Putting love on the menu has always been one of the best strategies to capture your audience as foodies and someone whose emotions are overflowing. Romance and food go together like peanut butter and jelly, and the first Filipino series on Netflix features a spicy love triangle against the backdrop of an upscale fine dining establishment.
Replacing Chef Chico is not your typical series. It’s not your average ride—it’s a wild, edge-of-your-seat experience you won’t see coming.
THE HAIN EXPERIENCE
The story revolves around Hain, a popular Filipino restaurant known for its customized food offerings. The restaurant, though well-liked by its regulars, is in serious financial trouble due to its inability to draw in new customers. And from here, we get to discover Chico’s Sous Chef, Ella, played by Alessandra de Rossi. The series then switches to an episodic format. Each one of the eight episodes has a new customer arrive and either impart wise words of wisdom or merely point out concepts or subplots that each of the chefs has carried over from episode to episode.
Hain serves as a reminder that sometimes the meals we take for granted can suddenly take on a significantly personal and significant meaning—they could be someone’s last, a sign of things to come, or a symbol of families coming together or breaking apart. Everyone receives love in Hain, and depending on who you dine with that evening, the food either gets better or tastes worse.
FINE DINING EXPERIENCE THE FILIPINO WAY
There’s no way this blew our minds as avid Netflix patrons. Imagine getting a storyline from dishes and desserts. Some of them include Kare-Kare Risotto, Tinawon Arroz Caldo, Traditional Laing, Dinakdakang Empanada, and many more.
The way the food was related to the stories of the guests in the episodes was just lovely. The research that comes from how they source their ingredients from farmers (with no middleman) was just brilliant. That’s Jadaone’s magic.
PROUDLY PINOY DISHES GETTING RECOGNIZED GLOBALLY
This is just the best time for the country to be recognized. It’s still a good mention that in rare cases like this, we get to hear the stories of some ingredients, just like Asin Tibuok and Tinawon. After it being a romance series, the cheesy lines and plots just boil down to how this script brought limelight to the things we do not know or even know exist. Because, after all, it’s a part of our culture.
CONCLUSION
We cannot further discuss what the strengths and weaknesses are. One thing is for sure: we know what those are.
The rigorous attention to detail in recreating the fine dining atmosphere adds a layer of authenticity, and director Dan Villegas’s visual storytelling abilities are evident in “Replacing Chef Chico.” As new characters are introduced, the episodic format keeps the story coherent and the audience interested the entire time. A visually striking and emotionally impactful production, the series skillfully combines human drama with the culinary arts.
