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After seeing the film ‘Chef,’ you’re going to want to eat: here’s where

Writer/Director/Producer Jon Favreau at Open Road Films CHEF screening hosted by Jon Favreau and Roy Choi at Directors Guild of America on Wednesday, May 07, 2014, in Los Angeles, CA.
Writer/Director/Producer Jon Favreau at Open Road Films CHEF screening hosted by Jon Favreau and Roy Choi at Directors Guild of America on Wednesday, May 07, 2014, in Los Angeles, CA.
(Eric Charbonneau / Invision for Open Road Films)
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Oh, man. I didn’t eat dinner before rushing crosstown to a screening of “Iron Man” director Jon Favreau’s new film “Chef.” What a mistake. Talk about food porn.

The director, who also stars in the film as hot-headed chef Carl Casper, moves in close for shots of his character making hash browns and eggs or a grilled cheese sandwich for his young son. Or a spaghetti dish that makes his sometime girlfriend played by Scarlett Johansson practically swoon. (And Favreau really cooked that dish.)

After you see this film, guaranteed you are going to be absolutely ravenous. In its almost two hours, you’ve experienced not only those dishes, but beignets in New Orleans, the grilled cheese of your dreams, great Texas barbecue, soft-shell crabs, that swoon-inducing spaghetti, Cubanos, carne asada and much, much more.

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By the time I emerged from the theater after 10 p.m., I wanted to run out and eat everything I’d seen in the film. But there, “magically,” parked out front was a Kogi truck (Kogi founder Roy Choi was the movie’s food consultant).

So what are you going to do? Have a spicy pork or beef short rib taco, that’s what.

But if Kogi doesn’t happen to be in front of your theater, here are some ideas of where to eat after seeing “Chef,” inspired by the food shown in the movie:

For Cuban: Versailles in Culver City, Los Angeles, Encino and Manhattan Beach; Porto’s Bakery & Café in Burbank, Glendale and Downey; Xiomara on Melrose in Los Angeles.

For grilled cheese: Greenspan’s Grilled Cheese in Los Angeles, Heywood Grilled Cheese in Silver Lake, Fred 62 in Los Feliz.

For Texas-style barbecue: Bludso’s in Compton, Bludso’s Bar-&-Que in Los Angeles, Horse Thief BBQ at Grand Central Market, Smoke City Market in Van Nuys.

For pasta: Angelini Osteria in Los Angeles, Bestia in downtown Los Angeles, Bucato in Culver City.

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