I’ve mostly leaned towards sci-fi in my marathons, but for this one I wanted to do something different.  After 130 or so episodes of Star Trek, I wanted a palate cleanser before I start on the next Star Trek series (179 episodes).  So I went back to one of my favorite BBC sitcoms from the 90’s – Chef!

Chef stars Lenny Henry as Gareth Blackstock, a very good, and very loud and angry chef in a French kitchen in London.  While the show is more than that, for me a lot of the comedy comes from watching Gareth yell at things, or have to get himself out of situations he’s put himself in due to his personality.

The other stars are Caroline-Lee Johnson as his wife Janice and Roger Griffiths as Everton, the only kitchen staff character to be there for the entire series.  There’s a lot of background characters (mostly kitchen staff), but they all change from series to series, so each of the three has a different flavor because of this.

When my wife and I were first married in the 90’s, this show was still active, the third series came out weeks after we were married, and we watched it together.  Because of that, the third series holds a special feeling to me because of that, even if several individual episodes from the first two series are funnier.

There was never a Series IV, and over the years I’ve read he’s not interested, but I spotted this quote by Henry on his website in 2007..  “Not any time soon – there was a recent willingness from both myself and Peter Tilbury and we even went as far as working on a story line for moving Gareth and co onwards, but I don’t think it’s going to happen now. Shame.”  That’s a shame for sure, as it’s a simple concept, could be put together fairly easily I would imagine, and I’d love to see more.  Still, the 20 episodes we did get are darned funny, and this page will be my index of all of them.

As a side note, Chef! was the first thing I ever designed a website for back in the mid 90’s.  That old design is STILL online all these years later in its 1990’s era design glory.  You can view that here.

Series 3

The third series of Chef is a bit more of a change over the second than the second was to the first.  The entire kitchen staff changes again, except for Everton.  Gustave LaRoche is also here but is now played by Jeff Nuttall.  The series is based less on kitchen comedy (although it’s still here to a lesser degree).  The focus is more on the characters in the third series than before.  They found a good balance, because they tried that in series 2, and I didn’t care for it as much.  It works much better in series 3.  The new characters are Savannah Concord, Renée Bryson, and Cyril Bryson (Renee’s father and new owner of the restaurant).  In addition, Janice says she’s leaving Gareth, and as such the character isn’t in all the episodes, and the one she’s on not a lot – always wondered if there was a real life reason behind that.

Additionally, when the series went out originally, they did not include title cards for the episodes, so I had no idea what the titles were.  It wasn’t until much later when I got the series on DVD that I learned the proper titles for the third series. As such, the individual episode pages for this series don’t have title cards on them.

Also, the third series has just six episodes, not the seven the first two did.  The last episode does end with a good ending, albeit not a full series ending, but a good ending spot.

If I had to rank the three series, I’d go my favorite was the first, my second was the third, and the third was the second. :)

• Paris? Jamaica? (9/15/2024) - (30 Dec 1996) – Series 3 Episode 6
• Rochelle (9/14/2024) - (23 Dec 1996) – Series 3 Episode 5
• Love is in the Air (9/13/2024) - (16 Dec 1996) – Series 3 Episode 4
• Lessons in Talking (9/12/2024) - (9 Dec 1996) – Series 3 Episode 3
• Reeny / Renée (9/11/2024) - (2 Dec 1996) – Series 3 Episode 2
• Gareth’s True Love (9/10/2024) - (25 Nov 1996) – Series 3 Episode 1

Series 2

The second series of Chef is mostly like the first, except kitchen staff is overhauled.  Everton remains, but the remainder of the other kitchen staff is all gone.  This year’s kitchen staff is Crispin, Donald, Debra, Alice, Alphonse, & Gustave LaRoche. Gustave ends up being the soux chef and remains through till the end of the series.  However he’s played in Series 2 by Ian McNeice (and someone else in Series 3).

Series 2 has the same 7 episodes that the first had, except they’re all run together – there was no separate Christmas special this time around. The opening titles are redone for Series 2. They involve Gareth cooking, and what he’s making spells out the “Chef!” in the title card. Of the three series, this is my favorite title sequence.  The theme music remains unchanged through all 20 episode of the series.

• England Expects (9/9/2024) - (27 Oct 1994) – Series 2 Episode 7
• Private Lives (9/8/2024) - (20 Oct 1994) – Series 2 Episode 6
• Masterchef (9/7/2024) - (13 Oct 1994) – Series 2 Episode 5
• A Diploma of Miseries (9/6/2024) - (29 Sep 1994) – Series 2 Episode 4
• Do the Right Thing (9/5/2024) - (22 Sep 1994) – Series 2 Episode 3
• Time Flies (9/4/2024) - (15 Sep 1994) – Series 2 Episode 2
• A River Runs Thru It (9/3/2024) - (8 Sep 1994) – Series 2 Episode 1

Series 1

The first series of Chef! has six episodes plus a Christmas special.  The entire series was written by Peter Tilbury, and the entire series was directed by John Birkin.  The kitchen staff in this series are Everton Stonehead, Lucinda, Piers, Otto, & Lola.

• A Bird in the Hand (9/2/2024) - (24 Dec 1993) – Series 1 Christmas Special
• Rice and Peas (9/1/2024) - (11 Mar 1993) – Series 1 Episode 6
• Fame is the Spur (8/31/2024) - (4 Mar 1993) – Series 1 Episode 5
• The Big Cheese (8/30/2024) - (25 Feb 1993) – Series 1 Episode 4
• Subject to Contract (8/29/2024) - (11 Feb 1993) – Series 1 Episode 3
• Beyond the Pass (8/28/2024) - (4 Feb 1993) – Series 1 Episode 2
• Personnel (8/28/2024) - (28 Jan 1993) – Series 1 Episode 1