Buford (The Princess and the Frog)

Buford is a character featured in the 2009 Disney animated feature film The Princess and the Frog.
==Background==
===Personality===
Buford serves as the head chef of Duke's Café in New Orleans. Most of the time when the order is ready, Buford would tell waiters who work in his restaurant to get the order ready for the customers who placed their orders. When he met Tiana who was working at Duke's, he showed a harsh personality to her about her father's restaurant Tiana's Palace coming true, thinking that she might not get her dream to come true. In spite of this, he becomes responsible when it comes to him getting Tiana's order ready - especially when it comes to her serving items for the customers in a punctual manner.
==Appearances==
===The Princess and the Frog===
Buford is first seen working at Duke's Café saying, "Order up!", planning to give the pancakes for Tiana to serve, just before she approaches him. He asks her if she is talking about her father's restaurant wanting to come true, only for Tiana to tell him that the eggs are burning. Buford taunts her that she won't have enough money for the restaurant she wanted to dream of, which Tiana replies to him that she is getting close, but not before she asks him about the pancakes he needs to serve to her, followed by more breakfast items he gives to her. He then tells Tiana that she has a high chance of getting her wish coming true, has much as he has of winning the Kentucky Derby. Later during the conversation between Tiana and Charlotte where the latter gives Tiana money to help her build her restaurant, Buford reacts to Tiana's comment, just as the egg on his spatula drops onto the service bell. He does not appear again throughout the rest of the film, even after Tiana got her own restaurant at the end of the film after saving enough money for her dream to come true.
==Video game appearances==
===The Princess and the Frog===
Despite his minor role in the film, Buford had a major role in the Wii version of The Princess and the Frog. When the player starts a new game, Buford can be found standing around and talking to him will give the player an option to start the game's first act, "Duke's Café". He asks Tiana about the restaurant she is about to work at is in a down-state, which she replies to him that he has a lot of work to do to get her father's restaurant to come true, which Buford always knew about it. However, Tiana replies that the way he said to her is not how she remembers it, explaining that she wasn't exactly encouraging. Buford tells Tiana that she always has to work without resting when working at Duke's Café, just before the scene transitions to the aforementioned restaurant.
When the player encounters Buford at Duke's Café in the intro cutscene of the mini-game "Beignet Big Feed", Tiana asks him of what her next task is, which he tells her to serve the beignets to the customers quick, but not before Tiana's mother Eudora approaches her daughter. The gameplay of "Beignet Big Feed" has the player serve beignets to the customers in the restaurant under Buford's command. In addition to serving regular customers beignets, serving Buford beignets by throwing them at his pot earns the player bonus points. Aside from Buford awarding the player bonus points, hitting Dr. Facilier with a beignet (who would occasionally appear within the restaurant) will also make the player earn bonus points during gameplay.
Buford later appears in a mini-game named after him titled "Boogie and Buford", whose intro shows him feeling exhausted after his hard work at Duke's Café, tasking Tiana to take care of the customers during her job. During gameplay of "Boogie and Buford", the player has to make some noise outside of Duke's Café by performing musical gestures shown onscreen using their controller without getting caught by Buford. When Buford hears the commotion outside, the player has to freeze without getting caught by Buford during a musical act; otherwise, they will lose points if Buford catches them, just before he leaves so that the player can resume performing outside of the Café. Buford can exit through either two of the doors of Duke's Café, so the player can never tell where he would come through to tell the player to not be too noisy. After the mini-game ends, Buford tells the musicians to keep the noise level down just before the results show up at the end of the mini-game.
The intro cutscene of the mini-game "Fumbling Cakes" shows Tiana talking to a worried Buford, telling her that a customer wanted him to bake a bunch of cakes for his birthday. Buford recaps to Tiana that he dropped the first few cakes and he forgot what they looked like, telling Tiana to remember what cake he was supposed to bake for him. During gameplay, the player must help Buford remember what cake he was making for the customer. During the start of gameplay, Buford holds a randomly-customized cake whose shape, layers, colors, and decoration can change depending on the gameplay. The player must pay attention to the cake being shown and help him remember what cake he was baking for the customer. The more the player selects the correct amount of selections by paying attention to the details of the cake, the more points they earn during the game.
Buford can also be seen in the background working in his kitchen during the mini-game "Spicy Gumbo", where he watches the players preparing the gumbo for Big Daddy.
After completing the story, Tiana recaps to Buford about the days she worked at Duke's, but she made sure the customers got they were looking for, which he apologizes for his harshness towards her. Tiana replies to Buford that she learned a lot about this, just as he tells her that he never thought about the business, clearing up the harshness he had with her earlier.
==Gallery==
Princess-and-the-frog-disneyscreencaps.com-836.jpg
Tiana 56.jpg
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Cake remembering game.png|Buford in the "Fumbling Cakes" mini-game in the Wii version of The Princess and the Frog
==Trivia==
*In the Princess and the Frog-inspired cookbook Tiana's Cookbook, there is a recipe named after Buford called "Buford's Fish Fillets", although Buford himself is never seen cooking fillets in the film.Tiana's Cookbook, Page 34
==References==
Category:The Princess and the Frog characters
Category:Chefs
Category:Adults
Category:African American characters
Category:Disney characters
Category:Males
Category:Neutral characters
Category:Characters in video games
Category:Characters in the Disney animated features canon
Category:Animated characters