Little Moment, Big Meaning: The Chef Special from Moonlight

One of my favorite channels on Youtube is Binging with Babish. It's creator, Andrew Rea, re-creates and sometimes improves upon dishes seen in movies and tv shows. I was hooked on this series instantly. He has cooked up dishes seen in Creed (2015), Big Night (1996), Elf (2003) and even tackled stuff from Game of Thrones. This is series where any chance I get I'll tell you about it.

One such instant happened a few months ago when I was chatting with a friend of mine. I mentioned to her that there was an episode on how to make the Chef Special in Moonlight (2016). She then told me that scene actually made her cry. At first, I thought that it was a bit weird because while it was a well-made scene I didn't think it was that emotional. But the more I thought about it the more I realized that it was a truly impactful scene.

How so? Think about it. The character of Chiron seemed to get the short end of the stick at every point in his life. His biological father is out of the picture entirely, his mother grows more distant from him as her drug addiction becomes worse, he's bullied at school, betrayed by his only friend, and his loving surrogate father turned out to be supplying his mom the drugs.

During his adult years, Chiron (Trevante Rhodes in this segment) lives in Atlanta and basically became like Juan, his surrogate father (Mahershala Ali). He gets a call from both his mother (Naomi Harris) and his estranged friend, Kevin (Andre Holland) who he hasn't spoken to since high school. He goes down makes somewhat amends with his mother and sees Kevin at a restaurant he works at. Kevin then whips up the Chef Special for him.

The dish itself is grilled chicken, beans and rice. Nothing really that special, right? But think about it, this meal that was made for Chiron. There's no catches or tricks. Nothing bad came about because of this meal. It was a nice meal made by a friend because it was a nice thing to do. This was is a rare thing for Chiron.

It brings to mind this Aesop quote, "no act of kindness, no matter how small, is wasted."

Kevin probably knows a little bit of Chiron's troubled life - mainly the stuff from high school - but he probably has no idea what his psyche is like. It has damaged him to the point to where he's blocked off any and all emotions outside of a tough guy persona.

This meal may lead to Chiron opening up more to Kevin, to others and will probably lead to a healing journey for him.

If you haven't watched Moonlight please check it out and watch a great film that features this magnificent scene.

Also, check out Binging with Babish: https://www.bingingwithbabish.com/