No Reservations
Kate Armstrong (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is a master chef who lives her life like she runs the kitchen at the upscale Greenwich Village restaurant, 22 Bleecker: with an intensity that intimidates everyone around her. Her boss, Paula (Patricia Clarkson), believes that Kate is too serious and not able to express her emotional states. Because of this, she jokingly enlists Kate in therapy; otherwise, she will fire her if she chooses not to comply. More at ease behind the scenes, she unwillingly leaves the kitchen's sanctuary only to accept compliments from a regular diner or, on rare occasions, to tangle with a customer who questions her expertise. To rest her nervousness and sometimes anger, she takes host in the kitchen freezer. Most nights find her in bed before midnight, set to rise at dawn to beat her competition to the fish market for the next day's freshest selections.
When her sister is killed in a car accident, her niece, Zoe, (Abigail Breslin) unexpectedly comes to live with her. Mourning constantly about her sister's death during work, Kate is ordered by Paula to take a week off. When she returns, she realizes that Paula has subsituted a partner for her job, the brash, high-spirited sous-chef Nicholas Palmer (Aaron Eckhart). To calm Zoe's depression from her mother, Kate brings her along to the restaurant on certain nights. As time passes, Kate is unsure what bothers her more—that Nick's talent scores with 22 Bleecker's owner Paula and its discriminating clientèle, or that his easygoing charm quickly wins over the shy Zoe, who finds it easier to open up to him than to her aunt. Unfortunately, Zoe refuses to eat anything Kate puts on the table, and she is surprised when she sees her eating some of Nick's famous noodles from a recipe his grandmother taught him.
One afternoon, Kate forgets to pick up Zoe from school and to make it up to her, Kate invites Nick over for dinner on Zoe's request. During the dinner, when Zoe is sleeping, Kate and Nick express their feelings for each other and kiss. As weeks pass, the three spend much time together, and Kate and Nick's relationship goes on. When Nick challenges the boundary between rivalry and romance, Kate finds herself questioning her many professional and personal beliefs that she has always embraced while also faced with difficult choices regarding Zoe's future.
After discovering that her boss was going to replace her with Nick, Kate quarrels with him and he quits. Later, Kate learns that Nick had declined the head chef's job. Without Nick visiting, Zoe starts to miss her mother more and runs away. Kate calls Nick, and they search for Zoe, finding her at the cemetery by her mother's grave.
After seeing them home, Nick tells Kate that he accepted a job in San Francisco. They part, and Kate returns to work at the restaurant but quits after being unable to tolerate an unreasonable customer—merely complaining about an assumed non-rare steak. She goes to see Nick and tells him that she cannot bear for him to leave. They get together and open a new restaurant, with Zoe helping out.
