Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Hunger.

The Netflix movie, Hunger , has been in and out of the streamer's summit 10 movies list in recent weeks. It is a expect into the cutthroat world of culinary artistry and the elite chefs who strive for perfection in not only the taste of their cuisine simply as well its appearance. Hunger is the story of a girl named Aoy (Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying) who runs her family's Thai noodle restaurant in the Royal Quarter of the capital city of Bangkok and is forced to make a decision about whether to exit the comfort of her familiar day-to-mean solar day life with her loving family to join an elite grouping of chefs and pursue taking the side by side step in her career. She has long admired Chef Paul (Nopachai Chaiyanam) from afar and so, she makes the determination to learn under his tutelage at the prestigious Hunger restaurant. After making this tough selection, her life starts to spin out of control every bit kitchen politics and interpersonal relationships threaten to derail everything she has worked for. It'southward a blunt commentary past managing director Sitisiri Mongkolsiri on class division and the artificial qualities valued past the wealthy class.

Chef Paul and Hunger Eating house

Nopachai Chaiyanam as Chef Paul in the Netflix movie, Hunger.
Image via Netflix

Chef Paul, called "The High Priest" of Thai dining, runs a restaurant called Hunger. He is the top chef in Bangkok and is idolized by everyone in the food concern and foodies who desire to be associated with the prestige of his name. He comes across very much similar a Thai equivalent of Chef Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) in 2022's The Menu (merely a little less psychopathic and homicidal). He is austere, stone-faced, and intimidating. He insults his employees and routinely assaults them physically and emotionally. He runs a very tight ship and takes the art of cooking so seriously that his presence in the kitchen makes for a palpably tense workplace environment. Aoy's starting time meet with Chef Paul doesn't go well, and she is climbing an uphill battle to win his respect for the balance of the moving-picture show.

Aoy Faces a Steep Learning Curve

Aoy-hunger-netflix
Paradigm via Netflix

Afterwards being introduced to the seven-person staff, Aoy starts to seek out her niche within the grouping of apprentices. From her first day in the kitchen, Chef Paul is breathing downward her neck and watching her every move to brand sure she'due south good enough for him to devote his precious time to her development. Naturally, Chef Paul doesn't think she can do anything correct and scolds her to the point of tears. Aoy starts to stay after hours toiling away at her craft (even falling asleep 1 dark on the kitchen floor) in order to please Chef Paul, but she still struggles with adapting to his unique and strict code of behave. It is a veritable kick campsite for the culinary arts and Aoy has a steep learning curve.

After suffering burns all over her arms and learning how to properly ready meat to Chef Paul'southward standards, she has earned a take a chance to work with the coiffure every bit they cater high-profile events throughout Bangkok. Chef Paul meticulously cooks in front of Thai dignitaries and honored guests like a surgical performance creative person and is routinely met with rounds of applause. Ominous music plays as the wealthy patrons aggressively and hastily slurp down their raw and fleshy cuts of bloodied meat and special sauces. Meanwhile, Aoy is assigned menial work and is harshly judged under Paul. She is already missing the love and simplicity of her family-run restaurant where cooking was fun, and she was with her family members.

A Romance Starts Cooking in the Kitchen

Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying and Gunn Svasti Na Ayudhya in the Netflix film, Hunger.
Image via Netflix

As Aoy struggles to adjust to the rigidity of Paul'southward codes, she begins to go help from another chef on the coiffure named Tone (Gunn Svasti Na Ayudhya), and an intimate relationship begins betwixt them. Simply when Aoy is surprisingly made top sous chef after merely a curt time at Hunger and begins to work straight under Chef Paul, jealousy begins to rear its ugly head and the interpersonal relationships inside and exterior the kitchen begin to grow more complicated. At the aforementioned fourth dimension, Paul is condign more unhinged and prone to paranoid and violent outbursts and berating his employees. After Chef Paul reveals to Aoy that he is willing to pause the law and impale exotic animals to utilize as ingredients in his food, she quits and immediately is recruited by a competing restaurateur as the caput chef. Information technology'south another upstart eating place that will rival Chef Paul'southward Hunger.

Aoy Becomes a Top Chef

Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying as Aoy and Nopachai Chaiyanam as Chef Paul in the background, in the Netflix movie, Hunger.
Image via Netflix

Upon starting as the head chef at the new restaurant chosen Flame, Aoy begins to employ the same meticulous and strict traits that she learned from Chef Paul. The owner expresses that he doesn't want Chef Paul's artistry, he wants her to express herself and become her own chef with her ain identity. With this in mind, Aoy tries to discover her own tastes while striving for perfection. After opening, Aoy is a social media sensation and the new darling of the elite Thai foodie culture as Flame starts to go viral. She immediately starts to rub elbows with the acme socialites and influencers in Bangkok. But her relationship with Tone hits a snag when he finally admits that he'south ever been jealous of her culinary prowess and isn't hungry enough to succeed the way she has.

Does beingness special mean losing who y'all were to become who you want to exist? Will it cost y'all everything that you concord close to your centre and to what end? To be special? To exist adored? She'southward lost Tone and barely has a connexion with her family as the family business concern has gone under after her father is hospitalized with an illness. Madam Milky is a top Thai socialite and influencer. She hires both Aoy and Paul to cook at a special dinner political party she is having which amounts to a top-shelf cook-off. She calls her dish "Triumph of the New Wave" every bit a statement of her desire to dethrone Paul as the preeminent chef in Thailand. But she is outdone by the theatrical performance and presentation of Chef Paul, who dazzles with his former-schoolhouse ambitious arroyo that he calls "A Sacrificial Banquet." The crowd takes to Paul'southward food like a pack of hyenas and Aoy tin can only await on in defeat.

The Final Scenes Explained

As Chef Paul believes he has won the favor of the crowd through a simulated persona, Aoy sees that she was wrong to worship him and that he's in the business of cooking for all the wrong reasons. Local authorities show upwardly at the party and take Paul in for questioning afterwards it is exposed that Tone leaked footage of Paul feeding an illegal Hornbill to Thailand's Chief of Staff Tui. He is escorted out, and Aoy feels empty, and so she walks the old streets of her neighborhood weighing how she has betrayed herself and her loving family for hedonistic, fabric, and narcissistic pursuits. She comes across the family restaurant and is surprised to see it has gone out of business organisation. When she enters, she sees her father who has recovered from his illness. She finally breaks down into tears and hugs him. One by one, Aoy'south family members come out to greet her and welcome her dorsum dwelling house. She so informs them that the family eating house will be the place where she launches her new menu, and it will be a family unit operation. Aoy has finally realized what actually matters in life, and information technology isn't the restaurant Flame, or chirapsia Chef Paul, it'due south her family.