Metacritic reviews

For so brisk and entertaining a film, sharp in its observations but light in its touch, Cooking has unexpected substance and is a formidable accomplishment in that it brings dimension to its nearly 40 principal characters.

Her (Chadha) film tastily demonstrates that variety is the spice of not only American life, but of American cuisine.

It's a meal you may feel you've eaten before, but you nonetheless walk away stuffed and happy.

Though often enjoyable, it’s an old-fashioned, feel-good movie whose significance is more sociological than cinematic.

More interesting as a sociological study than successful as a movie, What's Cooking? gets more involving as it strolls along.

That director and co-writer Gurinder Chadha transforms this sitcom material into a lively and charming film about the melting pot at full boil probably owes something to the fact that her own multicultural bona fides are firmly in order.

Despite some grace- ful performances, especially from Ruehl and Kazan, the result is a tepid repast at best.

Like too many Thanksgiving dinners, too much squabbling really wreaks havoc on the digestion. Football, anyone?

Trades in sitcom stereotypes and crosscuts predictably from family to family as if under the misapprehension that equal time is a dramatic principle.

Hopefully, the next time around, Chadha's imagination will be in the service of not just excellent casting and directing, but a script to match those other cinematic components.