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This is a list of characters that appeared on the BBC sitcom Chef! , which aired from 1993 to 1996.
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This is a list of characters that appeared on the BBC sitcom Chef! , which aired from 1993 to 1996.
Gareth Blackstock is the chef de cuisine and sometime co-owner of Le Chateau Anglais, a restaurant in Oxfordshire, specializing in twists on traditional French cuisine. He has attained two Michelin stars. He buys Le Chateau Anglais in Series One, with his wife, Janice, and they own and manage the restaurant through to the end of Series Two. Blackstock's expertise is well known, and he finished first in an international cooking competition. His temper is also well known, and he can be exceptionally rude to his staff, customers, and family members.
Janice Blackstock is Gareth's wife; the two had been married for 8 years at the beginning of Series 1. She left a career in London to move to Oxfordshire with Gareth. When the couple purchase Le Chateau Anglais, she becomes the restaurant manager and attempts to impose restrictions on Gareth's free-spending ways in the kitchen in order to turn a profit. She also spends much of the time thinking of new avenues of publicity. In Series 3, she and Gareth split temporarily, but are reunited when she is discovered to be pregnant.
Everton Stonehead went to school with Gareth growing up and dreams of becoming a top chef one day. He convinces Gareth to take him on as an assistant for no wages to learn the trade while Everton is supported by an aunt. Everton bumbles through his early days in the kitchen, but eventually becomes adept at cooking, helping Gareth with Caribbean cuisine and developing a signature dish of his own. By the end of the series, Everton has become a sort of confidant for Gareth. Everton nearly always ends his sentences with "sort of thing," often to comical effect.
Lucinda is promoted to sous chef at the beginning of Series I, being the most talented and capable of Gareth's kitchen staff. Despite her talent, it takes a budget cut to earn her promotion, which comes with no increase in pay. She has Gareth's respect and stands up to him more than any of the other staff will. Although generally more good-tempered than Gareth, angering Lucinda is just as unwise, as she is just as scathing and even more ruthless than he.
Gustave LaRoche was a talented chef about ten years before the setting of the show. His real name is Gary Lamston (spelling uncertain), but he changed his name because, in his day, one had to be French to be taken seriously as a chef. In Series 2 ("A River Runs Through It") Gareth seeks him out to replace Lucinda as sous chef. He is found working in The Provençal, a small restaurant in an out-of-the-way town. It is later revealed that his alcoholism forced him to such a small kitchen where he did not cook with wine. Gareth, Janice and Everton help him to receive treatment for his alcoholism, but he does have relapses. In series 3, he mostly dislikes Savannah but on occasion teams up with her to achieve a goal, such as firing Reeny/Renee.
Piers is a kitchen laborer who often deals with the presentation of food. His penchant for smoking marijuana nearly gets Gareth into legal trouble while he is out searching for unpasteurized Stilton cheese. Piers frequently finds himself on the receiving end of Gareth's fiery temper, in fact he is a close second to Everton in the verbal abuse stakes.
Otto is a kitchen staff worker. He doesn't appear to be especially talented nor especially incompetent.
Crispin is a kitchen staff worker. Crispin is revealed to come from a wealthy background and has picked up some amorous habits from his father.
Donald is a kitchen staff worker. He has a poor relationship with his father.
Debra is a kitchen staff worker. She also is a hopeless romantic who is especially susceptible to the smell of onions. Pui Fan Lee is best known for playing Po on Teletubbies .
Alice is a kitchen staff worker. She especially dislikes Gustave, seeming to resent Gareth's decision to hire a sous chef from outside the restaurant instead of promoting her.
Savannah is a talented sous chef who began working at Le Chateau between series 2 and 3. She is American, and frequently reminisces about her glamorous life at home. Savannah takes Alice's place as Gustave's main rival. Savannah becomes involved in several complicated romantic situations: she develops an attraction to Gareth, but spurns Cyril, the restaurant owner for part of the show's run. In the final episode, Gareth dramatically stops her from returning to America, leading her to threaten him with a knife, until he assures her that he only wants her to run the restaurant while he reconciles with Janice.
Renée is a kitchen staff worker and the daughter of Cyril, the owner of the restaurant. She has no talent for cooking and the other staff largely resents her presence. Renée is very sensitive about her name, and the rest of the staff mispronounces it (using the faux-British pronunciation "Reeney") to upset her frequently. She has a short-lived romance with Everton, but does not take their breakup nearly as hard as he does. They later reconcile.
Lola serves as the Maître d' of Le Chateau Anglais. She is especially fond of food and spends much effort attempting to sample all of Gareth's dishes, noting that each is her “favourite.” She is surprisingly sensitive to Gareth's moods and how he might react to situations; in the first episode, she correctly guesses the right moment to interrupt Gareth's tirade at a customer and expresses astonishment that said customer has met people as rude as Gareth before.
Alphonse is the new sommelier, and at some point takes over from Lola as Maître d'. Gareth appears to trust Alphonse and incorporates him in the occasional scheme to show Everton up. Alphonse also helps Gareth find satisfactory English wine to use in a cooking competition.
Cyril buys Le Chateau Anglais from Gareth and Janice when it goes into financial trouble. He is enamoured with Savannah, the American sous chef. Gareth and Cyril get into frequent arguments about business decisions, including Reneé's presence in the kitchen.
A sous-chef de cuisine, or simply sous-chef, is a chef who is "the second in command in a kitchen; the person ranking next after the head chef." Consequently, the sous-chef holds much responsibility in the kitchen, which can eventually lead to promotion to becoming the head chef. A sous-chef is employed by an institution that uses a commercial-grade kitchen, such as a restaurant, hotel, or cruise ship.
Chef! is a British situation comedy starring Lenny Henry that aired as twenty episodes over three series from 1993 to 1996 on the BBC. The show was created and primarily written by Peter Tilbury based on an idea from Lenny Henry and produced for the BBC by Henry's production company, Crucial Films.
Paula Ann Hiers Deen is an American chef, cookbook author, and TV personality. Deen resides in Savannah, Georgia, where she owns and operates The Lady & Sons restaurant and Paula Deen's Creek House with her sons, Jamie and Bobby Deen. She has published fifteen cookbooks.
Godiva's is a Canadian television comedy-drama series created by Michael MacLennan with Julia Keatley of Keatley Entertainment. It debuted on Bravo! and Citytv in 2005 and was celebrated for its intelligent, fast-paced depiction of young Canadians in the restaurant industry. The series was nominated for numerous Gemini Awards including Best Series.
Atul Kochhar is an Indian-born, British-based chef, restaurateur, and television personality. Kochhar was one of the first two Indian chefs to receive a Michelin star, awarded in London in 2001 whilst at Tamarind. He opened his own restaurant Benares, which won him a second Michelin star in 2007.
Marcel Vigneron is an American celebrity chef best known for his award-winning restaurant and catering company, Wolf, in Los Angeles. Marcel was also the runner-up of the second season of Top Chef, which aired in 2006–2007. In 2011, he had his own television program on Syfy, Marcel's Quantum Kitchen, in which he started and ran a molecular gastronomy experiential catering company. He later competed on Top Chef: All-Stars in 2011, on The Food Network's The Next Iron Chef in 2012 and The Food Network's "Superstar Sabotage: Heat 2" on the show Cutthroat Kitchen in 2014. Marcel has gone on to judge several televised cooking competitions, such as Iron Chef, America’s Best Cooks, and Guy's Grocery Games.
Jun Tanaka is an American-born Japanese-British television chef, best known for presenting Channel 4's Cooking It as well as appearing in Saturday Kitchen on BBC One. He was the third Grand Champion of the American competitive cooking show, Chopped.
Angela Maria Hartnett is an English chef. A protégée of Gordon Ramsay who was made famous by her appearances on British television, she was Chef-Patron at Angela Hartnett at The Connaught in London. Currently, she is Chef Patron for Murano in Mayfair, Cafe Murano in St James's and Covent Garden, Cucina Angelina in Courchevel (France) and joint owner of Merchant's Tavern in Shoreditch.
Christina Machamer is an American chef who won in the fourth season of Fox Network's reality cooking show Hell's Kitchen. She was awarded the position of "senior sous chef" at Gordon Ramsay's then-new restaurant at The London West Hollywood, where she earned a $250,000 yearly salary.
Hell's Kitchen is an American reality competition cooking show that premiered on Fox on May 30, 2005. The series is hosted by celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, who created and appeared in the British series of the same name.
Scott Leibfried is an American chef and culinary consultant best known for his work hosting and participating in cooking-related competition programs Hell's Kitchen and the Food Network Challenge. Leibfried was born in New York City as the youngest of two children.
Pasta (Korean: 파스타) is a 2010 Korean television series starring Gong Hyo-jin, Lee Sun-kyun, Lee Ha-nui and Alex Chu. The workplace romantic comedy is about the dreams and struggles of a young woman who aspires to become an elite chef. It aired on MBC from January 4 to March 9, 2010 on Mondays and Tuesdays at 21:55 for 20 episodes.
Head Chef is an Irish cookery series on TV3, one of Ireland's national broadcasters. The series featured Conrad Gallagher, the youngest ever chef to win a Michelin star, and aired from 8 April 2011 to 27 May 2011.
Lisa Goodwin-Allen is a British chef best known for being executive chef of the Michelin starred Northcote restaurant. She was also one of four winning chefs on season five of the BBC cooking show Great British Menu.
Hugh Acheson is a Canadian-born chef and restaurateur. He owns four restaurants in Georgia, and serves as a judge on the reality cooking competition show Top Chef, and as an Iron Chef on Iron Chef Canada.
Monica Galetti is a Samoan-born New Zealand chef. She is a judge on Masterchef and chef proprietor of Mere in London. She was senior sous-chef at Le Gavroche in London. Galetti has been a judge on the BBC competitive cooking programme MasterChef: The Professionals since 2009 and has presented Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby with Giles Coren since 2017.
Debra Ponzek is an American chef, who won the James Beard Foundation Award for Rising Star Chef in 1992 beating her then-husband Bobby Flay. She is now the owner of Aux Délices restaurants in Connecticut.
Mashama Bailey is an American chef trained in French technique who is currently cooking Southern cuisine. In 2019, Bailey was awarded a James Beard Award as best chef of the southeast.
Christina M. Wilson is an American chef and reality television personality. She was the winner of season 10 of the FOX Network's reality cooking show Hell's Kitchen. She was awarded the position of chef de cuisine at Gordon Ramsay Steak at the Paris Las Vegas. Since 2015, she has been the Corporate Executive Chef of Gordon Ramsay Restaurant Group and has returned to Hell's Kitchen as a sous-chef.