It’s admirable how A Taste of Love keeps to the gentle pace of a slice-of-life story instead of blowing things up with unnecessary drama, but it’s ultimately just too thinly drawn for any of its moments to become charming in their simplicity. There’s nothing particularly wrong with any of its plot threads—emotionally they’re all pretty level-headed and easy to understand—they just don’t seem to coexist for any reason, or within any larger framework. As a result, spending time with this film doesn’t just feel like hanging out with total strangers, but hanging out with people who are strangers to each other as well.
Struggling to find her culinary voice as a Network TV star, Taylor returns to her hometown to visit her parents. She must choose between her renewed relationship, saving her family restaurant, or her dream career as a worldwide known chef.
At a crossroads in her career, television chef Taylor returns to her hometown and her parents' restaurant for some soul-searching.
There's a real missed opportunity here to talk about food as culture (or as expression, even) versus food as just a product. And the film's protagonist definitely has this on her mind, the conflict from it driving her decisions throughout the story. But unfortunately the movie just doesn't have the capacity to take on such an interesting idea, settling for basic relationship conflicts that lose momentum with every awkward "cut to commercial." They could've at least made the food here look delicious, but there are little to no glamour shots to be found for any of these dishes.
So difficult to watch anything food-related now without expecting to hear someone screaming, "CORNER!"
