The Swedish Chef is the incomprehensible preparer of foodstuffs from The Muppet Show. He first appeared in The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence in 1975, with Chinese subtitles for his dialog.

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Nearly all Swedish Chef sketches begin with him in a kitchen, waving some utensils while singing his signature song[1] in a trademark mock Swedish, a semi-comprehensible gibberish which parodies the characteristic vowel sounds of Swedish. The last line of the song is always "Børk! Børk! Børk!" and is punctuated by the Chef throwing the utensils over his shoulder to crash into the crockery behind him. (Although the letter "ø" does not exist in Swedish—it is a Danish/Norwegian letter whose Swedish equivalent is "ö"—the Chef's trademark word is nearly always spelled "Børk.")

After this introduction, the Chef continues to speak gibberish while preparing a particular recipe. His commentary is spiced with the occasional English word to clue the viewer in to what he is attempting. These clues are necessary as he frequently uses unorthodox culinary equipment (firearms, tennis rackets, etc.) to prepare his dishes. The sketch typically degenerates into a slapstick finale, and he often winds up in pitched battle with his ingredients, from Lobster Banditos to a Japanese Cake. The Swedish Chef has also appeared, at least briefly, in every Muppet film to date. He was put in charge of running the film projector in The Muppet Movie and Muppet*Vision 3D. In A Muppet Family Christmas, he attempts to cook the Christmas turkey, then sets his sights on Big Bird instead.

The Swedish Chef's popularity led to his own cereal, Cröonchy Stars, in 1988. Commercials for the product featured the Chef, up to his usual antics. In the 1990s, the Swedish Chef appeared regularly on Donna's Day starting in the second season.

In episode 316, Danny Kaye, portraying the chef's uncle in a sketch, claims that the Swedish Chef's first name is Tom. However, since Kaye was not a blood relative in reality, this information may be considered apocryphal. Many years later on The Muppets, Christina Applegate misinterprets his name as Megan in "Bear Left Then Bear Write", when he was actually just saying, "me, me."[2]

Origins

Jim Henson had previously explored the idea of a funny foreign chef at the US Food Fair that took place in Hamburg, Germany in 1961. In a sketch called "The Chef's Salad," Sam and Friends character Omar prepared a flaming salad while speaking in some quite incomprehensible mock German that Henson and Jerry Juhl had previously scribbled down in phonetics.[3][4] Another early Muppet chef was Chef Bernardi, who hastily whipped up a sixty-second salad flambé in a 1966 appearance on The Mike Douglas Show. Like the later Swedish Chef, Henson was the main performer of Bernardi, while Frank Oz performed his hands.

According to Brian Henson in one of his introductions for The Muppet Show, "Jim Henson had this tape that he used to play which was 'How to Speak Mock Swedish'. And he used to drive to work and I used to ride with him a lot. And he would drive to work trying to make a chicken sandwich in Mock Swedish or make a turkey casserole in Mock Swedish. It was the most ridiculous thing you had ever seen. And people at traffic lights used to stop and sort of look at him a little crazy. But that was the roots of the character that would eventually become the Swedish Chef".

Hands

The Swedish Chef is unique in that he is performed with uncovered, live hands. Unlike a typical live-hand Muppet, whose hands are felt gloves worn by the performer, the Chef's hands are merely the exposed skin of the second puppeteer who assists the main performer (who operates his head and voice).

On The Muppet Show, Frank Oz was the regular performer for the chef's hands. This created a unique dynamic between he and Jim Henson because normally, the assistant on a live-handed Muppet operates only the right hand. When Bill Barretta took over the character, Steve Whitmire was most often the Chef's hands.[5]

When the Chef poses for a photo shoot, he is usually equipped with photo puppet hands. Some exceptions include the Meet Jim Henson's Muppets View-Master set, and this stock photo. On even rarer occassions, typical live-hand Muppet gloves have been used for Chef in cases when only one performer is required. Examples include the backstage exchange immediatley following his sketch in The Muppet Show episode 218 and the opening conference table scene in Muppets Tonight episode 101.

As the Chef is most commonly seen with human hands rather than the occassional felt, to more accurately represent the character as displayed in MOMI's Jim Henson Exhibition, a cast of Frank Oz's hands were made to accompany the puppet on exhibit.[6]

Marriage

A gold wedding ring has appeared on the Swedish Chef's left hand as early as 2007 (in an appearance on America's Got Talent).

Bill Barretta gave an explanation for the ring (which belongs to Steve Whitmire who often performed Chef's hands) saying, "The ring was a mishap at some point when Steve and I started doing it together, we couldn’t reshoot what we had done once we realized it...and so it stuck."[7]

The ring has since appeared on merchandise including a 2014 plush doll and a Diamond select action figure (although the latter miscolors the ring as silver).

In The Muppets episode "Single All the Way", Fozzie asks, "Chef, you've been married for such a long time. If your wife left you, do you think you could live without her?" The Chef deflects answering the question by offering Fozzie a "Cuppycake."

Casting History

Primary Performers

Other Performers

Notes

The Chef's gibberish gained a life of its own with the creation of a Unix filter capable of converting standard English to Chefspeak in 1992. The filter quickly became a staple of hacker culture and eventually spread to the mainstream with Swedish Chef translators on several Web sites such as Google. In 2003, Opera Software published a special Bork version of its internet browser that turned the MSN Web site into mock Swedish. Mozilla Firefox also contains a popular add-on called Bork Bork Bork! that allows the selective translation of text from Web pages of the user's choice. It is also a display language there.

In episode 319 of Fraggle Rock, Sprocket does an impersonation of the Swedish Chef.

A proposed Swedish Chef sketch involved him making a cocktail, getting drunker as he does multiple taste tests. Another had the Chef creating a peculiar stew, which would explode when lit.[8]

There was a Swedish Chef sketch that was taped but not broadcast, in which the Chef prepared ratatouille.[9]

In The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence, the name of his program is "Järnvägskorsning" (Railway Crossings).

Displaying a rare resistance to the pig's aggression, Chef blocked one of Miss Piggy's karate chops in The Muppet Show episode 404 with the lid of a pot.

The Chef is one of the few regular characters from The Muppet Show whose original dialogue from the English version remains the same in most Non-English speaking countries.

According to the inside gatefold cover for The Muppet Revue, The Swedish Chef was actually born in Denmark and moved to Sweden when he was a baby.

A baby version of the Chef makes a cameo in a picture hanging in Nanny's house (with pictures of baby versions of other Muppet characters) in Muppet Babies. The Swedish Chef eventually became a character on the show.

Sketches

Meet the Muppets: Because everyone is trying to cheer Kermit up, Robin tries to get the Chef to make Lily Pad Goulash. The Chef fails to understand him and thinks he wants Frogs' Legs Goulash, then takes Robin to make the dish. Onstage, Robin talks the Chef into stopping, and leaves.

The Treasure of Peg-Leg Wilson: Because the Chef is making onion soup at the same time that a toast-hurdling contest is happening, toast flies out of the pot as soon as the recipe is complete.

Filmography

See The Swedish Chef filmography

Video game appearances

Book appearances

Sources