Chef Excellence An Excellent X

2010Exploitable / image macrosemi-active

Also known as: Chef Excellence · An Excellent Product

Chef Excellence is an exploitable image macro built around a stock photo of a man in a chef's costume, used by PMS International to promote their "Stay Fresh System" food storage bags with the tagline "An Excellent Product." The character became a meme in 2010 after British YouTuber Dr. Ashen mocked the product in a review video, spawning years of parodies, remixes, and exploitable edits across YouTube and Reddit.

Overview

The meme centers on a generic stock photo of a man wearing a chef's hat and giving a thumbs-up. PMS International licensed the image and slapped it onto the packaging of their "Stay Fresh System" bags, branding the character "Chef Excellence" alongside the slogan "An Excellent Product". The meme's humor comes from the absurd gap between the cheap, unremarkable product and the over-the-top endorsement by this fictional chef character. In exploitable versions, users swap out "An Excellent Product" for "An Excellent [anything]," applying the chef's enthusiastic approval to increasingly ridiculous subjects.

On August 6, 2005, a photograph of a man posing in a chef costume was uploaded to iStockPhoto.com. The image was a standard stock photo with no special significance at the time. PMS International later acquired the image and used it on their Stay Fresh System product packaging, giving the character the name "Chef Excellence" and pairing him with the endorsement line "An Excellent Product".

The character would have remained an anonymous piece of budget product branding if not for British comedian and YouTuber Dr. Ashen. On January 8, 2010, Dr. Ashen uploaded a review of the "Stay Fresh Cheese Bags" to his YouTube channel, drawing attention to the bizarre Chef Excellence branding2. On January 27, 2010, he followed up with another Stay Fresh product review, further boosting the character's visibility. In both videos, he joked about Chef Excellence's overblown endorsement, and the character quickly became a recurring bit on his channel.

Origin & Background

Platform
iStockPhoto (stock photo), YouTube (meme spread via Dr. Ashen)
Key People
Dr. Ashen, Unknown
Date
2010

On August 6, 2005, a photograph of a man posing in a chef costume was uploaded to iStockPhoto.com. The image was a standard stock photo with no special significance at the time. PMS International later acquired the image and used it on their Stay Fresh System product packaging, giving the character the name "Chef Excellence" and pairing him with the endorsement line "An Excellent Product".

The character would have remained an anonymous piece of budget product branding if not for British comedian and YouTuber Dr. Ashen. On January 8, 2010, Dr. Ashen uploaded a review of the "Stay Fresh Cheese Bags" to his YouTube channel, drawing attention to the bizarre Chef Excellence branding2. On January 27, 2010, he followed up with another Stay Fresh product review, further boosting the character's visibility. In both videos, he joked about Chef Excellence's overblown endorsement, and the character quickly became a recurring bit on his channel.

How It Spread

Dr. Ashen kept the Chef Excellence joke alive across multiple videos over the years. On March 21, 2013, he uploaded a cartoon parody of the character that pulled in over 230,000 views. A puppet version of Chef Excellence appeared on his secondary channel, extraashens, and picked up more than 300,000 views.

Beyond Ashens' channel, the character spread as an exploitable format. Users took the logo and swapped the endorsement text, applying Chef Excellence's approval to anything from memes to mundane objects. On February 3, 2017, Reddit user Heroicshrub posted a Chef Excellence edit to r/meirl that earned over 2,000 upvotes1. A Me Gusta crossover parody was created by Know Your Meme user HybridXephyr, blending the character with the classic rage comic face.

How to Use This Meme

The standard Chef Excellence format works like this: take the original logo (the chef giving a thumbs-up next to his endorsement text) and replace "An Excellent Product" with "An Excellent [X]," where X is whatever you want to sarcastically or absurdly endorse. The humor typically comes from applying the chef's over-enthusiastic approval to something clearly undeserving of it, like a broken appliance, a terrible life decision, or an existential crisis. Some versions drop the text entirely and just use the chef's image as a reaction to anything vaguely product-related.

Cultural Impact

Chef Excellence is primarily a fixture of the Ashens fandom and the broader British YouTube comedy scene. Dr. Ashen turned the character into one of his most recognizable running gags, with the cartoon and puppet parodies reaching combined audiences of over half a million viewers. The meme also crossed into Reddit's meme ecosystem, where the exploitable format found a second life in ironic endorsement humor1.

Fun Facts

The original stock photo was taken on August 6, 2005, five years before Dr. Ashen turned it into a meme.

PMS International, the company behind Stay Fresh System bags, unknowingly created one of YouTube's most enduring in-jokes by licensing a generic stock photo.

Dr. Ashen's first Chef Excellence video reviewed "Stay Fresh Cheese Bags" specifically, making cheese bags an unlikely entry point into meme history2.

Derivatives & Variations

Cartoon Chef Excellence:

An animated parody by Dr. Ashen uploaded March 21, 2013, with over 230,000 views.

Puppet Chef Excellence:

A puppet version featured on the extraashens YouTube channel, reaching 300,000+ views.

Me Gusta crossover:

A mashup of Chef Excellence with the rage comic Me Gusta face, created by KYM user HybridXephyr.

r/meirl exploitables:

Reddit edits applying the "An Excellent" format to relatable situations, including Heroicshrub's 2017 post with 2,000+ points[1].

Frequently Asked Questions

Chef Excellence An Excellent X

2010Exploitable / image macrosemi-active

Also known as: Chef Excellence · An Excellent Product

Chef Excellence is an exploitable image macro built around a stock photo of a man in a chef's costume, used by PMS International to promote their "Stay Fresh System" food storage bags with the tagline "An Excellent Product." The character became a meme in 2010 after British YouTuber Dr. Ashen mocked the product in a review video, spawning years of parodies, remixes, and exploitable edits across YouTube and Reddit.

Overview

The meme centers on a generic stock photo of a man wearing a chef's hat and giving a thumbs-up. PMS International licensed the image and slapped it onto the packaging of their "Stay Fresh System" bags, branding the character "Chef Excellence" alongside the slogan "An Excellent Product". The meme's humor comes from the absurd gap between the cheap, unremarkable product and the over-the-top endorsement by this fictional chef character. In exploitable versions, users swap out "An Excellent Product" for "An Excellent [anything]," applying the chef's enthusiastic approval to increasingly ridiculous subjects.

On August 6, 2005, a photograph of a man posing in a chef costume was uploaded to iStockPhoto.com. The image was a standard stock photo with no special significance at the time. PMS International later acquired the image and used it on their Stay Fresh System product packaging, giving the character the name "Chef Excellence" and pairing him with the endorsement line "An Excellent Product".

The character would have remained an anonymous piece of budget product branding if not for British comedian and YouTuber Dr. Ashen. On January 8, 2010, Dr. Ashen uploaded a review of the "Stay Fresh Cheese Bags" to his YouTube channel, drawing attention to the bizarre Chef Excellence branding2. On January 27, 2010, he followed up with another Stay Fresh product review, further boosting the character's visibility. In both videos, he joked about Chef Excellence's overblown endorsement, and the character quickly became a recurring bit on his channel.

Origin & Background

Platform
iStockPhoto (stock photo), YouTube (meme spread via Dr. Ashen)
Key People
Dr. Ashen, Unknown
Date
2010

On August 6, 2005, a photograph of a man posing in a chef costume was uploaded to iStockPhoto.com. The image was a standard stock photo with no special significance at the time. PMS International later acquired the image and used it on their Stay Fresh System product packaging, giving the character the name "Chef Excellence" and pairing him with the endorsement line "An Excellent Product".

The character would have remained an anonymous piece of budget product branding if not for British comedian and YouTuber Dr. Ashen. On January 8, 2010, Dr. Ashen uploaded a review of the "Stay Fresh Cheese Bags" to his YouTube channel, drawing attention to the bizarre Chef Excellence branding2. On January 27, 2010, he followed up with another Stay Fresh product review, further boosting the character's visibility. In both videos, he joked about Chef Excellence's overblown endorsement, and the character quickly became a recurring bit on his channel.

How It Spread

Dr. Ashen kept the Chef Excellence joke alive across multiple videos over the years. On March 21, 2013, he uploaded a cartoon parody of the character that pulled in over 230,000 views. A puppet version of Chef Excellence appeared on his secondary channel, extraashens, and picked up more than 300,000 views.

Beyond Ashens' channel, the character spread as an exploitable format. Users took the logo and swapped the endorsement text, applying Chef Excellence's approval to anything from memes to mundane objects. On February 3, 2017, Reddit user Heroicshrub posted a Chef Excellence edit to r/meirl that earned over 2,000 upvotes1. A Me Gusta crossover parody was created by Know Your Meme user HybridXephyr, blending the character with the classic rage comic face.

How to Use This Meme

The standard Chef Excellence format works like this: take the original logo (the chef giving a thumbs-up next to his endorsement text) and replace "An Excellent Product" with "An Excellent [X]," where X is whatever you want to sarcastically or absurdly endorse. The humor typically comes from applying the chef's over-enthusiastic approval to something clearly undeserving of it, like a broken appliance, a terrible life decision, or an existential crisis. Some versions drop the text entirely and just use the chef's image as a reaction to anything vaguely product-related.

Cultural Impact

Chef Excellence is primarily a fixture of the Ashens fandom and the broader British YouTube comedy scene. Dr. Ashen turned the character into one of his most recognizable running gags, with the cartoon and puppet parodies reaching combined audiences of over half a million viewers. The meme also crossed into Reddit's meme ecosystem, where the exploitable format found a second life in ironic endorsement humor1.

Fun Facts

The original stock photo was taken on August 6, 2005, five years before Dr. Ashen turned it into a meme.

PMS International, the company behind Stay Fresh System bags, unknowingly created one of YouTube's most enduring in-jokes by licensing a generic stock photo.

Dr. Ashen's first Chef Excellence video reviewed "Stay Fresh Cheese Bags" specifically, making cheese bags an unlikely entry point into meme history2.

Derivatives & Variations

Cartoon Chef Excellence:

An animated parody by Dr. Ashen uploaded March 21, 2013, with over 230,000 views.

Puppet Chef Excellence:

A puppet version featured on the extraashens YouTube channel, reaching 300,000+ views.

Me Gusta crossover:

A mashup of Chef Excellence with the rage comic Me Gusta face, created by KYM user HybridXephyr.

r/meirl exploitables:

Reddit edits applying the "An Excellent" format to relatable situations, including Heroicshrub's 2017 post with 2,000+ points[1].

Frequently Asked Questions