Riva

Riva is the main antagonist of the 2014 comedy-drama film Chef. He is a conservative and greedy restaurant owner and Carl Casper's former employee. 

He is played by Dustin Holfman.  

Chef

Riva is the owner of the prestigious restaurant Gauloise in Brentwood, California. While the head chef Carl Casper is well-liked by the staffs for his dedication to the cuisine art and hardworking, Riva is heavily looked down and despised by everyone due to his authoritarian attitude and stick-in-the-mud tendency when it comes to the menu as he always stick to the old and classical dishes no matter what. The reason for his conservative nature comes from the fact that he doesn't like to take risks as he fears that new and exotic dishes will ruin his costumers loyalty towards the restaurant who love to eat his classical menu so many years. Adding to the lack of fierce competition in the area and his greediness, it makes him even more less willing to change the menu to be more innovative.

When Casper has a chance to show his talent when a well-known food blogger and critic Ramsey Mitchel comes to eat at Gauloise, Riva forces Casper to stick the old tastes much to Casper's displeasure as he has prepared a brand new menu for Ramsay. Due to the stagnation of the courses, Casper receives a bad review from Ramsey.

In the fit of anger, Casper fires back at Ramsey on Twitter and invites him to a rematch. Despite trying to reason with Riva about the bad review of him, which potentially ruins the restaurant in the future, Riva stubbornly refuses to listen and make Casper repeats the failing menu all over again. Having had enough of Riva's narrow-minded and lack of consideration, Casper quits on the spot and Sous Chef Tony replaces him.

Turn out making Casper quits his post turns out to be Riva's greatest mistake since without Casper's leadership and management skill in the kitchen, Tony and his chefs scrambles and struggles to make even the regular dishes effectively. As Ramsey is unaware of Casper's departure from his job, he once again gives Casper, a scathing review. Furious, Casper comes to straight to restaurant and insult him in front of everyone, making his credibility to go down the drain.

Despite the setbacks, Casper manages to regain his credibility with his Cubano food trucks and his brand new restaurant. It is unknown what happens to Riva and his restaurant in the end, but it is sure that his business will fail quickly due to the lack of competent chef like Casper and his conservative attitude in which new restaurants will arise in the near future with new break-through menu to render his decayed restaurant out of business.