Kierkegaard: Every movement of infinity comes about by passion

Recently, I saw the movie Chef.  While I’m not sure if it was a truly great movie, I thought that it was good enough and certainly enjoyable to watch.  Jon Favreau, best known for directing Elf, Iron Man and Iron Man II, starred, wrote, produced and directed it.  While I don’t want to give anything away, as the title suggests, the movie is about a chef.  You’ll find that this is was one of those food films – like Big Night, Babette’s Feast or Eat Dink Man Woman – in which, as the movie continues, you just get hungrier and hungrier.  To give everything the right feel, Favreau brought in Roy Choi, famous chief and Korean taco truck magnate, as a culinary consultant.  And the movie had at least one great scene – one that most people probably missed, unfortunately (spoiler alert).

At the ending of the credits, long after the movie proper has ended, there is a short clip – not related to the movie’s story – in which Choi is showing Favreau how to make a grilled cheese sandwich.  Choi performs a veritable ballet here, moving around the griddle, swirling the sandwich in the oil, constantly checking the bread for doneness from every angle.  As Choi is engaged in all this activity, he explains:

So you can see the whole sandwich is starting to evolve.

See the cheese is starting to evolve, too.

You’re almost…

Even now as you get further, Jon, you're getting in, like, a surgeon. 

You're changing even your grips here. 

Changing your positions, moving around. 

But you're not too busy with it. 

You're precise, but then sometimes you step back. 

Nothing else exists except this. 

This is the only thing that exists in this world right now. 

And if you f-ck this up, everything sucks in the world.

Favreau and Choi

cheese sandwich -- nothing else exists