The subset of reality TV involving dirty dishings in kitchen settings - Top Chef, Hell's Kitchen, The Next Food Network Star - tries to put a soupcon of sexiness on the menu, but usually ends up looking like some kind of restaurant porn: The hottest moments are reserved for the main courses. In contrast, No Reservations, a romantic comedy-drama, goes for its steam simply by letting stars Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart occupy the same space while wearing tasty white cooking smocks. 

The film, a remake of the 2002 German film Mostly Martha, follows Kate (Zeta-Jones), a control-freak Manhattan chef in a Greenwich Village bistro whose ordered life is up-ended when her sister is killed in a car accident, leaving Kate to raise her 9-year-old niece Zoe (Little Miss Sunshine Academy Award nominee Abigail Breslin). While Kate copes with her loss, the restaurant's owner (Patricia Clarkson) hires a sous-chef to keep things rolling - but Nick (Eckhart) immediately grates on Kate: She's steely precision, he's freewheeling artiste; she's the cook-as-commandant, he's a loud-pants-wearing, opera-blasting iconoclast. But, with some prodding from Zoe, a courtship begins to simmer between the two.