The holiday season is turned upside down for a neophyte food critic JJ (Pope) when her uninhibited mother (Baranski) shows up unannounced.
In an attempt to occupy her mom's time, JJ works out a deal with a young chef (Cannavale) that stirs up some matters of the heart.
Even though this is a story about a romance between a Food Critic and a Chef the alternate title for the movie is a better choice to describe the film (and then it's not the best) for a couple of reasons.Firstly, though the romance is okay and it does add to the heartwarming atmosphere of the film it takes second place to the relationship between Mother (Baranski) and Food Critic daughter (Pope).
While Christine Baranski is an entertaining performer, the concept of her character her is basically superficial. If this mother entered a group of people enjoying listening to Jessye Norman, she would automatically conclude they need to 'loosen up' and listen to Rihanna, cuz that is just how "hip" she is.
Carly Pope plays JJ, a newly promoted Food Critic whose flamboyant, overbearing mother moves in with her. JJ, aghast at this turn of events, then blackmails restaurant owner, Alex, to entertain her mother in exchange for "maybe" reviewing his dying restaurant.