Chef Nagoya Chef Nagoya, as he appears inA Chow Challenge. Details First episode A Chow Challenge Main role Guest star Similar characters Chef Kawasaki Voice actor(s) Jimmy Zoppi (English) Norio Tsuboi (Japanese)

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Chef Nagoya is a wandering chef and old friend ofChef Kawasaki who appears in theKirby: Right Back at Ya! episodeA Chow Challenge. In this episode, he reunites with his old friend to ascertain his cooking skill, but later finds out that Kawasaki cheated to make himself appear to be a better chef than he was. To settle things,King Dedede andEscargoon host a cooking competition between the two in the hopes of driving Chef Kawasaki out ofCappy Town for good, but Nagoya soon discovers that Escargoon was sabotaging Kawasaki's dishes, and defends his friend from his duplicity.

Physical appearance[edit]

Chef Nagoya is roughly the same size and shape as Chef Kawasaki, though he does not appear to be exactly the same species, as his face and hands differ slightly from Kawasaki's. Chef Nagoya wears a red and black robe with a green belt and black apron on the front, along with black shoes and a red cap which matches his outfit. His skin tone matches that of theCappies, and he has bushy green-ish hair. Nagoya has a similar mouth to Kawasaki, though he also sports a pair of whiskers, making him somewhat resemble a cat. His eyes are usually closed, though they do open when he is disturbed by something.

Personality[edit]

Chef Nagoya is an eccentric figure with a foreign way of speaking compared to the residents ofDream Land. He is generally upbeat and positive, though he becomes offended when he feels he has been tricked or deceived. In the Japanese version, Nagoya has a particular manner of speech, often ending his sentences with "mya" or "dagya", making him sound somewhat like a cat meowing. This particular speech pattern is commented on at length by the people of Dream Land and often imitated byKirby.

Chef Nagoya once attendedChef Shiitake's cooking school along with Chef Kawasaki, where the two became fast friends. Unlike Kawasaki, however, Nagoya became a very skilled chef, as his cuisine is consistently able to enrapture the Dream Landers. Despite his skill, Nagoya was not able to establish his own restaurant, which becomes a point of contention between him and Kawasaki when he visitsCappy Town.

Role in A Chow Challenge[edit]

Main article:A Chow Challenge

Chef Nagoya appears in the episodeA Chow Challenge, where he visits Chef Kawasaki to ascertain his old schoolmate and friend's cooking ability. In order to impress Nagoya, Chef Kawasaki enlists the help ofTiff to guide his cooking, ending up producing a better result than usual, though the Cappies still end up preferring Nagoya's food by far, which eventually blows Kawasaki's ruse. Nagoya becomes offended that Kawasaki had not actually improved his cooking, and yet owns a restaurant, which leads King Dedede and Escargoon to declare a contest between the two chefs to see who will claim the spot as Cappy Town's cook.

During the contest, Chef Nagoya prepares dishes that the judges find rapturous, while Chef Kawasaki's dishes strangely cause the judges to burst in flames over the spiciness. Nagoya soon learns that the reason for this is due to Escargoon sabotaging Kawasaki's dishes to ensure he will lose. Despite being declared the winner of the contest, Nagoya throws away the offer of the restaurant and exposes the rigging that occurred, then comforts Chef Kawasaki when he points out that Kirby enjoys Kawasaki's cooking more regardless. After the defeat ofEbifryer, Chef Nagoya leaves Dream Land on good terms with his friend.

Trivia[edit]

• Chef Nagoya is named after the city ofNagoya in the Chūbu region of Japan. He also speaks theNagoya dialect in the Japanese version; his cat-like speech is a parody of how the Nagoya dialect is often perceived by Japanese speakers to sound like a cat's meowing.
  • This matches with howChef Kawasaki andChef Shiitake (Cook Osaka, in Japanese) are also named after Japanese cities.
• In the Japanese version, Nagoya pronounces his own name as "Nyagoya", and every other character besides Kawasaki pronounces it the same way. Only Kawasaki pronounces it as "Nagoya". Despite this, his name is officially written in Japanese as "Nagoya" (ナゴヤ).

Gallery[edit]

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  Chef Nagoya preparing his traditional udon soup
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  Chef Nagoya presenting a special fried prawn dish to King Dedede
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  Chef Nagoya accusing Escargoon of sabotaging Kawasaki's dishes

Names in other languages[edit]

• Kirby: Right Back at Ya! characters

• Articles which list Japanese names