Small issues: No Chefs Are American

This article is just launched, and there's a strange disconnect between the definition and the examples.

Issues with the definition:

• Why the emphasis on Americans? There's hundreds of nationalities(Arab, Russian, German, etc...) you never see chefs as. The stereotype is that chefs are either French, Italians or Japanese. So why the emphasis in both the definition and title on Americans? This leads to weirdness in examples not taking place in the USA. Why would you expect the chef of a French Restaurant in Paris to be American or the Chef of a restaurant of sea critters under the ocean?
• Why "In Cartoons..."? There's a Puppet example on the very page!

This stems from the fact that the YKTTW Never bothered to propose a definition and when it was launched, ignored most of the suggested elements of thereof.

There's a very good trope here, but the YKTTW dropped the ball on making a quality launch.

EDIT: From the looks of it, the Launcher ignored half the suggested examples too.

edited 28th Jul '11 1:06:10 PM by Ghilz

I imagine the emphasis is on American because most media with this trope is going to be American, and it's notable that in an all-American cast, a foreign chef pops up. More than that, it's not something like All Chefs Are French or All Chefs Are Italian, because it's situational. It's that the chef is foreign.

However, I am not opposed to a rename.

Cutlist it. You've already mentioned the biggest problems it has:

• The name is too America-centric for a widely used trope.
• The person who made it ignored everything except examples in YKTTW
• It has no description

There's a trope here, but it needs to be made properly.

The trope isn't All Chefs Are Foreign, because you don't get American or Russian or Japenese chefs in French or Italian or German works. The trope is Chefs Are French Or Italian

edited 28th Jul '11 6:00:07 PM by Madrugada

Actually because of... what's his name, with the... show... The 'British Shouting Chef' has become popular.

Although that might be more direct parody than All Chefs Are Foreign.

And Lenny Henry was doing it before it was cool.

edited 28th Jul '11 6:11:11 PM by Daremo

English and Japanese also seem popular though. I watch a lot of cooking stuff. My grandmother is addicted to The Food Network.

But "Chefs who have cooking shows" are a whole different ball of wax than "chefs in fiction".

I meant that stock character was becoming popular, I've seen it a few times in the last year, though I can't recall exactly where. Burn Notice? Or one of that show type, they all run together for me.

edited 29th Jul '11 2:10:05 PM by Daremo

Page was cut, will re-launch later. Could use a title we agree on

edited 29th Jul '11 11:26:29 AM by Ghilz

I would argue that the fact that the chef in Ratouille is French is important because the Americans that made it intentionally set the work in Paris because of the association between France and gourmet food. I think that if we were to try to restart this, than perhaps do it as a trope about French cuisine in general, which can focus on everything from French chefs to stereotypical elite French restaurants with snooty waiters.

Not to mention in Ratatouille you have Gusteau, Remy, and Linguini. Techinically, they're all French. But which one fits the "French chef" stereotype? Only Gusteau. Main characters Remy and Linguini don't have French accents and don't match the stereotype at all. Collette's frenchness is played up a bit more, but then she's the love interest. Her personality still doesn't match, as she's a Defrosting Ice Queen.

edited 30th Jul '11 7:11:57 AM by StarryEyed

Page was cut, this can be locked.