Save Tiny Chef: Why an animated vegan chef is taking over your social media feeds
My children are no longer actual children, so a Nickelodeon kid’s TV show is certainly off my radar, but in the last week, I’ve become obsessed with the Tiny Chef—and I’m not the only one.
This article has been updated (see below).
The live-action/animated “Tiny Chef Show” debuted on Nickelodeon in 2022, but after 31 episodes, two Family Emmy Awards (Outstanding Directing for a Preschool Animated Program in 2023 and Outstanding Preschool Animated Series in 2025) and two Annie Awards for excellence in animation (Best Animated Television Production for Preschool in 2023 and 2025), the show was unexpectedly canceled. It was later explained that it was due to the upcoming merger between Nickelodeon’s parent company, Paramount Global, and Skydance Media.
The show announced its cancellation on social media with a heartbreaking video of the Tiny Chef (AKA Cheffie) receiving the news from Nickelodeon—Mick-e-flow-deon in Cheffie-speak—and it went viral. Existing Tiny Chef fans, along with those who’d never heard of him before the announcement, rallied to Cheffie’s aid, and a crowdfunding effort was launched to save the show. To date, fans have raised $100,000… and counting.
You can see the cancellation post here:
Who is Tiny Chef?
Tiny Chef is a tiny chef (obviously) who makes plant-based recipes from his tiny kitchen in his tree-stump house. His co-stars are a robot named Olly, a snail named Henry, and a caterpillar named Ruby.
Tiny Chef loves to cook, but what he loves even more is teaching kids how to cook, which was clearly obvious when he shared the news of his new cooking show with some of his friends on Instagram.
Geared for preschoolers, “The Tiny Chef Show” also includes fun educational sketches like “What’s in My Bag?” where his friends try to guess ingredients for his recipes, an “Ingredient Documentary” where a narrator explains the history of a particular ingredient, and “Dish with Chef” where Cheffie interviews someone via facetime, including Chef Duff Goldman, the show’s executive producer Kristen Bell, and Kristen’s “Frozen” co-star (and fellow Disney Legend) Josh Gad.
The show’s house band consists of a wooden spoon on guitar (voiced by Michael-Leon Wooley, who also voiced Louis the alligator in “The Princess and the Frog”), a wooden fork on drums, and a wooden spatula on bass; off-screen celebrity announcers have included RuPaul, Alan Cumming, Nicole Byer, Amy Sedaris, and Rebel Wilson.
What’s next for Tiny Chef?
Following the tidal wave of social media attention, Mickeflodeon may already be regretting their decision—and they should—especially since whoever picks up the show will be able to capitalize on its newfound fame.
It’s also a sign that “The Tiny Chef Show” could (and likely should) have been promoted differently from the start. If a show is on the air for three years and few people over the age of five (and their parents) even know about it, it’s clearly a missed opportunity. After all, preschooler superstars Peppa Pig and Bluey had already paved the way for Tiny Chef’s marketing potential—and, by the way, he has merch, including a collab with Williams-Sonoma and a sold-out mini figure. Go figure.
The bottom line is that “The Tiny Chef Show” was an extremely creative kids’ show that didn’t find an audience beyond preschool families until it was canceled, but it’s not too late. This isn’t the first time fans have rallied to save a television series, so there’s still hope for loyal Tiny Chef fans as well as newly-enamored Cheffie followers like myself.
Find out how you can help save Tiny Chef here. You can follow Tiny Chef on social media and you can watch episodes of “The Tiny Chef Show” on Netflix.
July 7, 2025 UPDATE:
In response to social media posts announcing that “The Tiny Chef Show” had been saved, Cheffie took to Instagram to clarify that his show is not saved quite yet (though fans have raised enough money to allow him to continue as a content creator).
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