Nickelodeon has created some of the most iconic cartoon characters of the past century, with the likes of SpongeBob SquarePants, Aang, Invader Zim, Ren and Stimpy, and the Rugrats being notable examples. Despite the Paramount network seeing major success in the animation world, this doesn’t mean that every character that lives under the orange banner is safe from cancellation. The Tiny Chef is a prime example of a character that was nixed from Nickelodeon but found a major new lease on life following his jettison from the channel. Shockingly enough, the diminutive culinary expert has hit a new level of stardom thanks to a major partnership with Google.
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To help celebrate Thanksgiving, Google has placed the pint-sized chef front and center on its website. Along with the animation that sees the Tiny Chef dancing along on the front page of the search engine, Google shared a breakdown of the unique partnership: “This Doodle was made with a very special collaborator, Tiny Chef! “Cheffy,” the lovable herbivore chef who lives in a tree stump and makes the world’s smallest (and cutest) dishes, is sharing his favourite holiday things with us this Thanksgiving. Cheffy shows us that cooking isn’t about size or perfection—it’s about sharing with heart and making something to share with your friends and family.”
The Tiny Chef’s Resurrection
Nickelodeon cancelled Tiny Chef earlier this summer, meaning that the culinary specialist won’t continue his career on the Paramount network. During the Savannah Colleges of Art & Design Fest earlier this year, Tiny Chef co-creator Ozlem Akturk held nothing back when discussing the cancellation. The adorable character has garnered major support online, meaning that Cheffy isn’t leaving anytime soon, but it’s clear Akturk is still fairly sad and frustrated about the decision, as you can see from her quote below.
“It was a sad moment for us. We didn’t know what we’d do financially, so we decided that we were going to put out the viral campaign video to save the show and see if the fans could support us. Stop motion animation is very expensive, but we love what we do. The fans are amazing, and they helped us to keep going. Our video became viral, and there were so many articles written about saving the show; we think Nickelodeon hated us for that.”
Ozlem also revisited the original pitch for the series, with the co-creator having very different ideas for the Tiny Chef, “I wasn’t planning on it originally being a preschool show, but that’s how it happened. My next project will be something different. What I pictured for the show was that I loved cooking, and I wanted it to be a real cooking show that would bring people together. Executives think kids aren’t that smart, but kids get it. I was like, ‘Why are you treating them like that? They’re smart and they deserve so much more!”
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