Fun Questions to Ask a Chef – Printable List With Lines

How it works

These fun questions to ask a chef open on the playful set: a meal for a dragon, the one utensil to keep, the first pancake. Five more groups cover the line, one dish, training, home cooking and a class visit.

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Open on the fun set, then go into the kitchen

The sheet opens on twelve Just for fun questions, and Pick 12 new questions swaps in the other twelve. To go into the kitchen, set the box under the button to The kitchen and the line or Home cooking. On paper every question has a blank line under it.

Interesting questions to ask a chef

A dish from idea to plate follows one dish: where it starts, how many tries it takes, who tastes it, what tells the chef it has had its day. Every example answer is made up; on paper they sit together on the final page, which you can skip.

Questions and answers

What are fun questions to ask a chef?

Ones a chef has not been asked a hundred times: what would you cook for a dragon, which food is the hardest to eat neatly, what happens to the first pancake of a batch.

What can kids ask a chef on a class visit?

Questions about things a child can picture: the biggest pot, the messiest job, how eggs arrive at the kitchen. For a class visit holds this set.

What do you ask a chef about a dish?

Where the idea began, how many tries it took, in what order the plate is built and whose opinion the chef asks for first. A dish from idea to plate holds these.

Does the sheet give recipes or cooking tips?

No. It is a list of questions with invented example answers. Nothing names a restaurant or a product, and nothing asks about diets or health.

All 87 questions

Just for fun 24

If dinner service were a ball game, where on the field would you stand? In goal. Every plate passes me last.
If you could keep only one utensil, which one stays? A spoon. You can do nearly anything with a spoon.
What are you not allowed to do in your family's kitchens? Rearrange the spice rack. Again.
What do you call it when a dish goes wrong in a good way? Tonight's special.
What do you cook for someone who says they are not hungry? Toast. Nobody says no to toast.
What do you do with the first pancake of a batch? Eat it over the stove. It belongs to the cook.
What do you say when you are a guest and someone asks you to cook? "I brought the ice."
What has your apron pocket carried home by accident? A teaspoon, a tasting fork and an order ticket from Tuesday.
What is the fanciest name you could give a peanut butter sandwich? Roasted nut spread between two toasts.
What is the longest you have looked for a lid that fits? Eleven minutes. In the end I used a plate.
What is the strangest thing you have used as a rolling pin? A thermos. It worked.
What is the worst thing you have tasted in the name of an experiment? Banana with mustard. I was so sure.
What is written on a tape label in your kitchen that would puzzle a visitor? "Green stuff, Tuesday." We know what it means.
What is your dance move while you wait for water to boil? The towel-on-the-shoulder shimmy.
What would you call a cookbook about your mistakes? Too Much Salt, and Other Stories.
What would you cook for a dragon? Something already charred.
Which food do you think is the wrong shape? Spaghetti. It was designed to escape forks.
Which food is the hardest to eat neatly? A taco, in a white shirt.
Which fruit is the most trouble for the least reward? The pomegranate. Worth it, but only just.
Which ingredient do you talk to while you cook? The rice. I ask it not to stick.
Which ingredient makes you groan when the delivery arrives? Fava beans. Each one gets peeled twice.
Which kind of music is the kitchen never allowed to play again? Anything with a whistling solo.
Which showpiece are you glad nobody orders anymore? Anything carved into a swan.
Which vegetable would you cast as the villain in a play? Celery. All strings and no warmth.

The kitchen and the line 13

How do cooks and servers pass messages during service? Across the pass, the shelf where plates wait for a server.
How do you keep track of ten orders at once? The ticket rail, left to right, and a lot of repeating out loud.
What do the cooks eat, and when? One shared meal at four, mostly standing up.
What do you shout most often during service? "Behind you." About two hundred times a night.
What does the kitchen sound like at its busiest hour? Tickets printing, pans hissing, someone calling for hands.
What does your station look like one minute before the first order? Everything chopped, portioned and labeled.
What happens when the kitchen runs out of a dish? We tell the servers at once and it comes off the board.
What is in your knife roll besides knives? Long tweezers, a peeler and a pen that writes on wet tape.
What is the last job of the night in your kitchen? Scrubbing the flat-top and labeling everything for tomorrow.
Where is the hottest spot in your kitchen? In front of the fryer in August.
Which knife do you use for nearly everything? A chef's knife I have had for years.
Which station on the line is yours, and what do you keep closest to hand? Grill. Tongs, towels, salt and a bottle of oil.
Who tastes the food before it goes out? I do, with a clean spoon, every time.

A dish from idea to plate 13

How do you choose the plate or bowl for a dish? Wide and white for color, deep and warm for stews.
How do you name a dish on the menu? Plainly. The main thing, then how it is cooked.
How do you write a recipe so another cook makes it the same way? By weight, with a photo of the finished plate.
How does one dish change between summer and winter? Same fish, lighter sauce in July.
How many tries does a dish take before it goes on the menu? Six or seven, with the whole crew tasting.
In what order do you build a plate? Sauce, then the main thing, then anything green.
What do you do with a dish idea that did not work? Write down why, then try it as a soup.
What have you taken off a dish that made it better? A garnish nobody ate.
What tells you a dish has had its day? When the cooks sigh every time it is ordered.
Where does a new dish start for you: an ingredient, a memory or a season? A crate of something ripe from the market.
Which color is the hardest to get onto a plate? Blue. I am still looking for a blue I like.
Which dish of yours took the longest to get right? A plain roast chicken. Two years.
Whose opinion do you ask for when a dish is brand new? The newest cook, who has not learned to be polite yet.

Training and first jobs 12

Did you go to cooking school or learn on the job? On the job, with night classes later.
Do you wear a tall white hat, a cap or nothing at all? A cap. The tall hats are for photographs.
How long was it before you ran a station by yourself? About a year of watching and prepping first.
What did you burn, drop or ruin in your first week? A whole tray of rolls. The smoke alarm announced it.
What did you practice at home to get faster? Chopping celery in front of the television.
What surprised you about working in a professional kitchen? How quiet a good kitchen is.
What was the first dish you were trusted to cook alone? Scrambled eggs for the staff.
What was your first job in a kitchen? Peeling potatoes, a sack every morning.
Which kitchen job would you least like to go back to? Cleaning out the grease trap.
Which kitchen taught you the most, and what was the lesson? A tiny one with two burners: waste nothing.
Which technique was the hardest to learn? Folding an omelet with no brown on it.
Who taught you to hold a knife? My first chef, who had me dice onions for a month.

Home cooking 12

If you could cook only one meal a day, which would it be? Breakfast, because nobody is in a hurry.
What did you eat as a child that you still make? My grandfather's rice with a fried egg on top.
What do you cook at home on your day off? Toast and eggs. Maybe soup.
What do you hope is on the menu when you eat out? Whatever the cook says is good today.
What do you make when friends come over and you want to sit down too? One big pot in the middle of the table.
What do you nibble on while you cook? Cheese, straight off the board.
What is always in your refrigerator at home? Butter, lemons and a jar of something pickled.
What is the simplest thing you cook that people think is hard? Fresh pasta. It is flour and eggs.
What is your home kitchen missing that your work kitchen has? A second pair of hands at the sink.
What sits unused in a drawer in your kitchen at home? A spiral slicer, still in its box.
Which dish do the people at home request by name? Pancakes shaped like their initials.
Who cooks for you, and what do they make? My sister makes dumplings and I wash up.

For a class visit 13

Can you crack an egg with one hand, and how long did that take to learn? Yes. It cost me about a hundred shells in the bowl.
How do eggs arrive at your kitchen, and how many at a time? In big flat trays, stacked in a box.
What are you still learning to make? Bread. It has a mind of its own.
What could someone our age do in your kitchen? Tearing lettuce and stirring the dressing.
What did you make the first time you were allowed to use the stove? A grilled cheese sandwich, black on one side.
What does your chef's jacket have that a normal shirt does not? Two rows of buttons, so it can be buttoned the other way to hide a stain.
What is the biggest pot in your kitchen, and what goes in it? A stockpot I could sit in. Bones, vegetables and water.
What is the funniest order you have ever been handed? A burger, hold the burger.
What is the messiest job in the kitchen? Peeling beets. Pink hands all day.
What is your favorite vegetable to cook, and why? Carrots. I like them roasted until the edges go dark.
When you taste something unfamiliar, what do you pay attention to? Whether it is crunchy or soft. Then the flavor.
Which ingredient did you avoid for years and now use daily? Mushrooms.
Which smell tells you the day's baking is nearly done? Bread crust, a few minutes before it comes out.

How this list was compiled

Written for this site on 2026-10-03 by the Game Night Generator editors: 87 questions to ask a chef, in 6 groups, each with one invented example answer that describes nobody. Own work; these are our suggestions and nothing was copied from another site. No restaurant, product, show or real person is named, nothing asks about earnings, diets or health, and no line gives cooking instructions. Three example answers lean on general facts, read on 2026-10-03 in the English Wikipedia articles Vicia faba (fava beans are eaten with the outer seed coat removed), Chef's uniform (the jacket is double-breasted and can be reversed to hide stains) and Pasta (fresh pasta is usually made with eggs and flour). Licence: own work