Product Details

• Actors: Lenny Henry, Roger Griffiths, Caroline Lee-Johnson, Claire Skinner, Gary Parker
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: BBC Warner
• VHS Release Date: July 19, 2000
• Run Time: 30 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00004WG66
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #331,247 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chef rules his kitchen with an iron fist and lashing tongue, August 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Chef [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Lenny Henry stars in this three episode video by the BBC. It is a comedic, culinary circus that brings the word "perfection" to the forefront. "Chef" is a hilariously sarcastic, unbelievably pompass man. But we love him because he is the best chef in all of Europe. And his fearsome, bumbling kitchen crew just love to hate him. Especially Everton, the lowest rank in Chef's kitchen who can't seem to do anything right. Chef's standards are ridiculously high, which only provides comic turns any time he makes his usual demands. These episodes include some of the funniest writing I have heard since "Faulty Towers". Savor them all as I did, but be sure to have your dictionary on hand for some of Chef's more complicated insults. He is a perfectionist in the art of criticism too. You have got to love that British Humor! "Chef!" is laugh out loud hilarious!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gareth Blackstock and Basil Fawlty - Separated at Birth?, January 6, 2004

By 

takingadayoff "takingadayoff" (Las Vegas, Nevada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Chef, Vol. 1 [VHS] (VHS Tape)

These first three episodes are the best of all the series. The final episodes (not available on video, as far as I know) after Chef's wife left, were dreadful. It was at that point the show Jumped the Shark, if you know what I mean.

They poured everything into the first series and this video is just great. We meet Chef Gareth Blackstock, his wife Janice, and the Michelin two-star restaurant Le Chateau Anglais. We find out what an unpleasant man (but a brilliant chef) Gareth is, then that the restaurant is in finacial difficulty and Chef must reduce kitchen and staff expenses. Then the restaurant goes into receivership and must be sold. Meanwhile, Chef has hired an unsuitable trainee chef (an old school mate) in order to save money.

So Gareth and Janice decide to try to buy the restaurant, which requires them to bow and scrape for the bank manager. At every turn, Gareth loses his temper and unleashes remarkably coherent and witty tirades at just about everyone. The only person who can stand up to him is his wife.

These are very funny episodes, much in the tradition of Fawlty Towers. And as an added bonus, you get to find out quite a bit about French cuisine and the restaurant business.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Where is the DVD of this series?!, November 3, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Chef, Vol. 1 [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I love this series... it's one of the best that BBC has ever made. The shame is, however, that they haven't released a DVD of the full series. I don't think they are aware of the popularity of this product.