Jerome "Chef" McElroy is a cartoon character on the Comedy Central series "South Park" who was voiced by Isaac Hayes. Hayes was an American singer-songwriter, actor, voice actor and record producer. He was one of the creative forces behind the Southern soul music label Stax Records.

As Chef on the show (1997 - 2006), Hayes was an African American, soul singing cafeteria worker. He was one of the few adults the boys (Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormick) consistently trusted. Hayes agreed to voice the character after being among executive producers Parker and Stone's ideal candidates which also included Lou Rawls and Barry White.

While working on "South Park", Hayes who lived and hosted a radio show in New York would record his dialogue on a digital audio tape while a respective episode's director would give directions over the telephone. The tape would be shipped to the show's production studio in Los Angeles, California.

After Hayes left the show in early 2006, the character of Chef was killed off in Season 10 (2006). This occurred during the premiere "The Return of Chef".

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