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Hallmark’s Loveuary film slate continues with the release of A Taste of Love, a new movie about a chef who returns to her hometown to mull over a big career opportunity she’s been offered. But she can’t resist the lure of her hometown and the old crush who lives there. As she debates whether or not to take the lucrative but unfulfilling job, she reconnects with her family and the homey restaurant they own, she starts to realize that maybe her dreams have been right there in front of her this whole time.
A TASTE OF LOVE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: A chef (Martin Kove) prepares a comfort foot feast in his restaurant kitchen with his mother. He removes pigs in a blanket from the oven, she pulls the fried chicken straight out of the fryer, as the chef’s young daughter, Taylor, and her friend Jacob, watch with their mouths watering as they plan to steal a few of the morsels for themselves. As they sit on the beach in their town, they munch on fried chicken and Taylor tells Jacob that one day she’s going to be a big city chef. Jacob tells her that whatever she does and wherever she goes, he’ll follow her. “You’re funny,” she tells him.
The Gist: Years later, Taylor (Erin Cahill) has grown up and she’s now a chef who hosts her own Food Network-style cooking show called Quick, Easy and Delicious. But she’s not really living the dream. She’s a fine-dining chef who has been showcasing queso dips and chicken tenders on her show, and she wants more from her job. She’s also striking out with men, albeit, they’re all terrible, but she chastises herself for being too picky. When Taylor is offered a huge promotion and a prime-time TV show, her gut feeling is to reject the offer; she’d be straying too far from her dreams, despite the money and fame it would bring her. So to clear her head and Find Herself, she heads home, to her family in Dunedin, Florida, where she plans to spend a week or two deliberating about her future.
It’s Taylor’s first visit home in years and when she arrives, she’s surprised to see her family’s restaurant under renovation. Unbeknownst to her, her parents are actually planning to sell it, citing that their humble home cooking can’t compete with modern tastes (like avocado toast!). The news is devastating to Taylor. Seeing her old friend and ex, Jacob, who now runs a local farm, also makes her feel bad, because things have become strained between them since Taylor moved away. And the third awful thing about Taylor’s visit? LINDA. Linda (Ashley Dulaney) is Taylor’s rival for both Jacob’s attention and as the other big eatery in town. Linda is smarmy and smug and when she sees Taylor in town, she gloats to her that her family’s restaurant has won a local cooking competition for the past few years, beating Taylor’s family’s restaurant. Taylor decides that she’ll extend her stay so she can enter the restaurant into the competition, even though her parents are planning to sell it, to reenergize their love of cooking so they won’t sell it.
As she works with them to revamp their menu to enter some new dishes into the contest (and reconnects with Jacob at his farm), she rediscovers why she loves cooking, and how happy her hometown makes her, all of which helps her make the decision as to whether or not she should keep her big city job or not. (Hint: She does not! But she does manage to have it all when the network agrees to let her film a new show out of the family restaurant instead!)
What Movies Will It Remind You Of? A Taste of Love is your classic “big city gal returns to her hometown to rediscover the real meaning of life, love, and happiness.” Other movies that fall into that category and have a similar vibe include the Reese Witherspoon rom-coms Home Again and Sweet Home Alabama, and the Malin Akerman’s The Christmas Classic.
Our Take: A Taste of Love is less of a romance and more like a journey of self-discovery because so much of the film focuses on Taylor’s relationship to her parents and the family business they’ve built. The fact that Jacob is also there to help her realize she missed home is nice but it feels less integral to the plot. Still, for some reason, films like this need that romantic tension, but this take is an uninspired variation on the common trope that it’s the simple, familiar things are what the heart wants.
There’s never a doubt that Taylor’s going to be swayed to stay in her hometown, or that she might one day take over her family restaurant, and the journey she takes to get to that point is uninspired. There’s no comic relief, no breakout star whose talents outshine the dull script, which can usually go a long way toward redeeming an otherwise unremarkable movie. While there’s nothing outwardly terrible about the film, it’s biggest offense is how under-seasoned it is.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: Taylor’s best friend and agent, Jessica (Tymberlee Hill) walks into Taylor’s restaurant speaking to someone on the phone about signing a new contract. She reveals that the network has agreed to let Taylor film a new version of her show on location in her restaurant, with Jacob and his farm-fresh ingredients as a part of it. “Now that’s my kind of show,” Taylor tells Jacob, the pair kiss…. and we fade to black.
Performance Worth Watching: Though he’s had a long career, Martin Kove is forever linked to his role as the morally ambiguous sensei John Kreese from The Karate Kid and Cobra Kai. It’s nice then that, as Taylor’s loving, aging dad, he has the opportunity here to be doting and vulnerable, two qualities that John Kreese definitely is not.
Memorable Dialogue: “You know what YOU need? A little inspiration,” Jacob tells Taylor when she seems defeated that the food she’s cooking seems basic and boring. Cut to… A ROAD TRIP TO A LATIN SOUL FOOD SPOT!
Our Call: SKIP IT. “Nothing here is original,” Taylor laments at one point as she tastes the recipes she plans to enter into the big cook-off. Taylor has the good sense to listen to her heart and create a whole new menu that speaks to her soul. Unfortunately in the plot of this film, nothing here is original, but none of the people involved had the sense to pivot like Taylor.
- A Taste of Love
- Hallmark Channel
- romance
- Stream It Or Skip It