Plot summary

Los Angeles-based executive chef Carl Casper was once deemed the one to watch within the business. But years working for Riva at upscale Gauloise, Riva who promised him creative control but who has ended up dictating that he cater the menu and his cooking to the tastes of the masses, Carl has lost that promise, although his staff, including his sous chef Tony, the sommelier Molly, but especially one of the line cooks Martin, still admire his talent. Carl may not realize how much this stifling has affected his psyche, that negativity which led to the dissolution of his marriage to Inez, and he having a strained relationship with his and Inez's ten year old son Percy, who only wants to spend quality time with his physically present but mentally absent father in their mandated time together. In being a social media newbie, Carl ends up having a very public breakdown. In the aftermath, Carl, with nothing else he wants to do but be a chef, has to reinvent himself in some manner to get back on his feet. He decides to take Inez up a long standing offer concerning her first husband, Miami-based entrepreneur Marvin who has a hygiene fetish. Despite not fully trusting Marvin, Carl may rediscover his passion for cooking and in the process his passion for life in general, that passion which may bring those things of importance that he has lost in the ten years back.—Huggo