The chef on this box wasn’t winking, and he held a slice of pizza rather than making any kind of gesture. One day, Weiner stumbled upon the Holy Grail: a pizza box printed with a signed illustration. You’ve likely seen a similar man printed on take-out menus, or as a statuette outside restaurants holding a list of specials.īut who first set pen to paper and drew this self-satisfied cook? Weiner dove into researching his origins, noting along the way that the chef, though instantly recognizable, is often modified-sometimes winking, other times only knowingly raising an eyebrow. This piece of clip art has graced millions of pizza boxes over the years: a jolly-looking man in a high chef’s hat, winking, with his hand raised in an “a-ok” gesture. My favorite pizza-box motif, though, is the Winking Chef. His boxes, which are brand new and grease-free, range from Domino’s boxes shaped like R2-D2 to fancy pizza places’ stern white boxes embellished only with minimalist black text. Several years ago, I interviewed Scott Weiner, the owner of the world’s largest pizza-box collection. So, today, we investigate the origins of the smiling chef of pizza-box fame, the ubiquitous red pagoda of American-Chinese takeout, and the surprising elegance of plastic sushi trays. Granted, it’s not always the most elegant or politically correct, but some of these designs are now instantly recognizable. Takeout containers-especially for pizza, Chinese food, and sushi-have an iconic art and style.
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