Foot Chase with a Side Order of Chef

A Chase Scene Trope. Our hero flees the pursuing bad guys through a back door which leads to a kitchen. Danger is escalated as not only do you have to escape the gaining henchmen, but dodge waiters, flaming stoves, and the occasional chef waving a meat cleaver or big knife yelling "Hey! You can't be back here!".

Bottom line, if you can't stand the heat, escape through the kitchen.

Usually ends with them chasing each other through the backdoor into some shady alley, where the fight goes on.

But whatever you do, just don't stay in there.

See also Improvised Weapon. Not to be confused with Cooking Duel. This trope may also appear after a Diner Brawl or a Wok Fu scene.

Advertising

 * Used in an ad for AT&T cell phones, as the hero runs through the kitchen in order to head them off at the pass (in this case, the back door of the restaurant/kitchen).
 * This Gillette Deodorant commercial features an escape through the kitchen, it just isn't very fast paced like other examples.

Anime and Manga

 * An early episode of Darker Than Black has Hei and Chiaki escaping from two hostile Contractors through the kitchen of the restaurant they were just eating at.

Film

 * Cast a Deadly Spell. After a restaurant owner tries to put a written curse on him, Philip Lovecraft goes after him into the kitchen to return it. The curse manifests when a demon comes out of a pot on a stove. Lovecraft joins forces with a cook to defeat it.
 * Jurassic Park. Two velociraptors pursue the children into a kitchen and try to hunt them down inside it.
 * Never Say Never Again. The assassin trying to kill James Bond at Shrublands follows him into a kitchen and a fight breaks out, complete with a terrified female chef.
 * The Fugitive: During the confrontation between Kimble and the villain at the hotel.
 * Sister Act: Dolores witnesses a mobster committing a crime, and she makes a hasty getaway through the kitchen of the Vegas casino where she performs.
 * Fright Night: Charlie and Amy run through the kitchen of a club to escape the vampire.
 * Enemy of the State: Daniel runs through a the kitchen of a club to escape the pursuing federal agents.
 * The Karate Kid - Daniel sneaks into a country club's kitchen in hopes of meeting Ali. But when he notices her dancing with her former boyfriend he turns to leave, colliding into a waiter carrying a tray.
 * Leonard Part 6: Monroe is shooting at Leonard with a revolver, switches to an uzi, then switches to another revolver, and his shooting "accidentally" opens a bag of coffee beans into a coffee grinder, breaks a couple eggs for frying, and punctures a carton of oil which some eager chefs help themselves to for cooking.
 * Rush Hour: The two heroes run through a kitchen and an explosion scares off the Mooks.
 * One scene in The Living Daylights involves a full-on fight between a British intelligence mook and a KGB hitman in the kitchen of an MI 6 safehouse.
 * Kung Fu The Legend Continues: The Ancient One just won a lottery and was rich. Caine and The Ancient One get in a fight in the kitchen against some Kung Fu punks who want the ticket while escaping a golddigger at a formal dinner in a hotel.
 * The Flash Back in G.I. Joe the Rise of Cobra, with Kid!Snakeeyes and Kid!Stormshadow.
 * The Rocketeer: Cliff Secord is chased by Lothar and other gangsters through the kitchen of the South Seas Club. Justified as Cliff was disguised as a waiter.
 * The hotel chase in The Rock goes through a kitchen before heading outside.

Literature

 * The Bartimaeus Trilogy: Subverted in book 1 when Bartimaeus tries to evade the Big Bad's guards by running through the kitchen, the "chef" turns out to be his old enemy, Faquarl.
 * In the Stephen King story Lunch at the Gotham Cafe (found in the collection Everything's Eventual), two characters flee the insane maitre d' by going through the kitchen.

Live Action TV

 * In the Dollhouse pilot, Paul and Echo's fight starts in a kitchen.

Western Animation

 * Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers: An episode has a chase scene in a TV studio - they bump into a TV show chef, just as he is in the middle of explaing how much care today's dish requires.