Jacky, a self-trained cook with haute-cuisine ambitions, gets canned from a series of menial cooking jobs. His pregnant girlfriend Beatrice tries to halt their financial meltdown by arranging a handyman position for him at an old folks home, but he can't resist the siren call of the kitchen. Meanwhile, Alexandre, chef of the three-star establishment Cargo Lagarde, faces a crisis of a different sort. Stanislaw, the son of his retired business partner, wants him to cut costs and introduce molecular gastronomy.