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A list of characters appearing in the series Godiva's.


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     Front of House Staff 

Kate Bloom

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kate_sm_2.jpg
Played by: Erin Karpluk

The restaurant's manager, hailing from Scarborough, Ontario. At the beginning of the series, she is engaged to Bruce, but they break up after she cheats on him with their realtor, Lucas. After that, she goes through several brief relationships, and is eventually date-raped by Joe, a man who picks her up at a club. At the same time, she deals with fending off Garth, a property manager who is trying to buy the neighbourhood in which the Godiva's building is situated.

  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Zach, Stick's defense lawyer, with whom she has a brief fling: Neither one of them can get fully in the mood until they've hurled a few insults at each other.
    • With Ramir.
  • Fiery Redhead: When she's angry.
  • Good with Numbers: Can calculate the back-end cost and optimal price of any plate of food as soon as it's placed in front of her.
  • Guilt-Ridden Accomplice: An enormous back tax bill forces Kate to accept a large "donation" from some very shady friends of Godiva, who later force her to launder a large bag of cash for them, followed by another. She remains ridden with guilt and fear throughout her dealings with these men.
  • I Just Want to Be Special: Kate's sole ambition is to "make it" in the restaurant industry, and she will stop at nothing to transform Godiva's into the hot spot she wants to manage.
  • The Leader: As the restaurant's manager, she is responsible for managing the finances and finding new ways to bring in and retain customers.
  • Lonely Bachelor Pad: Gender-flipped. Since Kate arrives in Vancouver on her very first day on the job, she has no time to furnish her new apartment and spends the night sleeping on the floor. She gradually adds bits and pieces of furniture throughout the series.
  • NaĆÆve Newcomer: Both to the restaurant and to Vancouver (as she hails from Toronto).
  • Rape and Revenge: Kate is date-raped after a man named Joe spikes her drink at a bar. After grappling with the trauma of the encounter for a while, Kate teams up with Simone to settle the score by spiking Joe's drink, getting the word RAPIST tattooed on his hand, then taking him back to his apartment, where Simone re-records his answering machine message to reveal his crime to any callers.
  • She Cleans Up Nicely: In her first few days at Godiva's, Kate's outfits tend to be plain and conservative. She enlists Cordell to help her sex up her style.

Simone Kardinal

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/simone_sm.png
Played by: Carmen Moore

The bartender, hailing from Williams Lake, BC. She is known for her sarcastic commentary and her wide-ranging knowledge of alcoholic drinks, which she likely gleaned during her period as an alcoholic. She throws out her back in the middle of the series and becomes addicted to her painkillers, but she quickly solves this by seeking acupuncture treatments from Victor. She has a daughter named Chantal, who shows up unexpectedly near the end of the series and ends up running away with T.J.

Cordell Nimmins

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cordell_sm_4.jpg
Played by: Michael McMurtry

A waiter. He has a fragile relationship with a man named Drew, who is more interested in monogamy than the more promiscuous Cordell. This catches up with Cordell when he fears that he may have contracted HIV. Though primarily a waiter, Cordell becomes the restaurant's sommelier with the instruction of Simone and a wine expert named Telmo, with whom he sleeps one night.

  • All Gays are Promiscuous: Cordell is totally sexually uninhibited until he starts falling for Drew, his boyfriend throughout season 2, who believes Sex Equals Love. After some early struggles with monogamy, The two experiment with an open relationship before Cordell finally decides he loves Drew too much to sleep with anyone else.
  • Camp Gay: The campiest of the many gay characters in the series.
  • Pizza Boy Special Delivery: Admits that hooking up with a plumber is a favorite fantasy of his. He does meet a plumber who is up for anything, but because Cordell wants to stay true to his new boyfriend, he avoids having sex with the plumber and manages to borrow the guy's tool belt to wear to bed with Drew.
  • The Rival: To Simone, who fears that his growing knowledge of wine will make her less important to the restaurant. They manage to make it work.
  • Sommelier Speak: He improves upon some early attempts at this as the show progresses.
    Cordell: A rich gewürztraminer is more interesting. It balances out the cheese with something lush. Oozy honey and tangerine.
    Simone: "Oozy?"
  • Tragic AIDS Story: Averted: Cordell takes an HIV test at Drew's request, fearing the worst after a lifetime of promiscuity and a less-than-stellar track record on using protection. The test is negative.
  • Wine Is Classy: Although he prefers vodka to wine, Cordell trains to become the restaurant's sommelier after seeing it as a way to earn bigger tips.

Jenna

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jenna_sm.jpg
Played by: Leah Cairns

A waitress. She is an aspiring dancer who has trouble finding a role because of her age. She has a one-sided, mostly physical relationship with Ramir at the beginning of the series, later getting together with the more romantic Stick.

  • Bizarre Taste in Food: Rarely eats anything prepared in the Godiva's kitchen, opting instead for a variety of nutritional supplements.
  • Break Up Demand: Recognizes that Ramir's engagement to Rajni is a sham and seduces him into Sex with the Ex before begging him to stop the wedding. He eventually does, but he does not go back to Jenna as she hoped he would.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: With Stick for one episode, when his occasional Friends with Benefits Aiko comes to town.
    • With Ramir whenever any other woman is around him.
  • Dancing Is Serious Business: Takes her salsa lessons with Stick much more seriously than he does.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: To Stick.
  • Failed Audition Plot: She has two. In season 1, she does get a role in a major dance production, but it's much smaller than she hoped. In season 2, she tries out for a spot with a prestigious dance company but does not get it because of her age.
  • Gold Digger: Jenna is determined to marry a rich man, and only decides to return Stick's feelings for her after learning that his family is loaded.
  • The "I Love You" Stigma: Ramir realizes that his "casual" relationship with Jenna needs to end after she says this.
  • The Immodest Orgasm: She's a screamer.
  • Ms. Fanservice: While all the women (and most of the men) on the show are shown naked and/or in sexual situations at least once, Jenna does so most often.
  • Raven Hair, Ivory Skin
  • Waiting for a Break: Dreams of becoming a professional dancer.

T.J.

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tj_sm.jpg
Played by: Noel Fisher

The busboy and the owner's son. He is often immature and rude to the fellow restaurant staff, which may stem from the constant absence of Godiva, his mother. He is sometimes seen with a group of hard-edged classmates — Coulter, Mitchell, and Dani — who at one point almost burn down the restaurant when he lets them in after closing. He eventually becomes a DJ, running a nightclub out of his apartment above the restaurant. At the close of the series, he runs away with Chantal, Simone's daughter — ironically, he had lost his virginity to Simone in a much earlier episode.

  • Cool House: Lives alone in a loft above the restaurant, which he eventually turns into a teen nightclub.
  • Deaf Composer: T.J. is half-deaf and uses a hearing aid. For him, music is "more feeling than sound."
  • Driven to Suicide: After his girlfriend dumps him and Simone coldly informs him that their one-night stand meant nothing. He survives.
  • My New Gift Is Lame: For his 17th birthday, T.J. receives a souvenir from Godiva that he neither wants nor understands.
  • Nepotism: He gets away with a lot because his mom owns the restaurant.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Rivals!: Instantly hates new busboy Adrian, and gets into a fight with him that leads to the destruction of an ice sculpture brought in for a customer's birthday party. The two resolve their issues after that and eventually team up to run T.J.'s club.
  • Only Known by Initials: We eventually learn that the "T" stands for Tyrone.
  • Parental Abandonment: His dad is out of the picture and his mother, Godiva, is traveling the world.
  • The Runaway: He and Chantal run off to Seattle so he can pursue his music career and she can avoid being sent back to her grandparents' home.
  • Their First Time: First attempts sex with a girl his age, which quickly becomes awkward. He eventually enlists Simone to give him a downplayed version of Professional Sex Ed.
  • Unlocking the Talent: Turns out to be quite a good DJ thanks to some training and donated equipment from Stick's friend Aiko.
  • Villainous Friendship: Strikes one up with Garth, the property developer who seeks to buy the entire block where Godiva's is located and turn it into a condo complex.
  • With Friends Like These...: Keeps referring to schoolmates Coulter and Mitchell as his "friends," even though they constantly insult him, beat him up, and get him into trouble.

     Kitchen Staff 

Ramir Kapoor

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ramir_sm.jpg
Played by: Stephen Lobo

The head chef, hailing from Greater Vancouver. He is an East Indian chef who often has to deal with his overbearing parents, who are disappointed with his chosen career path. He is known as a player and has an on-and-off relationship with Jenna throughout the series, though he is more interested in the physical aspects of it than the emotional ones. He becomes engaged to Rajni, the daughter of family friends, who tells him that she is a lesbian. She convinces him to ask for her hand so they can satisfy their parents, but he abruptly leaves her during the middle of their wedding. This leads his father to disown him.

Martin

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/martin_sm_6.jpg
Played by: Neil Grayston

The sous chef, hailing from Tadoussac, Quebec. He is Ramir's roommate and frequently has to deal with the "noises" coming from Ramir's bedroom. He shows almost zero interest in women at the beginning of the series and almost resigns himself to celibacy, though he eventually begins taking hormone treatments, whose side effects cause his budding relationship with a woman named Jane to fail miserably.

  • Celeb Crush: On British celebrity chef Selena Dupree.
  • Extreme Libido: Briefly becomes almost obsessed with sex after his hormone treatments start to kick in.
  • Foreign Cuss Word: Known to drop a sacre (a French-Canadian swear word based on Catholic vocabulary) when he gets frustrated.
  • French Cuisine Is Haughty: Averted: Kate, believing Ramir is about to depart the position of head chef at Godiva's, offers it to Martin. He tells her that he would want to refocus the menu on French-Canadian Comfort Food. This plan comes to nothing after Ramir backs out of the wedding.
  • Hypercompetent Sidekick: To Ramir. Despite being sous-chef, Martin has more training and kitchen experience and keeps a cooler head under pressure.
  • Oblivious to Love: When he and Jane first meet, he fails to pick up on her blatant flirting.
  • Poirot Speak: Averted. As the token Quebecker of the group, Martin speaks with a very slight French-Canadian accent and drops the occasional French curse word, but he's otherwise perfectly fluent in English.
  • Terrible Pick-Up Lines: His early attempts at seduction don't work out very well.
  • Undying Loyalty: Frequently receives offers to work at other restaurants, but turns them down out of loyalty to Ramir. That said, Ramir does commit a couple of rant-inducing slights against him.

Daisy

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/daisy_sm.jpg
Played by: Sonja Bennett

The pastry chef, hailing from Salt Spring Island, BC. She is a devout vegetarian and the "peacemaker" of the group. She develops a close friendship with Victor after he begins his medical practice. She begins dating Sam, a local organic farmer, who runs the meditation group she joins after witnessing a harrowing death. His influence causes her to rename herself "Savitri" (Sanskrit for "daughter of the sun") and behave erratically in the kitchen. Daisy is fired from Godiva's after stealing from her co-workers in order to help the meditation group's charity project. After a particularly uncomfortable encounter with a fellow member and pressure from Cordell and Victor, she leaves the group and is allowed to return to her old job at Godiva's.

  • Break the Cutie: Witnessing the death of one of Victor's patients sets Daisy on a dark course.
  • Carrying a Cake: Prepares an enormous four-tier cake for Ramir and Rajni's wedding in the Godiva's kitchen, only to discover that it won't fit through any of the restaurant's doors. In desperation, she takes a chainsaw to the back door to make more room. All this turns out to be for nothing after Ramir brings the wedding to a halt.
  • The Gardener: Plants flowers to brighten up the back of the restaurant.
  • Granola Girl
  • Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: The sweetest and most compassionate member of the crew, and the only blonde.
  • Meaningful Rename: Changes her name to "Savitri" after pressure from her boyfriend and meditation leader, signaling that he is beginning to remake her from the cheerful, good-natured airhead that she had been up until then.
  • The Precious, Precious Car: Her prized possession is her bicycle, Emily. Someone steals it from the back of the restaurant and leaves it in a broken heap on the side of False Creek.
  • Stealing from the Till: Steals from customers and even co-workers to benefit her meditation group's charity project.
  • A Threesome Is Hot: Averted: Daisy is not remotely comfortable with Sam's technique for "healing" a female newcomer to the meditation group.
  • Wide-Eyed Idealist: Tries to be as ethical as possible when it comes to food. She even tries to avoid cooking with sugar after learning some uncomfortable truths about the Caribbean sugar cane industry.

Lyndon Loring "Stick" Wellwood

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/stick_sm.jpg
Played by: Matthew Currie Holmes

The prep chef, hailing from the Shaughnessy neighborhood of Vancouver. He is considered the slacker of the kitchen crew, often seen with his surfboard at Wreck Beach, or smoking marijuana on the restaurant's loading dock. He comes from a wealthy Vancouver family that he generally tries to avoid, though their social influence helped him get out of jail for dealing drugs. He develops a crush on Jenna while she is having problems with Ramir, and later becomes her boyfriend.

  • Brilliant, but Lazy: Can be a very good chef when he puts his mind to it, but he is quite content being a prep cook.
  • Cock Fight: Picks a fight with Jenna's salsa partner when he thinks they're getting into a Mating Dance. Turns out he's not wrong.
  • Hidden Depths: More like hidden lengths, actually: Cordell unexpectedly discovers that Stick is, in his words, "donkey-rigged," which surprises the kitchen staff.
  • Messy Hair: Covers his shaggy blond locks with a backwards baseball cap while cooking.
  • Not Good with Rejection: Throws a few insults at Jenna after she initially declines to date him.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: None of his colleagues know his real name until they hear it in court.
  • Secretly Wealthy: Subverted: Had a wealthy upbringing but is no longer on good terms with his family and now lives on the cheap.
  • Will Not Tell a Lie: Refuses to plead innocent when accused of dealing drugs, even though T.J. was technically doing the dealing.

Victor

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/victor_sm.jpg
Played by: Rick Tae

A doctor who is stuck working as a dishwasher, hailing from Guangdong, China. He has a wife, Su Fei, and a daughter, Anita.

  • Asian Speekee Engrish: He speaks English with very poor grammar and a thick Chinese accent.
  • Awful Wedded Life: Much of what we see of his marriage to Su Fei involves the two of them arguing, particularly over money.
  • Back-Alley Doctor: Literally. For a short time, he offers medical treatments to patients in the alley behind the restaurant, but quickly halts his "practice" after a patient dies despite his best efforts.
  • Florence Nightingale Effect: Develops a brief attraction to Simone after giving her acupuncture.
  • Meaningful Rename: His Chinese name is "Wei Da." Godiva gave him his English name, telling him it meant "life winner."
  • Rank Up: Spends most of the series as a dishwasher, but becomes a line cook by the finale.
  • Worthless Foreign Degree: He was a physician in his native China, but due to his poor English, he cannot get a medical license in Canada.

     Friends and Family 

Godiva

Played by: Rebecca Jenkins

The owner of the restaurant. She hires Kate to manage Godiva's while she travels the world, but never lets the staff forget who is really in charge. She is also T.J.'s mother.

  • Dark and Troubled Past: Discussed: Howard and Stu owe her a favor dating back to her "wild years."
  • Hands-Off Parenting: Relies on the restaurant staff to look out for T.J.
  • The Namesake: Of the restaurant and of the show.
  • The Voice: She is never seen on the show. Her only contact with the other characters is over the phone.
  • Walking the Earth: The staff never knows where in the world she is at any given moment.

Drew DeCorsi

Played by: Peter Wilds

Cordell's boyfriend.

  • Camp Gay: Less so than Cordell, but he has his moments.
  • Hidden Depths: While we don't know much about Drew outside his relationship with Cordell, we do learn that he's an elementary school teacher who likes to read crime novels.
  • Rage Breaking Point: Despite Cordell's warnings that he's never been monogamous before and isn't sure he can succeed at it, Drew decides to trust him and stay in their relationship. He reaches his RBP when he discovers that Cordell had a fling with an ice cream vendor. They do get back together a few episodes later, though.

Vijay, Preety, and Chandra Kapoor

Played by: Cedric De Souza, Veena Sood, and Sunita Prasad

Ramir's mother, father, and college-age sister.

  • Against My Religion: As a devout Hindu and a vegetarian, Preety is appalled to learn from a review that Ramir cooks beef, which he had routinely lied to her about.
  • Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Preety's presence in the restaurant results in more than one round of humiliation for Ramir.
  • Arranged Marriage: Vijay and Preety engineer Ramir's engagement to Rajni, fervently believing that he cannot fully reach manhood until he marries.
  • Family Business: Vijay owns a contracting company that Ramir worked in briefly.
  • Grandma's Recipe: Ramir refuses at first to make or even consume the Indian fare of his childhood. A case of Writer's Block leads him to seek inspiration from Preety, who helps him add a new spice palate to the Godiva's kitchen that goes over very well with customers.
  • I Have No Son!: Vijay after Ramir bails on his wedding to Rajni.
  • Little Miss Snarker: Most of Chandra's lines show her to be this.
  • My Sister Is Off-Limits: Ramir is appalled at Chandra's brief implication that she has a sex life of her own.
  • So Proud of You: In the days leading up to the wedding, Vijay seems much prouder of Ramir's culinary career than he has been for years, which makes Ramir feel pretty good. It doesn't last.

Rajni Haideri

Played by: Layla Alizada

Ramir's fiancée.

  • Double Entendre: Her conversation is full of these. She seems to enjoy dropping a few in the presence of her and Ramir's parents.
  • Ethical Slut: Immediately pegs Ramir as a guy who sleeps around as much as she does, and reasons that both of them should feel free to keep doing so after they're married.
  • Hospital Hottie: She's an OB/GYN.
  • Marriage of Convenience: Views her engagement to Ramir entirely as a means to this: She gets her parents off her back and gets to leave her hometown.
  • Mellow Fellow: It takes a lot to rattle her. She scarcely even blinks when Jenna tells her to her face that she and Ramir have resumed sleeping together. Her Rage Breaking Point arrives after Ramir jilts her at the altar, upending her careful planning.
  • Pragmatic Pansexuality: Has sex with Ramir once because, according to Simone, that's the only way to secure his loyalty. That fails when she admits that she couldn't fully enjoy it.
  • Reveal Shot: Ramir doesn't expect his parents' choice of bride to be especially attractive. He's pleasantly surprised at his first sight of her.

Sam

Played by: J.R. Bourne

Daisy's boyfriend and meditation group leader and a Godiva's supplier.

  • Beneath the Mask: His meditation group sees him as a kind and caring healer—until Cordell and Drew confront him over what he's done to Daisy and he drops a homophobic slur in front of everyone.
  • Faceā€“Heel Turn:
    • For the rest of the staff, it's when Daisy steals from her coworkers to fund the meditation group's community garden project.
    • For Daisy, it's when he insults her repeatedly to her face, orders her to meditate alone for an indefinite period of time, and withholds her outdoor clothing so she can't leave.
  • Florence Nightingale Effect: Initially dismisses Daisy's feelings for him as this, but changes his mind when she refuses to apologize for liking him.
  • Intimate Healing: His solution for a particularly troubled newcomer to his meditation group is Three-Way Sex involving Daisy.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Chips away at Daisy's individuality bit by bit until she's a shadow of her former self.

Aiko

Played by: Ginger Ruriko Busch

Stick's friend, who teaches T.J. to spin.

  • Friends with Benefits: She and Stick used to "screw around" occasionally before he began dating Jenna.
  • The Idol's Blessing: Bequeaths her old turntables to T.J.
  • Motor Mouth: Loves to chatter away about her travels.
  • Walking the Earth: Stick describes her as a "total nomad" who can always find a place to crash wherever she happens to have a gig.

Jane

Played by: Steph Song

Martin's girlfriend.

Chantal

Played by: Tinsel Korey

Simone's teenage daughter.

  • Family Relationship Switcheroo: Grew up believing Simone was her older sister.
  • The Runaway: Ran away from Williams Lake and hitchhiked to Vancouver to find Simone. Later hitchhikes to Seattle with T.J.
  • Small Town Boredom: Hated life in Williams Lake and gushes about how cool it would be to live in Vancouver, having no idea how expensive that is.

     Other Characters 

Luciano Corvino

Played by: Tom McBeath

The former head chef at Godiva's, who dies in the premiere episode.

  • Bad Boss: Ill-tempered, racist, prone to throwing food, and addicted to drugs. He wasn't missed.
  • Last-Name Basis: The staff, as well as Godiva, refer to him only as Corvino.
  • Undignified Death: A cocaine overdose in the walk-in fridge.
  • Vengeful Ghost: The restaurant's luck takes a marked nosedive immediately after his death. Victor believes Corvino has become a "hungry ghost," which is the result of someone dying with no one to mourn them. The staff holds a ceremony to put his spirit to rest.

Adrian

Played by: Tyler Johnston

A busboy hired to replace T.J.

  • Befriending the Enemy: His relationship with T.J. is hostile at first, but they get over their initial dislike soon enough.
  • Eager Rookie: T.J. takes an immediate dislike to him over his enthusiasm for the job.
  • The Man Behind the Man: Takes credit for T.J.'s success as a DJ, since he does all the promotion.

Garth Rutledge

Played by: William deVry

A property developer with his eye on Godiva's.

  • The Charmer: Has a few dates with Kate before she realizes what he's really up to.
  • Cool Car: Drives a Lotus with very impressive acceleration.
  • Villainous Gentrification: Will seemingly stop at nothing to turn the block where Godiva's is situated into a mixed-use tower.
  • Work Hard, Play Hard: When he's not on the job, he's hitting exclusive clubs and dropping hundreds of dollars on champagne.

Howard

A street criminal who gets Kate mixed up in some shady dealings.

  • Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough: Does most of the talking while his sidekick Stu does most of the smashing.
  • The Dreaded: Kate is visibly terrified to see him and Stu enter the restaurant, even though they act like they're just there for a meal—until they pay with a Briefcase Full of Money that they expect her to launder for them.
  • Loan Shark: This appears to represent the majority of his gang's activities.
  • Tranquil Fury: Rarely raises his voice and delivers most of his instructions in a low menacing tone.
  • Trust Password: Before he gives Kate what she needs, he forces her to make a phone call giving someone the word to off someone else.

Veronique Lancaster

Played by: Lynda Boyd

A local food expert who begins a relationship with Ramir.


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