"Welcome back, you meddlesome brats! I didn't think you'd be back so soon. No matter, it's too late to stop me now. The Wondertart will be my finest work yet! A shame I never told you about the most important secret ingredient... a living soul! While you suckers were out doing my bidding, I nabbed your little friend here. When his/her soul is baked into the Wondertart, the cosmic powers of the astral plane will be mine! But first, I'll take those ingredients... and then I'll use your heads as serving dishes!"
—Chef Saltbaker in the cutscene prior to his boss battle
Chef Saltbaker is the hidden main antagonist and final boss of Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course. He is the proprietor of his bakery, claiming to have a recipe for the proper ingredients to bring a soul back to life. Cuphead, Mugman and Ms. Chalice have to fight Saltbaker in the laboratory in his bakery's cellar in the stage A Dish To Die For. He cannot be fought in Simple Mode much like King Dice and The Devil.
Description[]
Appearance[]
Chef Saltbaker is an anthropomorphic salt shaker who has a pointy nose and wears a chef's uniform, including a traditional white jacket with red-trimmed sleeves and a red ascot around his neck. In addition, his metal cap resembles a blanche. Additionally, in the DLC's climax, he sports sinister-looking yellow eyes with dark circles around them.
During his boss battle, after the heroes damage his outer body enough, Saltbaker degenerates into a sapient salt mass that can form into a humanoid shape. His heart has a similar face to his, including the pointed nose and a salt cap on one lobe. It is typically pink, but becomes transparent for a few seconds when parried.
Personality[]
In his introduction, Chef Saltbaker is a seemingly jolly individual with a kind attitude. He appears more than happy to help bring Ms. Chalice to life and even gives the brothers a special cookie that can temporarily allow Chalice to live on the mortal plane. However, after the requested ingredients are gathered, Saltbaker reveals himself to be a cunning and cut-throat individual, willing to sacrifice a soul to create the Wondertart in his plot to conquer the astral plane. This degree of cruelty is further shown in his boss battle, where Saltbaker abuses and/or kills the living ingredients in order to battle their gatherers. He also seems to have a fondness for cooking jokes, as evident by his death screen quotes. The depth of his determination to succeed in his goals is alluded to with his transformations, which indicates that even after being reduced to a sapient mass of salt, he is determined to continue fighting anyway.
While his reputation is genuine, it is unknown whether Saltbaker was always this way or perhaps it stemmed for his desire to create the Wondertart. However, by the end of the DLC, Saltbaker has shown to be humbled by his defeat, after doing his ordered community service, he is shown to be much more kind and generous.
Story[]
Chef Saltbaker is first seen in-game in his bakery after Ms. Chalice introduces Cuphead and Mugman to him. Saltbaker then reveals plans to make the Wondertart, where one bite of the tart allows Ms. Chalice to become alive without the use of switching bodies with someone else. Saltbaker then allows the three to fight bosses to collect the ingredients needed for the Wondertart and mentions the most important ingredient is heart and soul. Just like King Dice, after defeating a boss in Simple Mode, Saltbaker notifies the player that defeating them in that difficulty will not get the ingredients needed, albeit in a less condescending manner in contrast to King Dice.
However, after the players has beaten all the bosses, Saltbaker is not seen in his usual spot and the entrance to the bakery's cellar is revealed. In its secret laboratory where he is found working on the Wondertart, Saltbaker reveals that he intends to use it to conquer the astral plane and a literal soul must be added as the secret ingredient, the crazed chef having captured one of the three heroes as the ideal soul while the other two were out on their journey. Saltbaker then takes the gathered ingredients from the remaining heroes to use against them in an epic battle. However, he is eventually defeated and his bakery is destroyed due to the damage it endured during the battle.
In the aftermath, Saltbaker is arrested for his crimes and is sentenced to a form of community service that involves working for the previous bosses that were fought and The Boatman. He eventually abandons his malicious ways and rebuilds his bakery, making pastries for Cuphead's group and all the residents of DLC Island as an apology gift.
Battle[]
Intro[]
Chef Saltbaker exercises his hands by pulling his ascot and pushes away a pre-ready ingredient to the right off-screen, which can be some Icy Sugar Cubes or sliced Desert Limes. A flame also appears at the top of the screen.
His intro animation has an unseen opening where Saltbaker will tug at his ascot frustratedly before resuming his normal intro.
Like the Devil, Cuphead and his gang are shown reacting in fear and shock rather than performing their standard intros.
Phase 1[]
"Marinate in your defeat while I complete this astral treat!"
—Chef Saltbaker, Phase 1 Death Screen
Chef Saltbaker has four different attacks based on the ingredients collected throughout the game:
- Chef Saltbaker pulls out a gigantic version of the Icy Sugar Cubes with a sailor hat with the word "SUGAR" on it, pushes the hat away and hits it with a hammer and a stake to break it into smaller pieces, levitates some with his magic and blows them away. Five pieces travel from the side where the sugar cubes were pushed off-screen to the other in a wave pattern. Some sugar cubes can be parried. In Expert Mode, there are an octet of sugar cubes and they appear more rapidly.
- Chef Saltbaker brings up and slices up a group of Desert Limes, then pushes the newly-created wedges away. Four of them appear on the side where they were pushed off-screen to the other end, then boomerang back. If they are higher when they appear, they boomerang lower and vice-versa. The wedges that are initially moving can be ducked under, but ones that are boomeranging/on their second travel cannot. In Expert Mode, there are five lime slices.
- Chef Saltbaker conjures a rolling pin and flattens the Distillery Dough that comes in. He uses some cookie cutters to cut out some animal-shaped cookies and uses his magic to bring them to life. Six cookies bounce from the side to the where they are levitated off-screen to the other side. They can be defeated. In Expert Mode, there are eight cookies and they appear more rapidly.
- A basket of Gnome Berries runs across the background. Chef Saltbaker squishes it with all his might and causes all the berries inside it to fly off-screen, with the basket running away crying. 12 berries rain down to the left. In Expert Mode, there are 16 berries raining down at a quicker rate.
All of these attacks (with the exception of the Gnome Berries, which will be done in the middle in-between attacks), will be done by Chef Saltbaker on either the left or right side of the arena, indicating which side of the screen the attacks will come from.
The flame that appears at the top occasionally jumps down and aims at the player(s). In Expert Mode, there will be two flames alternating between each jump and the flames jump at a faster rate.
Upon losing enough health, Saltbaker will slam the table in frustration and put a mushroom inside of his head. This causes him to grow as the crazed chef scoops up the player with his hands, commencing the next phase of the battle. Hitpoints = 600/680
Phase 2[]
"My power grows with much aplomb! Your end is here, upon my palm!"
—Chef Saltbaker, Phase 2 Death Screen
After the crazed chef grows and captures the two cups in the palm of his hand, Chef Saltbaker's body is already slightly cracked and he laughs wickedly.
In this phase, Chef Saltbaker summons four Pepper Shakers on the corners of the screen by snapping his fingers. The Pepper Shakers sneeze peppercorn out of their caps, some of which can be parried. They can be defeated to launch them at the giant chef and damage him, dealing exactly 47 hitpoints of damage in Regular Mode.
Chef Saltbaker will pull out some Pineapple Mint leaves with his free hand, throw them up and sprinkle them on Cuphead/Mugman/Ms. Chalice. There are three or four leaves falling from the ceiling swing from side to side. In Expert Mode, three to five leaves fall from the ceiling.
A flame jumps up toward Cuphead/Mugman/Ms. Chalice, like in Phase 1. However it stays on the palm of Chef Saltbaker and can be a constant hazard to the player(s). In Expert Mode, there are still two flames.
After enough damage is done to Saltbaker, all the Pepper Shakers vanish along with any projectiles on the screen. The flame will burn up into nothing as well. Saltbaker's glass body breaks as he shrieks in agony, his eyes roll into his body, and he releases a massive amount of salt in a white flash, commencing the third phase of his fight.
Hitpoints = 540/629
Phase 3[]
"Your futile efforts were in vain, this world will be my salt domain."
—Chef Saltbaker, Phase 3 Death Screen
During this phase, Chef Saltbaker has been reduced to the salt mass in his old body which sits motionless in the background. The chef conjures two dancing salt clones who, after falling down onto the player's location, bounce along the screen while a saw blade slides along the floor to accompany them. If you let them bounce for 24 times, the clone will disappear as if they are defeated. Chef Saltbaker will clap his hands and produce two salt clones again, still sharing the remaining hitpoints. In Expert Mode, there will be two sawblades and their gravity is increased to make them bounce more rapidly. Hitpoints = 135/136
After enough damage is dealt, the salt clones and sawblade(s) will sink into the ground and the final stand against Saltbaker commences.
Phase 4[]
"The mark of my salinity shall scar thy fired glaze!"
—Chef Saltbaker, Phase 4 Death Screen
After Saltbaker rises back up from the pile of salt in the background, his old body splits in half to reveal his salty mass. After laughing maniacally, he turns into a pair of salt tornadoes with multiple faces that slowly close in, while his heart rises from the wreckage and shakes off the salt on it before entering the tornado and glass platforms fall from the top to the bottom. The ground will then break up into a bottomless pit, forcing the Cups to jump up vertically onto the glass platforms. His heart then appears from the top of the screen and bounces throughout the area in between the pillars. During this process, the background will be blurry. Cuphead/Mugman/Ms. Chalice must shoot his heart to damage him while making sure to parkour up the falling glass platforms. The heart also can be parried when it turns pink. In Expert Mode, his heart moves faster, becoming harder to hit.
After he is defeated, the salt tornadoes start to break apart and show painful expressions and yell in pain as his heart stretches about; acting as if it is taking punches. Hitpoints = 225/255
Sound Effects[]
Gallery[]
.gif "Saltbaker's heart (Parried).gif (403 KB)")
Unused Content[]
.jpg "20230929 222747 (1).jpg (89 KB)")
Walkthrough[]
| Normal Mode | Expert Mode |
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Trivia[]
- Chef Saltbaker derives his name from a portmanteau of "saltshaker" and "baker" (the latter word referencing the chef's uniform he wears).
- His name might be a reference to the famous chef Salt Bae, known for his particular technique for seasoning meat, and the 50s jazz trumpeter Chet Baker.
- The only ingredient that Chef Saltbaker doesn't use to try and attack you with in Phase 1 is the Pineapple Mint. He only uses it in the second phase.
- Similar to Beppi The Clown and multitude of bosses, Chef Saltbaker could get stuck at Phase 1 and could not transition. When he starts to attack and being damage to the threshold to transition to Phase 2, he will move to the other side but not attack anymore, staying in place with the only hazard left is the jumping flame. However, this doesn't make his battle unwinnable: after enough damage the transition from Phase 2 to 3 will play and causes Chef Saltbaker to change into a different animation but his hitbox will continue to be active until he is defeated. This is fixed in Patch 1.3.3.
- In Cuphead: Cartoon Chronicles & Calamities, he states that the secret ingredient to make his goods taste good is salt.
- In the sense that Chef Saltbaker is using it in the death card for his second phase, the term “Aplomb” refers to self-confidence or assurance, especially when in a demanding situation. In this case, it refers to Chef Saltbaker’s determination and obsession of using the Wondertart to conquer the astral plane.
- In his third phase, the sawblades travelling through the ground may be inspired by the unused Bothersome Blueberry from Goopy Le Grande, with the salt clones bouncing around mimicking Goopy.
- During the epilogue, Chef Saltbaker was sentenced to do the following jobs:
- Working in Glumstone the Giant's farm along with the gnomes.
- Lifting the Moonshine Mob's cargo.
- Cleaning the teeth of Mortimer Freeze's winter whale.
- Painting the Boatman's boat.
- Working as a waiter in Esther Winchester's saloon.
- Repairing the Howling Aces' airplanes.
- In the second panel of the epilogue, Chef Saltbaker’s prison number reads “551905.” This is likely a tribute to Mickey Mouse cartoonist Floyd Gottfredson, whose birthdate is May 5, 1905.
- Quite rarely, the second phase’s music will still play during the third and fourth phase, instead of it being replaced with the third phase’s music.
- He is the first boss of the Cuphead series to have a different background because of the player’s choice, that choice being if the Astral Cookie is used or not. If so, Saltbaker will kidnap Cuphead or Mugman. If not, he will capture Ms. Chalice instead.
- Originally, in the early trailers, he had completely transparent skin instead of blue skin, his silver top was white, had pale blue eyelids and had no pie eyes.
- Although the mushroom he uses to grow for Phase 2 is bright pink, it cannot be parried. This is likely because Chef Saltbaker's hand is behind the screen and does not deal damage on contact; thus, the mushroom is behind the screen as well, meaning direct cannot be made with it.
Inspirations and similarities[]
Comparison between the expressions between Saltbaker and the Coachman from Pinocchio.
- Saltbaker's facial expressions during the DLC's climax likely reference the Coachman's malicious grin from Disney's Pinocchio, similar to King Dice.
- When transitioning into the second phase, Chef Saltbaker uses a glowing pink and white-spotted mushroom to grow in size. This is likely a reference to the Super Mushroom from the Mario franchise, which enlarges and strengthens characters that touch it.
- Saltbaker's Pineapple Mint attack in phase 2 may have been based on Wood Man's leaf-dropping attack in Mega Man 2.
- His Death Quote in Phase 4 ("The mark of my salinity shall scar thy fired glaze!") is a reference to Street Fighter III, in which main villain Gill says "The mark of my divinity shall scar thy DNA".
- The salt clones that Chef Saltbaker summons in his third phase bear resemblance to the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters.
- The platforming challenge in phase 4 resembles Icy Tower, an indie game made in 2001 by Free Lunch Design.
- The flame that appears in the first two phases of the fight is a direct reference to a sentient flame that appears in the 1931 Fleischer Studios cartoon Bimbo's Initiation.
- The aurora sky animation that appears during the 3rd phase resembles the heatwave seen in Ted Eshbaugh’s 1933 short The Snowman.
- The salt pillars in phase 4 bear a resemblance to "Something", an animation from Cyriak Harris.