When it comes to what goes on behind the kitchen, it is best to leave the chef to their devices. Unfortunately, that isn't always the case, especially regarding fictional kitchens. 2022's highly popular film, The Menu, proved that when it came to satirizing celebrity chef culture.
Anything can go wrong in the kitchen, and it is the utmost duty of the chef to ensure that nothing does. Yet when it comes to chefs in The Menu or other films featuring a culinary-based villain, their best intentions may not be in the best interests. From hostile attitudes toward customers to deliberate poisoning, these chefs are dangerous to society.
10 Chef Louis
A Short-Fused Temper Isn't Good For The Kitchen
When it comes to most cartoonish and villainous chefs, Chef Louis is the image that most would conjure up. This may be an unfair criticism considering he was only preparing a meal for the royal family in Disney's The Little Mermaid.
Yet what makes him so infamous (French stereotyping aside) is his boiling temper. The amount of destruction he causes within his kitchen so that he can catch a small crustacean is unforgettable. If Chef Louis were in a position of more considerable power and came across a slight against him, the results may be more devastating than a trashed kitchen.
9 Chef Skinner
A Sellout Who Uses His Friend's Likeliness For Profit
Chef Skinner appears as the main antagonist in Brad Bird's Ratatouille. He is a man who inherited the prized restaurant from his mentor and peer, the enigmatic and popular Gusteau, only to cheapen his image in order to make a quick profit.
His villainy seen throughout is a direct result of his desperation to secure his greedy expenditure. When a true heir to Gusteau's enterprise, Linguini, comes forward, Skinner pulls out all the stops to ensure they remain in charge of Gusteau's estate.
8 Nate Cooper
Encourages His Partner To Quit Her Dream Job
The Devil Wears Prada features one of Meryl Streep's most iconic roles as Miranda Priestly. Though Priestly is the eponymous character of the film for her cold demeanor and harsh treatment of subordinates, there is a debate about whether she is the "true" villain.
Enter Nate Cooper, an aspiring chef, and boyfriend to the film's protagonist Andy played by Anne Hathaway. Throughout the film, his behavior towards Andy's career choice and work ethic is less than favorable. In more ways than one, Nate Cooper's actions are more antagonistic to Andy's arc than Miranda's ever could.
7 Paul & Mary Bland
Kill And Steal So They Can Secure Funding For Their Restaurant
Though Eating Raoul may be more of a film directed toward swinger culture in the 1980s, The Bland's crimes are committed in service to open up their dream restaurant. Seeing an opportunity, the prude Blands lure in rich swingers and rob them blind before killing them via a frying pan.
Yet where the film makes a case for the Bland's villainy in the culinary arts comes during the film's climax. After killing the eponymous Raoul for attempting to blackmail them, they soon discover that their benefactor for the restaurant is coming over for dinner. Discovering that they have no meat to serve, they cook up the deceased Raoul for dinner, culminating in the film's title.
6 Nellie Lovett
Accomplice To Murder By Using Victim's Bodies For Pie Ingredients
In the world of Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street, there is no shortage of villainy to go around. From its vengeance-seeking protagonist to its corrupt and rapacious judge, Fleet Street is a domain for the wicked, and local pie maker Nellie Lovett is no exception.
With the price of meat having inflated, Lovett finds herself desperate to discover a substitute. Her competitors having resorted to killing stray cats, Lovett is inspired and proposes a scheme that simultaneously benefits her business and her upstairs neighbor Sweeny Todd's revenge. Through a trapdoor, Sweeny Todd sends all of his victims down into Lovett's kitchen, so they can simultaneously destroy the evidence and bake a delicious pie.
5 George Tutman
Tricks Vegetarian Customers To Consume Flesh
Jackie Kong's Blood Diner is one of the more iconic and bizarre cult-classic horror films of the 1980s. As the title suggests, the film takes part in a diner where blood is shed. The Tutman brothers, under the influence of their serial killer Uncle's mason jar-stored brain, begin collecting various organs from "immoral women" in order to complete a sacrificial ritual for a goddess.
To do this, the two open up a "vegetarian diner," where brother George serves as the head chef. Together they lure in women and recycle whatever's left after harvesting them for the secret ingredients for their "Tuesday Special!"
4 Nick & Lily Laemle
Prepare Family Meals With A Secret Ingredient
Another outrageous cannibal vehicle of the 80s, Parents follows Michael, a kid growing up in 50s suburbia who discovers to his horror, that his parents, Nick and Lily Laemle, consume human flesh. Though the film appears to satirize the facade of perfection that most associate with the 50s, it eventually dives straight into B-horror once the Laemle's secret is revealed.
Randy Quaid portrays the Laemle patriarch and comes across as any other suburban Dad who works to provide and has an affinity for barbecue. The only issue with those last two is that Nick is developing an "Agent Orange" like chemical at his government contract, and the meat he loves to grill happens to be human.
3 Pamela Voorhees
Vengeance Is A Dish Best Served In A Camp Mess Hall
The first installment of the Friday The 13th franchise is known for featuring some fantastic Tom Savini makeup effects and the one where Jason is not the main antagonist. That honor goes to his mother and former Camp Crystal cook, Pamela Voorhees, played by Betsy Palmer.
Due to the negligence of horny camp counselors, Pamela's beloved son Jason drowned in the infamous lake. Furious, she killed the counselors and escaped. This event caused the camp to close down, and since then, anyone who attempted to revitalize it has been killed.
2 Julian Slowik
Presentation Is Key When Making A Point
Ralph Fiennes is perfectly cast for villainous roles. Mark Mylod's The Menu is yet another entry of this as Fiennes plays the enigmatic celebrity chef Julian Slowik. A man whose ego is born from the perfectionist he caters to his craft soon becomes deranged after no longer finding any passion for his "art."
To aggravate this further, he sets the blame upon certain members of the bourgeoisie that imbued in his cooking and used his likelihood to elevate themselves. Through cult-like manipulation, he coerces a group of chefs to live and die for him as he caters to their "elite" guests in order to enact his revenge.
1 Hannibal Lecter
The Most Infamous Cannibal Of Pop Culture
Anthony Hopkins' perfect and iconic delivery of how his Hannibal Lecter prepared a victim for consumption remains one of cinema's most memorable moments. It's a small moment but impactful nonetheless as it gives audiences insight into who Hannibal is. He's a man of refined taste who relishes on what kinds of wine to pair with his palette.
There is no denying that Hannibal Lecter is the one figure no one wants behind the kitchen. Not because the food will be horrible because it's human, but that it might be exquisite given Hannibal's skill in the culinary arts. A serial killer who knows how to construct magnificent dishes is a force to be reckoned with. Thus, Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lecter is easily the evilest man to prepare a dish in cinematic history.