Dad Saltbaker

Dad Saltbaker
GENERAL
Cuphead
Character	Chef Saltbaker
Character	Ms. Chalice
Canonical?	Fanon
Status of Relationship	Allies, Former Enemies
IN FANDOM
Type (?)	Family
Also Known As	Milkshake, SaltChalice

1

Dad Saltbaker is the familyship between Chef Saltbaker and Ms. Chalice from the Cuphead fandom.

Canon

At some point between the main game's story and the Delicious Last Course, Chalice became acquainted with Chef Saltbaker. He baked a cookie for her that was supposed to help her escape the astral plane and regain a body, but she would have to find someone to eat it for her. So Chalice called her two friends Cuphead and Mugman over to Saltbaker's home, the Inkwell Isle IV and gave Mugman the cookie, happy that Saltbaker spoke the truth about the cookie allowing her to switch places with Mugman and thus being alive again. When Cuphead asks her what's going on, she leads them to Saltbaker's bakery, telling him that she will explain everything. She introduces Saltbaker as the man who managed to help her solve a problem that she'd being trying to solve for ages.

When entering the bakery, Chalice introduces Saltbaker as the "greatest chef in all the lands". Saltbaker welcomes her friends and is happy to see that his cookie had worked wonders on her. However, Saltbaker looks genuinely shocked to see the effects of the cookie wear off, Chalice is a ghost yet again, but Mugman came back to life. Saltbaker comments that the cookie is a "finnicky thing", he didn't seem satisfied at the cookie's effect being somewhat brief. But he reassures the three, telling them that had already prepared a new recipe, the "Wondertart" which would allow one complete control over the astral plane with just one bite. When Cuphead asks whether the Wondertart could bring Chalice back to life for good, Saltbaker confirms this, but only after they had gathered all the ingredients guarded by the Isle's most fearsome foes.

Luckily, the Astral Cookie works just long enough to battle the five bosses of the Isle, meaning that all of them can be defeated using Chalice. But when the three of them come back to the bakery to deliver the ingredients to Chef Saltbaker, they are in for one nasty surprise: Saltbaker clearly did not expect for them to come back so soon, turning around with a knife in hand. He considers their meddling in his plan to be no matter, the Wondertart will be created anyway, thus he reveals that he needed one last secret ingredient: A living soul. The soul in question being one of Chalice's friends, whom he had kidnapped while Chalice was busy gathering the ingredients for him. He reveals that he never actually wanted to help Chalice, he was just using her as a pawn for his plan to eat the Wondertart himself and become all-powerful, with the living soul crying out to her and his brother to save him. However, Saltbaker doesn't want to have them get away with knowing about his plan, threatening to use their heads as serving dishes for the Wondertart.

When Saltbaker is defeated and Chalice swaps back with the living soul, she expresses regret for trusting him. However, when she hears that the bakery is about to fall apart with them inside, she tells the boys to get out as soon as possible. The three of them and Saltbaker manage to make it out alive and unharmed, though Chalice has a look of pity on her face when she sees Saltbaker cry about his bakery being destroyed. However, when Cuphead points out that without the bakery, they can never make the Wondertart, Chalice says she doesn't want some innocent soul to be sacrificed for her to live again. She concludes that she doesn't need Saltbaker and will keep looking for ways to come back to life and reassures the boys that she will always be one cookie bite away when they need her.

In the epilogue after Saltbaker is arrested and forced to do community service, Chalice celebrates him being allowed to bake again when attending a party hosted by him alongside Cuphead and Mugman, having seemingly forgiven him.

Fanon

This section is in need of major improvement. Please help improve this article by editing it.

Many have noticed implications that Chef Saltbaker is meant to be the equivalent of Elder Kettle to Ms. Chalice. So fans have rolled with the idea that they had a father-daughter relationship prior to the events of the Delicious Last Course.

Most fans prefer to ignore the actual story of the DLC and depict Saltbaker as genuinely loving towards Chalice.

Some people do ship them romantically, but it happens to be somewhat rare.

Fandom

FAN FICTION

Saltbaker & Ms. Chalice tag on AO3

Saltbaker/Ms. Chalice tag on AO3