*Italian Chef Kiss*

About

The Italian Chef Kiss refers to a stereotypical gesture made by cooks of European descent that indicates perfection or deliciousness. Online, pictures of the Chef Kiss or simply typing "Italian Chef Kiss" is used to either earnestly react to good content or used to sarcastically respond to content that has an excess of negative qualities.

Origin

According to WikiNapoli,^[1] the "kiss fingertips and toss away" gesture is of Italian origin, and is meant to mean "Belissimo," or "Wonderful!"

Spread

The stereotype of the Italian, mustachio'd chef emerged around the mid-20th century, when Kraft used the character to sell pastas^[2] and U.S. chain restaurants utilized it to create the image of an authentic Italian dining experience.^[3] One of the more popular examples of the stereotypical Italian chef in popular culture is Chef Boyardee.

In 1975, Jim Henson's Muppets introduced Swedish Chef, who would become one the most iconic fictionalizations of the European chef character.^[4]

Online Presence

Online, the "Italian Chef Kiss" is used mostly to signify a reaction to "perfect" content.^[5] An image of Swedish Chef, shown below, became one of the most popular shorthands to signify the "Italian Chef Kiss."

Another popular Italian chef used as a forum weapon on threads of particularly cringeworthy social justice-centric posts is the Discourse Chef. Shown below, the image originated on Tumblr when blogger ladygolem^[6] suggested that Pepe and feels guy were problematic and the new alternative should be Discourse Chef.

On Twitter, "Italian Chef Kiss" is generally used to signify when something is "Extremely Good" (which in Twitter parlance, tends to mean "bad"). A tweet by @Lubchansky,^[7] shown below, was described by The Daily Dot as "the platonic usage of a sarcastic chef kiss."

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References