Master Chef without a taste

A real family comedy drama "Tortilla soup" is a story about an old chef, living with three beautiful grownup daughters, all of who have chosen their own way of living life. The oldest is Letitia, a prim schoolteacher who is also presented as being religious. The middle daughter Carmen shares the taste of cooking just like her father, but has her own plan of achieving something big in a corporate world. Maribel, the youngest, is presented as a confused teenager who is not sure of her ambitions. There are some other supporting characters; like Gomez, a friend chef; Yolanda, a neighbor; Hortensia, Yolanda’s mom, that spice up the movie. Out of all the characters, the one that got my consideration was Martin (dad).

A retired chef, Martin is presented as a responsible character that cares for his family. His care and love can be identified from the delicious foods that he prepares for his family. He is, by far, the most complicated character in the movie too. After his wife’s death, he takes on the responsibility of raising his daughters. He gives up the second marriage because he gets so involved in raising his kids and his work. He makes sure that they get a good life. Despite that, Carmen, his middle daughter, thinks that her dad doesn’t really care about what she is doing in her life. But the reality is that Martin doesn’t want Carmen to go far from him because he loves her very much. He can also be spotted as being a man with the rules, as he orders his daughters to live according to his will under his roof. He makes sure that nobody messes up his traditional Sunday evening dinner. Along the movie, it is shown that Carmen forces her father to start thinking about himself and stop caring a lot for his family.

Martin, at the beginning of the movie, is shown as if he is not experiencing joy in his life. He even talks about the tensions related to his daughter with his chef friend Gomez. His loss of joy can be depicted in the movie as him not being able to taste and smell. He can prepare the food just right but cannot even taste himself. At the end of the movie, when he gets through with his life’s stresses, he finally becomes able to taste the food. This happens in the movie when his daughter Carmen cancels her trip to Barcelona and prepares her version of his dad’s recipe. This incident marks the return of his joy in his family. Now, he not only can give other people joy but can also feel himself. After this incident, he finally realizes the importance of joy in his life and manages to express his suppressed desire for Yolanda.

All in all, tortilla soup is the movie about discovering the joy in life as seen in the life of each character presented in the movie. The movie gives us all, the message that there is so much joy in the life, but all we do is live without even tasting it.