TORTILLA SOUP []

Family-size portions of comedy. Running time: 102 minutes. Rated PG-13 (suggestive behavior). At the Empire, the Union Square, others.

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ENGLISH-language remakes of foreign films are usually suspect, but “Tortilla Soup” is the exception that proves the rule – a flavorful comedy about a food-centric Latino family in Los Angeles.

Maybe it’s because Ang Lee gave his blessing for this loose adaptation of his “Eat Drink Man Woman,” which was set in Taiwan.

This version is driven by a rare lead performance by Hector Elizondo, the superb character actor who has anchored many a film for his pal, director Garry Marshall. (He’s the best thing in Marshall’s “The Princess Diaries.”)

Elizondo is terrific as Martin, a widowed master chef who runs a house with three unmarried daughters: an uptight schoolteacher (Elizabeth Pena), a temperamental corporate consultant (Jacqueline Obradors) and a college student (Tamara Mello) who feels overshadowed by her siblings.

Martin is being sized up by an overbearing neighborhood widow (Raquel Welch, showing heretofore unexhibited comic talent) with a sweet, single-mom daughter (Constance Marie).

Meanwhile, Martin’s own daughters are contemplating pairing up with, respectively, a baseball coach (Paul Rodriguez), a Venezuelan mogul (Joel Joan) and a hunky Brazilian student (Nikolai Kinski).

At times, the script by Tom Musca and Ramon Menendez comes perilously close to movie-of-the-week fare. But the integrity of the performances and the no-nonsense direction by Spain’s Maria Rispoli (“Twice Upon a Yesterday”) make this a more satisfying meal than the similarly themed “Woman on Top.”

“Tortilla Soup” presents food so sumptuously, you’re likely to leave the theater hungry.

The elaborate dishes, prepared by Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger of the Food Network’s Two Hot Tamales, are far more meticulously lit and photographed than the cast.