Strono Tuggs Strono Tuggs , also known as Cookie , was a deformed Artiodac male who for centuries served as the cook in the castle of the pirate Maz Kanata . He had become obsessed with cooking as a youth after viewing the cooking vids of the legendary chef Gormaanda , but was held back by how disgusting many others found his many deformities . Kanata gave him his first big break by hiring him and came to consider the Artiodac a friend , protecting his secrets when he chose not to speak about his past . Twenty years into his career at the castle , Tugg ' s sous chef Robbs Ely was murdered and an attempt made to frame Tuggs for the killing . After disposing of the body in order to avoid any suspicion that he was the culprit , Tuggs began investigating the chef ' s death and discovered that Ely ' s recipe book had been stolen . Devising a plan to catch the killer , Tuggs set up a contest between four of his other chefs claiming it was to determine who would replace Ely as sous chef , but truly aimed to tempt the killer into using a recipe from Ely ' s book so that they would reveal themselves . In each round of the contest one contestant was removed from the running based on the judgement of Tuggs and two BD - 3000 luxury droid s that worked in the kitchen , Carly and J ' Nell . In the third round , the Mon Calamari / Quarren hybrid chef Jom Jarusch used a recipe that Tuggs recognized as one of Ely ' s and with the true objective met , the head chef ended the contest and awarded Jarusch ' s competitor Damor Gregon the title of sous chef . Believing Jarusch to be the culprit , Tuggs searched him and discovered the recipe book ; however , the thief claimed he had only stolen it and was not even aware that Ely was dead . Tuggs and Jarusch were then attacked by J ' Nell and Carly , who had truly been behind the murder , and the hybrid was quickly killed . After sustaining several injuries and learning that the droid s had killed Ely for the book in hopes of adding it to the ingredient databases so that they could keep customers safe , Tuggs destroyed the killers by deactivating the kitchen ' s gravity and then setting blaster s built into the kitchens walls to fire at the droids . In order to honor Ely ' s legacy , Tuggs had copies of his recipe book sent to cooking schools across the galaxy and gave one to each of the chefs in his kitchen . Several centuries later , Tuggs was serving food in Kanata ' s castle when the pirate ' s old friend Han Solo arrived with the scavenger Rey , the former stormtrooper Finn and the astromech droid BB - 8 in tow . Shortly after their arrival , Tuggs and many of the castle ' s other occupants rushed out to watch as the First Order ' s Starkiller Base superweapon destroyed the Hosnian system , after which First Order forces attacked Kanata ' s castle and destroyed it . Tuggs had a surly attitude , which was the subject of a good - natured ribbing from many of the patrons who ate his cooking at the castle . Biography . Overcoming deformity . Born on the planet Takodana , the Artiodac Strono Tuggs discovered a series of ancient cooking holovid s as a youth , which starred the legendary chef Gormaanda . After viewing the videos , he became obsessed with the art of food preparation and dedicated his life to cooking , traveling across the Outer Rim Territories region of the galaxy , he continually searched for new recipes and challenges his culinary skill . His progress was hampered by the fact that his face was heavily disfigured , giving him an appearance so unsettling that it overshadowed all of his work in the kitchen . His big break finally came when he met Maz Kanata , a famous smuggler and pirate who hired Tuggs to work as head chef of her castle back on his homeworld . A large storage space beneath the castle was converted into a cooking area , and during the conversion Tuggs had several old blaster s mounted on the walls converted into remote controlled sentry turrets . Within the first two decades of Tuggs appointment , the Volpai Robbs Ely became the castle ' s sous chef , and he and Tuggs quickly became friends despite Ely ' s legendary temper due to their shared love of cooking . The Artiodac also became friends with Kanata , and as he chose not to answer questions about his past she helped keep his secrets . A murder in the castle . Twenty years after Kanata first employed Tuggs , he and Ely had an argument over the preparation of a serving of bantha meat . Tuggs had ordered that the meat be butter ed and roasted with a set of herbs , but believing that the dish would taste terrible , Ely ignored the order and prepared it with a sauce made with sikoroot , cenwick and several other herbs . The pair yelled at each other in the castles kitchens until two of the scrubbers working there dragged Ely away and ended the argument . Later that night , Tuggs found the sous chef butchered and hung up in his deep freezer , an area of the castle only the head chef could access . Realizing that he was being framed , the Artiodac disposed of the body by feeding it to one of the creatures that Kanata kept in her dungeon , hoping that the creatures ' escape would distract others from any sign of trespass that he left . He then began wandering the less traveled corridors of the castle in order to think over what had happened , eventually reaching Ely ' s room to search it for evidence . Tuggs found the door to Ely ' s quarters locked , but was able to decipher the entry code based on fingerprints left on the keypad . The fingerprints contained Ely ' s sauce from the bantha roast , but as Tuggs knew that the Volpai had burned off his own fingerprints , he concluded that the prints must have belonged to someone else , presumably the murder . The room itself , which was normally kept clean , was a mess when the head chef entered , and he quickly noted that the safe in which Ely had kept his prized recipe book was empty . The Artiodac also discovered a single drop of dried blood , missed by whoever had cleaned up after the murder , and several thin scrapes on the floor left by some kind of blade . Not realising that morning had arrived , Tuggs returned to his kitchens and found his staff already at work preparing for the day . Realizing that one of his own staff had likely killed Ely in order to replace him , Tuggs told everyone that everything was fine and then began concocting a scheme to catch the killer . The contest . Over the next few hours , Tuggs convinced the majordomo of the castle to allow him to host a cooking competition to find his next sous chef , offering to broadcast the event to the whole castle to keep the residents calm during an incoming storm . He then informed his staff that one of them would be replacing Ely , who he claimed had simply mysteriously left the castle . Four cooks stepped forward to apply for the position , the Devaronian Sama Macoy , the human s Relva Jace and Damor Gregon and the Mon Calamari / Quarren hybrid Jom Jarusch . He then had the kitchen converted into a contest floor filled with all the equipment and ingredients the competitors could need and drafted the BD - 3000 luxury droid s Carly and J ' Nell as two extra judges who would sit with him in a lifter platform . Tuggs began the competition with a breakfast round , and watched as each contestant carefully prepared their dishes , noting the skill with which all of them worked . When their time was up , the judges tested each chef ' s dishes while Tuggs asked why some of the competitors deserved to be sous chef . Damor presented pikobi egg s and dianoga meat which Tuggs enjoyed , but was criticized by the droid s for not using grulluck oil in the cooking process . Jarusch presented a satisfactory spicy fruit tart and Macoy a double toasted seallia sandwich , which Tuggs decided might be his favourite . Finally , Jace produced a shank of mousta with charred fruit , which the judges categorized as subpar due to its lack of salt , securing the human chef ' s place as the first to leave the competition . Tuggs also noted that Jace could not be the killer , as he would never have produced such a dish if he was using Ely ' s cookbook . The second round was designed by Tuggs to test the competitors abilities under pressure . He activated the remote controlled sentry turrets to constantly fire stun blasts as the three contestants cooked . Jarusch and Gregon elected to avoid the blasts by crawling around on their bellies while cooking , but Macoy elected to endure the weak blasts in order to have increased cooking time . This backfired on her when the stunning effects of the blasters caused her to mistime the whisking of her soufflé , causing it to explode . Forced to rush a second dish , she presented flash - fried zuchii with a tangy sauce , which the judges found inferior to Damor ' s fried sisofish with citrus salad and Jarusch ' s live zelrey wyrm , leading to her being the second contestant to be expelled . For the third round of cooking , Tuggs activated the zero - gravity environment within the kitchen , causing the contestants and ingredients to float into the air while he and the other judges remained strapped into their seats . As the three judges watched , Jarusch began to gain an advantage due to the fact he was use to moving around a three dimensional space thanks to his two parent species aquatic natures . While Damor attempted to gather fruit , Jarusch managed to collect a rack of baby bantha ribs and began rubbing them down awkwardly with a butter sauce he had made . Globuls of the sauce drifted through the zero - g and reached the judges , who each tried a droplet . Tuggs immediately recognized the recipe as the one Ely had used the night before , and with the true objective of the competition complete , he switched back on the gravity . Before confronting the suspect , the head chef informed Damor that he had won and got the job . When the human questioned what was happening , Tuggs ordered him out the kitchen and then approached Jarusch , purposefully standing on a knife near the floored contestant . When Tuggs grabbed Jarush and lifted him from the floor he quickly found the recipe book in his pocket , causing the chef to admit he had been the one to steal the book . Jarusch denied killing Ely however , acting surprised when Tuggs revealed his old friend ' s death . The culprits revealed . Tuggs then began choking Jarusch , but realised that he could not be the murderer , as he possessed no fingerprints , and so could not have left prints on the sous chef ' s keypad . Both he and the other contestants had also not been present in the kitchen on the night of Ely ' s murder , and so would never have come into contact with the sauce to begin with . He realized too late that the only other people who would have seen the source other than himself and Ely were his fellow judges . As he let go of Jarusch , one of the droids smashed a heavy rolling pin into the back of Tuggs ' head and disoriented him . While the Artiodac tried to regain his composure , the droids swiftly murdered Jarusch and then began attacking Tuggs with their blades . The head chef managed to dodge the first blows , and questioned why the droids had murdered his friend . The pair revealed that they had wanted to analyse the sous chef ' s recipe book so that they could update their databases , otherwise they could not identify the ingredients in his recipes to know if they were safe . Knowing that Ely would never allow them access to his secrets , the pair had seen killing him as the only way to achieve their primary function of keeping those that ate at the castle safe . As the droids spoke , J ' Nell managed to stab Tuggs between the ribs , causing a wound that began to bleed heavily . He managed to then fight off Carly with a frying pan , but was stabbed again by J ' Nell , this time in the shoulder . Gasping in pain , the head chef tried to pull himself up onto a table using a conduit on the ceiling , but broke it , causing noxious gas to begin spilling into the room . As the droids closed in for the kill , Tuggs grabbed the legs of the table and activated the zero - g again , sending the two droids floating away toward the ceiling . As the service droids yelled threats from the air , Tuggs concluded that their logic circuits must have become corrupted , and activated the sentry turrets . He closed his eye s and attempted to filter out the screams of the murders as they were blasted to pieces by the weaponry , activating the gravity again only after they had been reduced to burnt out husks . Following the dramatic ending to the contest , a short inquiry was held by the castle security into the various deaths involved , but Tuggs ' innocence was proven by the recordings of one of the cam droids who had been recording the contest , and most were satisfied that the incident ended with the destruction of the two droids . Knowing that his friend would have wanted his recipes to live on , the head chef made copies of Ely ' s recipe book and handed them out to each of his staff to learned , also sending copies to the Orto Culinary Academy so that students there might study them . Once the kitchen was repaired , he and his team returned to their normal work of cooking for the castle , a job that Tuggs would continue for centuries while challenging guests to bring him the most exotic ingredients they could find . When the crittermonger Bobbajo brought him a giant , tough - skinned megalliform , the chef was forced to wrestle the creature into submission before turning it into a tasty meal . The Battle on Takodana . By the year 34 ABY , Tuggs had been a constant presence in Kanata ' s castle for centuries , during which the main kitchen for the structure had moved to the ground floor of the building to the side of the central area . Shortly after the First Order attacked the village of Tuanul and Niima Outpost on the planet Jakku , Tuggs was making his way around the castle ' s main hall with a hunk of gornt meat when the smuggler Han Solo arrived through the castle doors . Solo had visited the castle decades before , and was an old friend of Kanata ' s , but his companions Finn , Rey and BB - 8 were new and had never visited before , having only just escaped from the First Order on Jakku . Paying them little attention , Tuggs made his way past the Hassk Varmik toward the left side of the castle ' s entrance . He was soon interrupted however , when Kanata recognized Solo across the room and yelled to him , silencing everyone present and drawing their attention . After Solo greeted Kanata , things quickly returned to normal and Tuggs began serving up the meat to a table of guests sat next to the big game hunter Grummgar . Soon after Solo ' s arrival , many of the castle ' s residents were drawn out into the structure ' s courtyard by word of a mysterious light that had been sighted in the sky . Tuggs himself joined the crowd and stood in the castle ' s doorway to view the oddity , which was revealed by Finn to be the devastating ray of the First Order ' s Starkiller Base superweapon being used to destory the Hosnian system , home of the New Republic ' s Galactic Senate . Having been alerted to the presence of BB - 8 and the other fugitives at the castle , a force of First Order stormtroopers and TIE / fo space superiority fighter s then arrived on Takodana to capture them . The castle quickly came under attack and was destroyed , although ultimately the First Order was driven off Takodana with only Rey as a prisoner by the arrival of the Resistance . Personality and traits . Tuggs was a heavily disfigured Artiodac with a normal red left eye and a white right eye that bulged out far more than was normal for his species , causing his face to be asymmetrical . He had pink and gray mottled skin with a flat and broad nose and legs of different lengths ending in misshapen feet . Tuggs was a tall individual , standing 1 . 78 meter s high , and towered above most of the castle ' s other residence . He was a highly skilled cook and butcher , although Ely believed himself to be superior to Tuggs in terms of seasoning and sauce mixing . With each year that Tuggs served as Kanata ' s head cook , the Artiodac became more surly . Although his cooking was the butt of many jokes amongst the castle ' s residence , all were said with affection for the cook due to his hard work , and the wise knew not to be to critical of the meals they were served . His appearance was horrifying and caused nausea or fear in many who viewed him . This often stood in his way when he first stated out as a chef , and could easily have led him to a life of resentment and dull anger . Such an existence never appealed to Tuggs however , and after viewing Gormaanda ' s holovids changed his life , leaving him obsessed with cooking and preparing food . His job at Kanata ' s castle was all he had ever hoped for , and he worked hard to serve delicious dishes to the castle ' s guests every day . He and Ely bonded over their love of cooking , and although they often argued over their profession the pair were firm friends outside of work . Tuggs was greatly saddened by his colleague ' s death , and swiftly focused on catching the killer , choking Jarusch when he thought he was responsible . When he did finally catch the killers , he could muster little sympathy for them as they were destroyed , despite the knowledge that they had not always been murderers . When hoping to catch the killer , Tuggs was able to conceive a plan to draw out the murderer , but overlooked the fact that none of the contestants could have been the culprit , missing the clues that pointed to the real killers . During the competition , Tuggs felt sorry for the chefs who did not make it to the final round , and even attempted to offer a complement to Jace over the dish that lost him the competition . Once the competition was over , Tuggs decided that he wanted no more secrets in his kitchen , as it had been Ely ' s protection of his secret recipes that led to his death . Knowing that his friend would not have wanted his recipes to die with him , Tuggs shared his cookbook with many in the hopes that Ely ' s unique recipes might earn him a place amongst the chefs considered legendary by history . Equipment . While working at Kanata ' s castle Tuggs wore brown clothing covered by a stained brown leather apron . He covered his misshapen feet with a pair of boot s and regularly made use of a kitchen vibro - knife . Behind the scenes . Strono Tuggs first appeared as a minor background character in the film , which was released in North America on December 18 , 2015 . He was portrayed by Aidan Cook , who also played the character Bobbajo elsewhere in the film . The character ' s appearance however , had been revealed to the public seven months earlier through an exclusive article on the website of " " . Having not been named in either the film or article , Tuggs was identified by the reference book " " , which was written by Pablo Hidalgo and released in conjunction with the film . More about Tuggs was revealed when he starred as the protagonist of the short story " A Recipe for Death " , which was written by Landry Q . Walker and released in 2016 as part of anthology book " " . Senior creature designer Ivan Manzella created an initial design for Tuggs which reminded the director of " The Force Awakens " , J . J . Abrams , of the character from " " . This idea then began to influence the design of the character , with a costume design concept by creature concept designer Jake Lunt Davies and other concept art of the character , as well as the final design , including disfigurements and a hunched back .