Michaël Youn as Jacky in Le Chef (Cohen Media Group)

Aspiring chef Jacky (Michaël Youn) is the stereotypical figure that strikes fear into the hearts of the less gastronomically adventurous. He’ll materialize from the kitchen if diners prefer red wine with white meat, and woe betide the party that orders lamb well done. Though Jacky’s dedication to the craft is commendable, it hampers his ability to keep a steady job—something he needs now more than ever, with his first child on the way.

Meanwhile, Alexandre Lagarde (Jean Reno) is at the opposite end of his career. A wildly successful chef who oversees the kitchen of the acclaimed Cargo Lagarde, he stars in his own live cooking show. Lagarde nonetheless is running into trouble. The CEO of the investment group that owns his restaurant—and many others—Stanislas Matter (played by the appropriately slimy Julien Boisselier) finds the older chef’s predilection for traditional French cuisine dull and dated and is itching for a reason to 86 Lagarde.

At the insistence of his long-suffering girlfriend Béatrice (Raphaëlle Agogué, who manages to flesh out the thankless role of nagging significant other with some warmth and tenderness), Jacky takes a job washing windows at a nursing home, but he can’t be parted from his love of food. Within a matter of hours, he infuses the nursing home kitchen (previously serving dull, tasteless fare) with his passion for good food and soon stumbles into an unpaid internship with Lagarde, who is impressed with Jacky’s culinary talents. Though understandably reluctant to accept an unpaid gig with a bébé imminent, Jacky, who has worshipped Lagarde his whole life and has a near-encyclopedic recall of the chef’s early recipes, can’t resist.

Matter soon ups the ante: if the three-star Cargo Lagarde loses a star, Matter will have justification to fire Lagarde—and Jacky, too—giving the restaurant to Cyril Boss (James Gérard), a chef with a predilection for the newly trendy molecular cuisine. (Jabs at the bizarrely pretentious molecular cuisine may go over the heads of some viewers—it’s largely a European phenomenon—though they still manage to be funny.) Making the situation even more untenable, Matter has invited critics who detest the conventional style that Lagarde is known for; a hearty boeuf bourguignon isn’t going to do it this time.

Though this is a fairly predictable and tame premise, the lead actors embrace the pairing enthusiastically, Reno playing the stern though lovable straight man to Youn’s rubber-faced joker. While Jacky is occasionally exasperating (it’s easy to see why he provokes sighs of irritation from both his girlfriend and Alexandre), he’s always endearing, even adorable, whether proclaiming himself “the Mozart of the range” minutes before getting fired or insisting—on the live television show—on throwing out certain ingredients because he feels he knows the aging chef’s recipes better than even Lagarde.

The film rarely breaks new ground, and viewers will nod knowingly as each well-worn plot point unfolds. Watch as Jacky tweaks Alexandre’s recipe without permission! Watch further as diners declare it far superior than anything Alexandre has ever done! Still, the film keeps the laughs coming at a steady pace. Viewers won’t be surprised, but they won’t be bored, either.

There’s some unevenness in the tone as well, and director Daniel Cohen seems unsure of just where he wants to take Le Chef. At times, the film seems to roam into the realm of farce, sometimes uncomfortably so (a scene where Alexandre and Jacky go to Cyril’s restaurant to poach recipes, disguised as a stereotypical Japanese couple, with Jacky done up as a geisha, borders on tasteless). At others, it turns poignant; several scenes depict Reno clumsily reaching out to his adult daughter, whom he neglected in her childhood in favor of his career.

Le Chef  has tons of tropes we’ve seen time and time again: the green wunderkind finally given a shot at the big leagues, underdogs going up against The Man, the experienced master taking on a protégé, and, of course, the man-child finally owning up and taking responsibility. Though these are less than the freshest ingredients for a film (they’re likely ones that Lagarde himself wouldn’t keep in his kitchen), they’re enough for this amusing and diverting comedy.