Chef Shiitake

Chef Shiitake (Chef Oosaka in Japan) is a gruff yet masterful chef and #1 food critic. Surprisingly, Shiitake was Kawasaki's teacher, though even under his teachings he never really learned to cook properly. In the episode The Big Taste Test, Escargoon gets wind that Shiitake was visiting Cappy Town and begged the king to get a new head chef for the castle. Dedede appoints none other than Kawasaki to be their head chef. Kawasaki wants nothing more to impress his teacher so intends to use the ingredient that his teacher has wanted to try for ages- Zebon. Kawasaki is fooled into believing Kirby is Zebon, so he tries to cook poor Kirby instead. It is revealed that Shiitake was really Popon when he accidentally gives himself away by insulting Kawasaki's cookware that the real Shiitake gave him.

The real Shiitake came much later in the series in the episode A Recipe for Disaster. Tiff and Tuff attack him thinking it's Popon again, but he convinces them that he's not with a display of fanciful knife work. Shiitake tries some of Kawasaki's food. He hates it so much that he decides to shut down his establishment. Dedede presents him with his own cooking show, and Kawasaki feels that he will run him out of business. Shiitake uses his show to embarrass Kawasaki. While snooping, Kawasaki and the gang come across the rare Gijira Extract, a powerful spice that can make anything taste good (in the original version it is a drug that makes the eater hallucinate and think that the food is good). Kawasaki calls him a false on national TV and reveals that he's drugging everyone into thinking his food is good. Later on, when Shiitake is leaving, Kawasaki asks him if he really used the extract. Shiitake says that the Gigira extract was going to be a gift for him to help out his business. Kawasaki feels awful and apologizes for ruining his reputation. Shittake says that he wanted to show him that taste is something that can changed by adding even the smallest of things. Shiitake says that even though his reputation is ruined, in the end Kawasaki grew and learned from the experience, which was really what mattered and was enough to make him happy.

Trivia

 * Chef Shiitake is voiced by Junichi Sugawara in Japanese and the veteran voice actor Mike Pollock in English.
 * A Shiitake is a kind of edible mushroom that's native to East Asian countries that is often used in Japanese cuisine.
 * The music that plays during Shiitake's TV show (not in the 4Kids dub because all the music score and sound effects were completely changed) is the intro in Gourmet Race. The song is an extending version of the Gourmet race music, adding in a few new parts that weren't in Kirby Super Star (best heard on the anime's OST). To be more exact, the music that plays in the blooper reel in Kirby Super Star Ultra, which came out long after the episode debuted, was a remix of this exact music. This is one of the few instances (besides Kirby Air Ride) that a song that originated in the anime would be used in a game released after the anime was finished.