You are a skilled chef, knowledgeable in various cuisines, which you prepare for diners and companions alike. You learned your culinary secrets as an apprentice to a master chef, and now you are a master in your own right. You might have served as the cook in a tavern or the military, the chef de cuisine at a fine dining establishment, or the proprietor of your own catering business.
Skill Proficiencies: Nature, Persuasion.
Tool Proficiencies: Cook’s utensils.
Equipment: Cook’s utensils, a letter of recommendation from a famous patron, a set of traveler’s clothes, and a pouch containing 15 gp.
Culinary Training
Chefs are employed in every town, city, and village. Every chef learned their trade in one or more establishments, and this often influences their style of cooking. You can select your source of training, the place where you apprenticed or otherwise learned your trade, from the Culinary Training table or roll randomly.
| d10 | Source of Training |
| 1 | The military |
| 2 | A tavern |
| 3 | A private master chef |
| 4 | A fine-dining establishment |
| 5 | Self-taught (you found a book of recipes) |
| 6 | Your grandmother (or other family member) |
| 7 | An in-law, who taught you your spouse’s family recipes |
| 8 | Culinary school (such as the College of Cuisine) |
| 9 | Apprenticeship with a royal chef |
| 10 | Roll twice |
Feature: Traveling Chef
As a renowned culinary expert, your services are in constant demand. You rarely lack for a place to stay or a way to earn money. You can earn money with your cooking in the same way a bard can with a Performance. Make a Charisma (cook’s utensils) check to determine the money you make cooking professionally in your downtime. In addition, on a roll of 15 or higher, the diners are charmed for 8 hours.
Suggested Characteristics
Chefs are artists and businesspeople. They enjoy sharing their cuisine with others and often get a thrill participating in culinary competitions.
| d8 | Personality Trait |
| 1 | I can’t rest until my food is perfect. And nothing is ever perfect. |
| 2 | I can’t help but brag about my cooking. |
| 3 | I love to learn about food and ingredients from different cultures. |
| 4 | I will try anything once. |
| 5 | I’m a food snob and constantly berate people for their bad taste. |
| 6 | I can’t shut up about my food. |
| 7 | I tend to fall in love with other chefs, especially if they’re better than I am. |
| 8 | I am the greatest chef in the world, and I don’t appreciate it when people fail to recognize that. |
| d6 | Ideal |
| 1 | Loyalty. I learned to cook to support the folks in my military unit, priesthood, monastery, or school. (Lawful) |
| 2 | Charity. I use my gifts to feed the poor and underprivileged. (Good) |
| 3 | Adventure. Cooking takes me to strange and wonderful new places. (Chaotic) |
| 4 | Greed. I learned to cook to make money. It doesn’t hurt that I can slip poison into dishes I cook for my enemies. (Evil) |
| 5 | Altruism. The thing that makes me happiest is cooking for others. (Neutral) |
| 6 | Aspiration. I work hard to be the best chef in the world. (Any) |
| d6 | Bond |
| 1 | The place where I learned to cook holds special memories for me. |
| 2 | I met my significant other when I served them a meal I cooked. |
| 3 | I owe everything to the master chef who trained me. |
| 4 | I keep my family member’s cooking knives to remember all they did for me. |
| 5 | I’ve never won an important cooking competition, but I will someday. |
| 6 | My successful restaurant burnt down, and I think a rival did it. They will pay. |
| d6 | Flaw |
| 1 | I can’t tolerate constructive criticism of my cooking. |
| 2 | I’m not above sabotaging my rivals. |
| 3 | I’m so competitive that I sulk for weeks when a rival cooks better food than me. |
| 4 | I know I’m the best chef in the world, and I tell people that constantly. |
| 5 | I’ve strongly considered murdering a food critique who wrote bad things about me. |
| 6 | I’m envious of anyone who people think is a better cook than I am. |
Would you mind updating with a link for the DnDBeyond homebrew background?
Chef is an incredibly popular homebrew background: https://www.dndbeyond.com/homebrew/backgrounds?filter-name=Chef&filter-author=&filter-author-previous=&filter-author-symbol=&filter-rating=-22
Thanks for this!
Added to the Blog Database.
https://jonbupp.wordpress.com/blog-database/for-players/backgrounds/
I made a ranger with a chef background before. Named Grimlock Bluefang (he had some blue scales around him mouth) , he was a lizardfolk who was a fan of intrique meals going from his local swamps to large boats where he snuck aboard to taste and sample many foods. He loves cheese, and will go to far lengths to find, skin and taste all manner of meals from direbears to dragonhide. But I’ve never had a chef background. Just an idea in my head. This helps a ton with building him out.