Chef Skinner

**Chef Skinner** (or simply known as Skinner) is the main antagonist of the 2007 Disney/Pixar film Ratatouille. He is the former sous chef under the restaurant Gusteau's as well as the former head chef, Remy's arch-nemesis, and Linguini and Colette's former boss.

He was voiced by the late Ian Holm.

## Ratatouille

Skinner is first seen hiring Linguini as the plongeur (garbage boy) when he learns that Linguini's mother Renata wants Linguini to get a job. He is then seen again looking for the soup which during that, he believes that Linguini was cooking which later caused to have him and Linguini having an argument which is before a food critic tastes it. When that happened, Skinner briefly fires Linguini just before he could rehire him again just so he can prove that Linguini did not create the soup.

After Linguini and Remy team up, they successfully recreate the soup which impress Skinner. However, Skinner later finds out that Linguini is Gusteau's son which cause him to call his lawyer and also is determined to keep Linguini from discovering this fact in order to be still the head chef of the restaurant. He becomes even more determined when sees Linguini making contract with Remy on numerous occasions, suspecting that Linguini is scheming in the kitchen. During a special request from the customers to have a new course off-menu, Skinner has Linguini make Gusteau's failed recipe "sweet bread a la gusteau" to bring him down but Remy succeeds in fixing the recipe and adjusting the sauce, causing the customers to love the dish and enhancing the restaurant's reputation. After that, Skinner then tries to make Linguini talk about Remy by having him drinking wine but however that didn't work.

The next day, When Skinner notice Remy is in his office, he chases him by using his motorcycle just to get the documents. Then they went through the boats which is also when Skinner fails to get the documents. Skinner then loses the restaurant when Linguini realizes that he is Gusteau's son.

After that, Skinner tries to close the restaurant by calling the health inspector, but the health inspector said that he will arrive to the restaurant three months. He then spies on Remy and Linguini as well as discovering that Remy is the real cook. In order to get revenge on both of them, he captures Remy and intends on forcing him to create a new line of frozen foods for him while planning to make Linguini failed. Fortunately, Remy escapes and had his family and friends to help Linguini.

When Linguini gave ratatouille to both Skinner and Ego, Skinner believes that Linguini is joking before being surprised that Ego likes the food. He then races to the kitchen trying to find out who cooked the ratatouille which is before he realizes that Remy was the one who cooked it. The rats then throw Skinner in the pantry along with the health inspector. It's unknown what happened to Skinner after this but according to Remy, he and the others were forced to release Skinner and the Health Inspector.

## Personality

Skinner is shown to be very cunning, avaricious, deceitful, unrelating, and wrathful. He also bent on claiming the restaurant as his own when Auguste Gusteau had no heir as well doesn't even care about some of the food being bad which shows Skinner only cares about himself.

Skinner is also shown to be sadistic which is shown when he tries to kill Remy as well as when he believes Linguini cooked the soup, he tried to have him drawn and quartered.

## Trivia

* Skinner is sometimes thought to be the central antagonist or one of the main antagonists of the film but this not true since he is the one who drove the plot, trying to prevent Remy and Linguini from succeeding their goals which takes up the middle of the portion of the movie, getting in Linguini's way more than Ego, appearing way more than Ego, being more of a prominent character, serving as the archenemy and main threat of Remy, having bigger plans than anyone as well as Ian Holm's name coming before Peter O' Toole's name in the voice cast list and not to mention, Skinner is also featured in the tribute of the Pixar Villains which shows that Skinner is the main antagonist of Ratatouille.
* Skinner is the direct antithesis to Remy. Throughout the movie, humans are associated with creating, while rats throughout the entire movie are synonymous with stealing, Remy is a rat that wants to break the boundaries and create, whereas Skinner is a human that leeches off of others' talent and success. During their confrontation near the climax of the film by the car trunk, the contrast between the two are shown, and how Skinner is so much of a rat, by the movie's standard, that he was willing to go to extreme lengths to leech off of the success of a literal rat to further progress his status and fortune.
* Despite being the head of Gusteau's, Skinner is never shown cooking in the movie, preferring to bark orders to his employees, and stat in his office instead.
* Skinner's name is named after the late psychologist B. F. Skinner, who was famous for his experiments with rats.
* Skinner's behavior, diminutive size, and body language are based on the late Louis de Funes.
* Skinner is one of a few main Pixar villains to both win and lose since he did have his goal which is closing down the restaurant succeeded despite his plans which is getting revenge on Remy and Linguini fail.
* Skinner's line: "Welcome to Hell" could be a reference to Gordon Ramsay's Hell Kitchen, where Ramsay said "Welcome to Hell" a few times.
* Skinner using a footstool to get up a stove and looking at the critic references to an old emperor of France, Napoleon Bonaparte who to this day is mocked for being short for his age.
* According to a piece of concept art, Skinner is 3ft tall (although he is seen driving his car).
* Skinner's appearance almost looks similar to Jafar from Aladdin.
* His name is not to be confused or have nothing to do with the character from the Simpsons franchise.
* The scene where Skinner reads the letter finding out that Linguini is Gusteau's son would later become an internet meme.
* During the chase scene, if you look at the background, you can see a poster of Mr. Incredible from The Incredibles. This is likely also a reference to Brad Bird (the director of Ratatouille) is also the director of The Incredibles.
* Skinner is similar to Gilbert Huph from the Incredibles (another Pixar film). As a few examples, He is energetic, angry, short, and more or less obsessed with money and power. He is also the head of Gusteau's, just like Gilbert Huph being the CEO of Insuricare but the only difference is that Skinner is the main antagonist while Gilbert is a minor antagonist.
	+ Skinner is also similar to Henry J. Waternoose III from Monsters Inc. since they're both evil and greedy businessman as well as used to be the boss (Waternoose being the CEO of Monsters Inc. while Skinner is the head of Gusteau's but however the differences is that Skinner is the main antagonist while Waternoose is the secondary antagonist as well as Waternoose having redeeming qualities while Skinner doesn't.

* Skinner is sometimes thought to be redeemed in the film, but this is not true since it never shows what happened to Skinner after his defeat.
* Skinner is one of the last characters to be played by Ian Holm before his retirement in 2014 and his death in 2020.