Today’s Special (2009) Movie Spoiler: Full Plot & Ending Explained

Spoiler Warning: The following article contains the complete story and ending of Today’s Special (2009).

The film opens with Samir (Aasif Mandvi), a talented chef working in the kitchen of an upscale restaurant in New York. Samir takes his profession seriously and hopes that years of hard work will eventually lead to something much bigger.

Outside work, however, his personal life is not going nearly as well.

Samir meets an Indian woman named Henna for a date arranged through his mother. Samir talks enthusiastically about his career and his hopes of eventually running a restaurant, but Henna appears more interested in discussing marriage, children, and the possibility of her mother living with them.

The date goes nowhere.

Back at the restaurant, Samir becomes irritated with Carrie (Jess Weixler), another chef in the kitchen, when he thinks she is using too much oil in a dish. He is already frustrated, and a near-disaster involving an order for an important customer only makes his day worse.

Fortunately, Carrie helps him fix the problem.

Later, Samir takes a taxi home. The driver, Akbar (Naseeruddin Shah), is an eccentric Indian man who immediately starts talking to him.

When Akbar learns that Samir is a chef, he proudly reveals that he once worked as a cook himself and even claims that Indira Gandhi once personally complimented his pulao.

Samir is not particularly interested in the conversation.

Akbar asks whether Samir cooks Indian food.

Samir admits that he does not.

Before leaving, Akbar gives Samir a card containing little more than his name.

Samir finds the whole encounter strange and forgets about him.

The next disappointment arrives when Samir discovers that a much younger chef named Kane has been selected for a prestigious “Best Chef Under 40” feature instead of him.

Samir confronts his boss.

He points out that he has spent six years working there and has served as sous-chef for two years, yet his boss still chose a younger employee.

Feeling ignored and undervalued, Samir quits.

He tells Carrie that he is going to work with a famous chef in Paris.

Carrie is genuinely impressed.

There is just one problem.

Samir has not actually arranged the job yet.

He simply intends to go to Paris and somehow make it happen.

Samir later visits his parents to tell them about his plans.

His mother Farrida (Madhur Jaffrey) is far more concerned about his marriage prospects. She continues showing him profiles of Indian women and worrying that her son will never settle down.

Samir eventually goes to his father Hakim’s (Harish Patel) restaurant, Tandoori Palace.

The restaurant has been around since 1973, but business is now terrible.

Samir tries to tell his father that he has quit his job and plans to leave for Paris.

Hakim cannot understand him.

From Hakim’s perspective, Samir has thrown away a respectable job just to become an apprentice somewhere else.

Their disagreement becomes increasingly personal.

Hakim once again compares Samir with his deceased older brother, Ali.

Ali had represented everything Hakim wanted from a son. He was expected to become a doctor, marry, start a family, and make his parents proud.

Samir has heard the comparison many times before.

This time, he finally talks back.

During their argument, Hakim suddenly suffers a heart attack.

Samir rushes his father to the hospital.

The doctor says Hakim will recover, but his heart is weak and he must avoid hard work and unnecessary stress.

Samir therefore makes a decision that completely changes his plans.

Paris will have to wait.

Until Hakim recovers, Samir will run Tandoori Palace.

It does not take long for him to discover how bad things have become.

The restaurant is barely making money, and Hakim’s old-fashioned methods are not attracting customers.

An acquaintance named Amit has already been encouraging Hakim to sell or franchise the restaurant.

Samir thinks selling may actually be the sensible solution.

His mother disagrees.

She explains how much the restaurant means to Hakim.

Hakim had once dreamed of becoming a doctor himself, but his family could not afford to continue his education. He came to America at a time when very few Indians were making that journey, worked difficult jobs, washed dishes, saved every dollar he could, and eventually created his own restaurant.

He worked incredibly long hours because he never wanted his children to hear that their father could not afford their education.

For Samir, this changes his understanding of Tandoori Palace.

It is not simply a failing restaurant.

It represents his father’s entire life.

Samir nevertheless has another serious problem.

He is a professional chef who has never really learned how to cook Indian food.

When customers complain about the greasy dishes being served at Tandoori Palace, Samir confronts the restaurant’s cook.

The argument ends with the cook quitting.

Almost immediately, another table orders Indian dishes.

Samir is trapped.

He takes out Hakim’s recipe book and attempts to prepare chicken tikka masala himself.

It goes badly.

Unable to properly handle the spices, Samir eventually resorts to secretly ordering food from another Indian restaurant and bringing it through the back entrance.

Then he remembers Akbar.

The strange taxi driver had claimed that he was once an excellent chef.

Samir takes Akbar’s card to the restaurant regulars and asks whether they can locate him.

After several phone calls through the local Indian community, they eventually find him.

Akbar arrives at Tandoori Palace.

And almost immediately, everything changes.

Akbar does not cook the way Samir has been trained to cook.

Samir measures ingredients carefully.

Akbar cooks by instinct.

For Akbar, Indian food is about understanding spices, smell, taste, memory, and emotion.

He teaches Samir that spices are the soul of Indian cooking.

The customers begin noticing the difference.

An American couple loves Akbar’s food so much that they promise to tell their friends.

Business slowly improves.

Samir asks Akbar to continue working at Tandoori Palace.

Akbar agrees, although he makes it clear that he rarely stays anywhere permanently.

Akbar then begins changing the restaurant in his own unpredictable way.

Instead of listing a specific daily special, he writes:

TRUST ME.

He throws away the menus.

He brings musicians into the restaurant.

At one point, he even brings a live chicken into the kitchen because he wants fresh meat.

Samir nearly loses his mind.

He warns Akbar that they are running a restaurant in America and cannot simply ignore health regulations because something feels traditional.

Despite their arguments, however, Samir keeps learning from him.

Akbar takes Samir shopping for spices and teaches him to stop depending entirely on measurements.

He wants Samir to feel the food.

When Samir prepares a dish with Akbar’s help, an Indian customer says the flavor reminds him of his grandmother’s cooking.

That is exactly what Akbar is trying to teach him.

Food is not only about technique.

It can carry memory.

Meanwhile, Samir reconnects with Carrie.

He had originally told her that he was going to Paris, so she is surprised when she sees him delivering food for Tandoori Palace.

Carrie is a single mother with a young daughter.

As Samir spends more time with her, the attraction between them becomes obvious.

Akbar also begins forcing Samir to confront emotions that he has spent years avoiding.

During one conversation, Akbar talks about losing his wife and child.

Samir reluctantly mentions the death of his brother Ali.

Samir clearly does not like discussing it.

Akbar tells him about another tragedy from his own childhood. During the Partition of India and Pakistan, Akbar lost his parents and was left with a scar from the violence.

For years he wondered why those things happened to him.

Eventually, he realized that life does not always provide an explanation.

People die.

Tragedies happen.

No amount of questioning can reverse them.

Akbar tells Samir that his brother is gone and nothing can bring him back, but Samir himself is still alive.

He needs to start living.

The conversation affects Samir deeply.

Soon afterward, he asks Carrie out.

Their relationship grows.

Samir takes Carrie to spend time with Akbar and the regulars, where everyone enjoys an enormous Indian meal together.

Samir and Carrie eventually kiss.

The two later repaint Tandoori Palace together, with Carrie’s daughter joining them.

For the first time in a long while, Samir appears to be enjoying his life rather than constantly chasing the next professional achievement.

The restaurant begins changing too.

Samir renovates it and places old family photographs on the walls, including pictures of his parents when they were young and photographs of Samir and Ali as children.

When Hakim finally sees the remodeled restaurant, he becomes emotional.

But then he surprises Samir.

Hakim has decided to sell Tandoori Palace.

He no longer sees any reason to continue exhausting himself. Ali is dead, and Samir has his own life.

Samir tries to convince him otherwise.

Tandoori Palace is finally beginning to make money again.

Hakim refuses to change his mind.

The restaurant closes.

Samir says goodbye to the staff, while Akbar prepares to move on to another adventure.

With his dream apparently over, Samir considers returning to his old restaurant and asking for his job back.

Then Carrie gives him unexpected news.

Tandoori Palace has received a glowing review.

The restaurant has been awarded three stars, with the food receiving significant praise.

Suddenly, the struggling family restaurant has become one of the places people want to try.

Samir rushes to Akbar.

He tells him about the review and begs him to return as the restaurant’s chef.

Akbar refuses.

His job at Tandoori Palace is finished.

Samir panics.

He believes the restaurant cannot succeed without Akbar because Akbar is the one with the magical ability to create unforgettable Indian food.

Akbar disagrees.

He tells Samir that he has already taught him everything that matters.

Samir should not try to become another Akbar.

He needs to cook like Samir.

Use his heart.

Use his mind.

Use his stomach.

And create something that belongs to him.

Akbar leaves.

When Samir reaches Tandoori Palace, a huge crowd is waiting outside.

The review has brought customers from everywhere.

Now Samir has to prove that the restaurant’s success was not entirely dependent on Akbar.

He goes shopping for fresh vegetables, spices, and ingredients.

Carrie arrives to help and gives him a chef’s hat.

Inside the kitchen, Samir considers returning to Hakim’s recipe book.

For almost his entire career, recipes and precise measurements have made him feel safe.

But now he remembers everything Akbar taught him.

He puts the recipe aside.

Music begins playing.

Samir starts mixing spices by instinct.

For the first time, he is not trying to cook like a French chef, his father, or Akbar.

He is cooking like himself.

The kitchen comes alive.

Dish after dish leaves the kitchen as customers fill the restaurant.

Then Samir’s mother arrives and tells him that people want to see him.

Samir initially assumes there must be another complaint.

Instead, when he walks into the dining room, the customers applaud.

They love the food.

Hakim also arrives with Amit, expecting to finalize the sale of the restaurant.

He hears about the successful review and sees the packed dining room.

Then he realizes something else.

Akbar is gone.

So who cooked all this food?

Hakim looks at his son in his chef’s clothes.

Samir did.

Farrida jokes that Hakim does not know how to express what he is feeling. What he really wants is to taste his son’s cooking.

Samir serves him.

Hakim takes a bite.

For once, the normally critical father has nothing negative to say.

His eyes fill with tears.

Hakim finally tells Samir that the food is good and embraces him.

It is the approval Samir has spent much of his life waiting to receive.

Hakim then turns to Amit.

The restaurant is no longer for sale.

He is going back into business.

But this time, he will do it together with his son.

Samir also introduces Carrie to his parents as his sous-chef, although his parents quickly recognize that their relationship is more than professional.

Samir and Carrie return to the kitchen.

They try to resist kissing because everyone is watching, but eventually they stop caring and kiss anyway.

By the end of Today’s Special, Samir never makes it to Paris.

But he finds something much more important.

He learns Indian cooking, reconnects with his family and cultural roots, accepts the pain surrounding his brother’s death, falls in love with Carrie, earns his father’s respect, and discovers his own identity as a chef.

The restaurant that once appeared to be holding him back ultimately becomes the place where Samir finally understands what kind of chef—and person—he wants to be.

THE END.