Remy is an atypical rat who exists in the attic of a French state home with his blood brother Emile and a pack led by his father Django. Gifted with a keen sense of smell, Remy aspires to be a gourmet chef, inspired by France’s recently deceased top chef, Auguste Gusteau. Remy wishes to explore haute cuisine, but his talents are instead used to sniff for rat poison in the garbage.

One solar day, the home’s occupant, an old lady, detects the colony and forces the rats to flee into the sewers. Remy jugs behind to grab Gusteau’s cookbook, and is distinguished from the others; by chance, he ends up at Gusteau’s restaurant. An imaginary Gusteau encourages him to watch the kitchen at work from a skylight. Inside, Skinner, Gusteau’s former sous-chef and the current owner of the establishment, reluctantly hires Alfredo Linguini, a clumsy young man whose mother, Renata Linguini, was an old flame of Gusteau’s. Linguini is assigned to perform janitorial duties. While cleaning, Linguini, unseen by all but Remy, accidentally spills a pot of soup and tries to fix it by adding nearby ingredients at random. Horrified by Linguini’s actions, Remy slips and falls into the kitchen. While desperately trying to escape, Remy can’t help but try to fix the ruined soup. Remy is caught in the act by Linguini, who in turn is caught by Skinner. In the confusion, some of the soup is taken and served, and turns out to be a rousing success. Believing Linguini to be responsible for the soup, Skinner initially wishes to fire Linguini for attempting to cook. The kitchen’s sole female cook, Colette, tries to convince Skinnner to keep Linguini as he had apparently created a dish someone genuinely liked. Skinner reluctantly agrees, but tasks Linguini to quicken the soup. Shortly afterward, Remy is discovered and Skinner orders Linguini to go kill the rat. Linguini is unable to kill Remy, recognizing that he is the “little chef” who made the soup, and takes him home.