What's Cooking?

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

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.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Because the stories are so skillfully threaded together, the movie doesn't feel like an exercise: Each of the stories stands on its own.

Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf

What makes this movie special is the meticulous attention placed on each of its characters, employing them not in the traditional "melting pot" manner that is so common, but as part of a grand mosaic that actually seems to be worth sharing.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Splendid acting, a screenplay as likable as it is unpredictable, and an undercurrent of deep human generosity make this a particularly engaging comic-dramatic experience.

Entertainment Weekly Ty Burr

Like the meal itself, the movie's both filling and familiar.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

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

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

A big-hearted celebration of the we're-all-in-this- together American way.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

Lighthearted and smart enough to be one of the best Altmanesque ensemble comedies of the last couple of years.

Variety Emanuel Levy

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

The New York Times Dana Stevens

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

USA Today Staff [Not Credited]

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

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

This is ensemble work at its best.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

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.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

If Chadha never quite overcomes her cliches, her good-natured humor and familial faith gives it a warm, winsome dimension.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

A seven-course melodrama.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

This concept comedy-drama would be even better if the intercutting among households had been timed to add dramatic content rather than simply advance the subplots.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

This good-hearted but undersupplied ensemble piece is only appetizer-deep.

LA Weekly Hazel-Dawn Dumpert

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

Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan

Goes overboard in its presentation of supposed reality.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

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

Village Voice Amy Taubin

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

Film.com Ernest Hardy

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.