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The 'Chef de Cuisine'
A duck in a crisp white chef's toque holding a tiny whisk. Fun novelty duck for kitchen lovers and foodies.
Specifications
| Material | Vinyl (PVC) body, fabric toque, sculpted whisk accessory |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 3.6 x 3.4 x 4.1 in (toque included) |
| Weight | 2.3 oz |
| Color | Yellow body, white chef's toque and coat |
| Age Grade | 3+ years |
| Origin | Designed on Vashon Island, WA · Assembled overseas |
| Care Instructions | Spot clean toque only. Whisk is sculpted vinyl, non-functional, please do not attempt to actually whisk anything with it. |
The Full Story
The 'Chef de Cuisine' owes its rather formal name to an ongoing, mostly good-natured dispute in the marketing department over whether the duck should simply be called "The Chef." One team member, who had briefly worked in a professional restaurant kitchen before joining the company, insisted that "Chef de Cuisine" was the technically correct term for a head chef and refused to sign off on the simpler name, a hill she has, by all accounts, continued to die on for the better part of a decade.
The toque height was a genuine point of engineering concern, as early prototypes with a taller, more traditionally proportioned chef's hat proved top-heavy enough that the duck would not reliably float upright in water, tipping over in a way that internal testers described, somewhat unkindly, as "concerning" rather than "amusing." The current, slightly shorter toque is the compromise, tall enough to read clearly as a chef's hat, short enough that the duck can still be trusted in a bathtub.
We are told, though we have not been able to independently verify this, that the whisk accessory's design was based on a specific whisk belonging to the same former-professional-chef team member, brought in from home for reference and, according to office legend, never fully returned to its rightful kitchen drawer.
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Customer Reviews
Genuinely one of my favorite kitchen decor pieces, sits right by my stand mixer. Gets comments from everyone who visits.
Bought for my sister who's a pastry chef, she loved the little touques and put it right on her workstation.
Happy with this purchase, no complaints.
Despite the description claiming the height was adjusted for balance, mine still tips over pretty easily in water. Cute on a shelf, not great as an actual bath toy.
This company's product writers clearly enjoy their jobs a little too much and honestly, good for them. Learned more about the internal politics of naming a rubber duck than I expected to today. The duck itself, for the record, is lovely.
The sculpted whisk lines are a bit shallow, doesn't photograph as sharply as I'd hoped for a close-up shot. Still a nice piece in person, just a minor note.