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All The Chefs Who Have Appeared as Cartoons

Saturday, 03/18/2017 10:47

We’re basking squarely in the age of the celebrity chef, so it’s no wonder that some of our favorite culinary personalities have found themselves becoming pop culture icons.

Ina Garten has appeared on 30 Rock, Roy Choi on Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, and heck, Emeril Lagasse even had is own sitcom for a while! Bam!

And while cameos in which chefs play themselves are commonplace enough, with the news that Gordon Ramsay would be getting behind the microphone to portray a Smurf in an upcoming film, it got us wondering if other chefs have lent their voices to fictional cartoon characters. As it turns out, yes. A bunch. Here are a dozen familiar faces from the food world who’ve gotten animated.

Gordon Ramsay

In the new, fully-animated Smurfs: The Lost Village, the famously foul-mouthed chef and television host will show his softer, bluer side as Baker Smurf. Ramsay also applied his signature berating to Marge’s cooking when he voiced himself on The Simpsons.

Wolfgang Puck

Before Ramsay, Puck donned a miniature white hat (virtually speaking) as Chef Smurf in 2011’s live-action Smurfs movie. He previously portrayed himself on The Simpsons.

Anthony Bourdain

The Parts Unknown host has appeared as a food-obsessed character called Anthony Gourmand on the Nickelodeon series Sanjay and Craig and (probably more appropriately given his demeanor) on the adult-skewed FX series Archer as Chef Lance Casteau. He also appeared as himself on The Simpsons.

Julia Child

The queen of television cooking shows had such an iconic voice, it’s a wonder she wasn’t called upon for character work more than her turn as Museum of Natural History scientist Dr. Juliet Bleeb in We’re Back! A Dinosaur Story.

Mario Batali

Perhaps the only thing cooler than Batali getting cast as Rabbit, the underground supper club chef in Wes Anderson’s stop-motion masterpiece Fantastic Mr. Fox, is the fact that he got to ride Vespas around New York City with co-star Bill Murray. Batali also appeared as himself on The Simpsons.

Emeril Lagasse

One could argue Emeril Lagasse is already pretty animated, and he’s brought that big personality to King Darius on Disney’s Hercules television series and Marlon the Gator in the New Orleans-set Disney feature The Princess and the Frog.

Alton Brown

Earning supreme cartoon street cred, Brown got to appear on the hit Nickelodeon series Spongebob Squarepants as Nicholas Withers, the host of “House Fancy” (a parody of HGTV’s House Hunters). He also recurred as chef/inventor Lysander Floovox on Miles from Tomorrowland. Brown has also voiced himself on The Simpsons.

Curtis Stone

While known for his good looks in addition to his keen culinary skills, Stone portrayed a rather unsightly creature, one of the antagonizing Bergens named Todd, in Dreamworks’ Trolls movie.

Duff Goldman

The Ace of Cakes took his pastry skills to a galaxy far, far away as Baker Droid on Disney XD’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Giada De Laurentiis

The Food Network star and Italian chef was the voice behind the owner of Paulette’s Pizza Palace on the Playhouse Disney series Handy Manny.

Rocco DiSpirito

Chef, host and Celebrity Apprentice advisor DiSpirito played Baker Hero on the nesting-doll populated Higglytown Heroes, which teaches kids about the jobs of everyday people in the town.

Guy Fieri

The founding father of Flavortown as the master dough slinger Rocky the Pizza Guy on the hit Disney series Phineas and Ferb and a character named Longtail on the novel-series-turned-television-series about feral cats titled Warriors.

By Adam Campbell-Schmitt/ Food & Wine