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The expression chef’s kiss, and its variants, designate:
– literally: a gesture used to indicate that something is excellent or perfect; this gesture typically consists in kissing the pinched-together fingertips and thumb of one hand before splaying open the fingers and moving the hand outward;
– also, by extension: a perfect or excellent person or thing.—Cf., below, quotation 4.
The expression chef’s kiss alludes to such a gesture stereotypically made by a chef on tasting a delectable dish.
This gesture was evoked, for example, in two advertisements for the Western Hills Hotel, Fort Worth, published in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, Texas, USA):
– Of Friday 11th September 1964 [Section Three: page 2, column 6]:
We have one regular gourmet customer.
He used to manage a snooty New York restaurant.
He prepares meals at home that would cause European chefs to kiss their fingertips ecstatically.
– Of Friday 20th November 1964 [Section Three: page 11, column 4]:
Our sensitive chef, A. G. Sherill, […] prepares a dish that would encourage the most restrained chef to kiss his fingertips in ecstasy.
These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the expression chef’s kiss and variants that I have found:
1-: From Pages from a Cold Island (New York: Random House, Inc., 1975), by the U.S. author Frederick Exley (1929-1992) [chapter 10, pages 175-176]:
All day long we simmered our sauce in a four-gallon vat […]. And while I sipped at my vodkas and grapefruit juice, and with a great wooden spoon occasionally stirred the sauce, the regulars, drawn as to a magnet, came round and round through the swinging waitresses’ doors. They would sample a spoonful of the sauce, go Ahhh, blow a French chef’s kiss, and make their suggestions as to what little touch would lift it to the airy regions of perfection.
2-: From Plenty of peace, too much quiet, about Croatia as a holiday destination, by Richard Madden, published in The Daily Telegraph (London, England) of Saturday 30th May 1998 [Telegraph Travel: page T5, column 8]:
Back in Dubrovnik, on my last evening, I bumped into some Germans I had first met on Mljet who were touring the islands by yacht. When I joined them on board for some beers they told me how much they’d enjoyed island-hopping down the coast of Croatia. “Ah! The sea, the sea! This is a beautiful, beautiful country,” said one, tossing a chef’s kiss skywards, “you must tell all your friends to come here. Just don’t mention the war.”
3-: From The Winnipeg Sun (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) of Tuesday 7th November 2000 [page 22, column 3]:
Kiss me, you fool!
Kisses bond, and those bonds have many meanings beyond the dance of romance and a prelude to sex or lovemaking. Lest we forget:
● The First Kiss (pucker and pop)
● The Kiss of Peace (Catholic Church)
● The Mafia Kiss (the pledge of omerta)
● The Chef’s Kiss (magnifique!)
● The Healing Kiss (to ease the pain)
● The Hershey Kiss (give us a little kiss, will yuh, huh?)
● The Butterfly Kiss (meshing eyelashes)
● The Eskimo Kiss (rubbing noses)
● The Kiss of the Vampire (blood sucking)
● The Dangerous Love Kiss (Romeo and Juliet)
● The Continental Kiss (on the hand)
● The Air Kiss (hello, dahling)
● The Judas Kiss (betrayal)
● The Kiss of God (breathing life into Adam, creating man)
● The Kiss-off
● The Kiss of Death
—By Dr. Bruce Meyer, University of Toronto
4-: From Donato Loperfido’s pasta alle cozze recipe, published in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin (Honolulu, Hawaii, USA) of Wednesday 6th August 2003 [page D5, column 3]:
Cook pasta until al dente. Drain and add the sauce; toss. Sprinkle with parsley and toss. Taste and adjust seasonings. Add “chef’s kiss,” a teaspoon more olive oil and toss.
5-: From an interview of Ross Marr, a gate-guard at Lake Front Park, Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan—interview by Christina Hall, published in the Sunday Free Press (Detroit, Michigan, USA) of Sunday 25th May 2008 [page 4A, column 5]:
Q: What’s the biggest fish you’ve caught while ice fishing?
A: Probably a 13-inch perch. That’s considered a trophy-size fish.
Q: Did you eat them of hang them?
A: We eat ’em. I love 9- to 10-inch perch. They’re (flourishing a chef’s fingertip kiss of perfection) great!
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