History Main / CampCook

* One of Ford Cruller's alter egos in ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'' is the Camp Cook for the Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp, where the game takes place, and also runs the camp store. He even has an odd juxtaposition of competency; his food is never done whenever you visit him, but the camp store is always open and stocked with at least Psi Cores and Dream Fluffs, even during a crisis. Guess we know which job he really likes.

* MasterSwordsman Eishun of ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'' took this role while travelling with Nagi's Ala Rubra. [[LostFoodGrievance He is very particular about people wasting the food he prepared]].

* In ''Videogame/FinalFantasyXV'', Ignis cooks meals for the party when they're camping outdoors, with his cooking being a skill that can be leveled so that he can provide better meals to provide better resting bonuses.

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* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemElibe'':

[[caption-width-right:350:''"Ready for some grub, fellers?"'']]

Whenever men work in the great outdoors, be they cowboys, miners, [[MightyLumberjack lumberjacks]] or [[TheSquad soldiers]], they work up a big appetite. And someone's got to feed them. In small outfits, the workers might take turns cooking up the vittles, but above a certain population, it makes sense to have a dedicated Camp Cook. Besides, someone has to drive the chuckwagon. Since the primary requirements for food in this setting is its volume, nutritional value (in particular, being high in calories) and an ability to be prepared fast, in large quantities, with primitive means and from easily preserved and efficiently stored ingredients, things like the food's look and taste take a back seat.

Whenever men work in the great outdoors, be they cowboys, miners, [[MightyLumberjack lumberjacks]] or [[TheSquad soldiers]], they work up a big appetite. And someone's got to feed them. In small outfits, the workers might take turns cooking up the vittles, but above a certain population, it makes sense to have a dedicated Camp Cook. Besides, someone has to drive the chuckwagon. Since the primary requirements for food in this setting is its volume, nutritional value (in particular, being high in calories) and an ability to be produced fast, in large quantities, with primitive means and from easily preserved and efficiently stored ingredients, things like the food's look and taste take a back seat.

* In ''Holmes on the Range'', the ranch Big Red and Old Red end up on is served by "the Swede", whose cooking is decent and whose accent is impenetrable.

In fiction, camp cooks tend to be a source of comic relief, with many a gag about their [[LethalChef horrible cooking]] or [[KlatchianCoffee coffee]], and their inability to take criticism on the subject. Many camp cooks are older folks, no longer able to do the main work of the camp, but often an ethnic minority is used instead. (In [[OnceAcceptableTargets older works]], this frequently is accompanied by [[UncleTomfoolery truly awful stereotype humor]].) Don't be surprised if the cook has a LetsGetDangerous moment near the end of the story--[[ChefOfIron many are quite deft with their cooking implements.]]

* In ''Film/RobinHoodMenInTights'' Latrine is at first mistaken for a witch, she's using all sorts of gooey ingredients, including "eyeballs of a crocodile". A moment later the viewers learn [[LethalChef she actually the cook.]]

* Before them, the Halflings in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' did the same thing. In the ''TabletopGame/{{Mordheim}}'' supplement, which focuses on mercenary warbands in the eponymous ruined city, hiring a halfling chef actually increases the size of your company. Empire armies used to include the Halfling Hot Pot artillery piece which Halfling Chefs use to hurl cauldrons of soup at the enemy.

* Corporal Scallot, the quartermaster in ''Discworld/MonstrousRegiment''. His specialty is "scubbo", a stew made from whatever's available, but if ''nothing's'' available, he can also cook legs. (Although he thinks eating your ''own'' legs probably makes you blind.) The role is later taken by Shufti, who turns out to be a lot better at it.

->'''Asterix:''' Look, no joking... what ''is'' it?
->'''Roman soldier: ''' It's legionary rations... you'll be getting it every day. Corn, bacon and cheese. All cooked together to save time.
-->--''ComicBook/{{Asterix}} the Legionary''

* ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'': In ''Asterix the Legionary'', the cook is first met when Asterix and Obelix go to complain about the food (bacon, cheese and corn, cooked together to save time. [[ForeignQueasine Only the Briton likes it.]]) and end up dumping him in his own cooking pot. After that, he gets much more imaginative with his menus (somehow managing to cook up seafood soufflé while in the African desert), while the two Roman officers stick to the traditional grub.

* "Charlie" in the original ''Film/KingKong1933'', a particularly painful faux-Chinese performance.

* Utah Phillips's song "The Goodnight-Loving Trail" subverts the comic aspects of this trope by taking a sad and sympathetic view of cowboys who are too old to do anything but cook on the drives, despite lyrics like "With your snake oil and herbs and your liniment too/You can do anything that a doctor can do/Except find a cure for your own goddamn stew." The cowboys dub the cook "The Old Woman"; it's bad enough getting old, without being ridiculed too.

-->''Our old mess sergeant's tastebuds had been shot off in the war''\\
''But his savory collations add to our ''esprit de corps''''\\
''To think of all the marvelous ways''\\
''They're using plastics nowadays''\\
''It makes a fellow proud to be a soldier.''

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-->'''Asterix:''' Look, no joking... what ''is'' it?
-->'''Roman soldier: ''' It's legionary rations... you'll be getting it every day. Corn, bacon and cheese. All cooked together to save time.

->''"Grub's ready, fellers! Get it while it's hot!"''

[[quoteright:300:[[WesternAnimation/AtlantisTheLostEmpire https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/camp_cook.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:300:"I got your four basic food groups. Beans, bacon, whiskey, and lard!"]]

[[quoteright:300:[[Disney/AtlantisTheLostEmpire https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/camp_cook.png]]]]

* Jebediah "Cookie" Farnsworth of ''Disney/AtlantisTheLostEmpire''. A big believer in the power of grease. His faith in ''vegetables'', on the other hand, is far smaller.

* When The Literature/TimeWarpTrio are sent back to TheWildWest, the first human they meet is known only as "Cooky." Given his description and personality, it seems quite possible that he, or one of his close relatives, lived through the TwilightOfTheOldWest and eventually took a job with one [[Disney/AtlantisTheLostEmpire Lyle Tiberius Rourke]].

Whenever men work in the great outdoors, be they cowboys, miners, [[MightyLumberjack lumberjacks]] or [[TheSquad soldiers]], they work up a big appetite. And someone's got to feed them. In small outfits, the workers might take turns cooking up the vittles, but above a certain population, it makes sense to have a dedicated Camp Cook. Besides, someone has to drive the chuckwagon. Since the primary requirements for the food in this setting is its volume, nutritional value (in particular, being high in calories) and an ability to be produced fast, in large quantities, with primitive means and from easily preserved and efficiently stored ingredients, things like the food's look and taste take a back seat.

Whenever men work in the great outdoors, be they cowboys, miners, [[MightyLumberjack lumberjacks]] or [[TheSquad soldiers]], they work up a big appetite. And someone's got to feed them. In small outfits, the workers might take turns cooking up the vittles, but above a certain population, it makes sense to have a dedicated Camp Cook. Besides, someone has to drive the chuckwagon.

* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' has Ch'vorthq, who has a motorized whisk on one of his prosthetic arms and a habit of using it all the time. Most of the company prefer to eat out of the vending machines than suffer through his purees.

* The travelling Heterodyne show's cook in ''Webcomic/GirlGenius''. His job is, however, not so much cooking food for eating as making pies that are used for more... ballistic purposes during the shows. He's a [[MadScientist Spark]], as well, so he makes even more bizarre creations. Such as mood-altering pies.

[[quoteright:200:[[Disney/AtlantisTheLostEmpire https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/clipatlantis9.gif]]]]
[[caption-width-right:200:"I got your four basic food groups. Beans, bacon, whiskey, and lard!"]]

* Lucky Eddie is the cook for {{Hagar the Horrible}}'s crew, and he's ''terrible''. In one strip he cooks rodents. ("Just add more ketchup!" he suggests.) Hagar forbids him from cooking for his actual family, and in one strip, Lucky Eddie himself is unwilling to eat his own food.

* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', Alistair immediately asks Morrigan if she can cook once finding out she's going to join the party. After being angrily chewed out by her (and snarked at by the player character), he [[VerbalBackpedal quickly says]] that it's because his cooking would kill everyone. Who precisely ends up as the actual camp cook is never revealed.

* The character of "Cookie" in ''Film/CitySlickers''. Perhaps more memorable for [[spoiler: the eulogy he gives at Curly's burial]] than for his cooking.

* A saying from a Literature/KnownSpace short story: "Food will win the war, but how do we get the enemy to eat it?" [[spoiler: And then, the main character of the story proceeds to win a battle by hacking the autochef after her ship gets taken.]]

--> Our old mess sergeant's tastebuds had been shot off in the war\\
But his savory collations add to our ''esprit de corps''\\
To think of all the marvelous ways\\
They're using plastics nowadays\\
It makes a fellow proud to be a soldier.