in the episode.
3 Pizzana, 8.3
In this episode, Choi and Favreau pay a visit to the famous Los Angeles spot Pizzana to hang out with Chef Daniele Uditi. In the episode, Uditi shows his starter for the pizza dough, which he had brought from Italy with him. “I use a starter called Criscito, which was started by my auntie 64 years ago,” Uditi revealed while speaking with Diced.
Meanwhile, Favreau and Choi help make the pizza, which includes flavors such as the Margherita and New Margherita. They also made dishes such as polpette al forno.
2 Wolfgang Puck, 8.4
Wolfgang Puck is one of the most recognizable chefs in the gourmet world. He’s also quite the food personality so it only makes sense that he would appear on The Chef Show at some point. In this episode, Choi and Favreau come to Puck’s CUT, an upscale steakhouse in Las Vegas.
During the episode, Favreau revealed that he went to Puck for cooking lessons while preparing for his role in Chef. Unfortunately, Puck discovered that Favreau can’t really cook an omelet. In this episode though, Favreau attempts to redeem his omelet-making skills by making one that’s topped with Morell mushrooms.
1 Late Night Burger, 8.6
As the title suggests, the episode starts with a late-night burger that comes with house-made pickles. As you may recall, the men got a lesson on burger-making from Holeman & Finch for the Avengers episode in Georgia
. In this episode, Favreau also asks Choi for tips on how to avoid crying while peeling and chopping onions. As it turns out, the trick is to simply put Saran wrap (plastic wrap) cover your eyes. It might look silly, but there will be no more tears!
