‘Gilmore Girls’ Unpopular Opinions: Sookie St. James Should Have Been Fired

Sookie St. James was lucky to have kept her job. There, we said it. The famed Gilmore Girls character is beloved by fans for her whimsical personality and intense desire to care for Rory and Lorelai Gilmore. Still, her chosen profession might not have been the best fit. Sookie was a talented chef, but there were roughly a million reasons she should have gotten fired from the Independence Inn and a million more reasons she wasn’t a great business partner for Lorelai.

Sookie St. James wasted food in an industry where margins are already razor-thin

Restaurants, even ones attached to successful inns, are difficult to manage because they operate on an incredibly thin profit margin. According to Upserve, the average full-service kitchen has a profit margin of just 3% to 5%. With such a slim profit, letting food go to waste could spell doom for the entire business. 

Apparently, no one told Sookie St. James. Sookie was prone to throwing out her entire planned and cooked menu to make something she suddenly fancied. She’d toss whole pots of food if she didn’t think the product was up to her standards. Most importantly, Sookie spent much of her workdays experimenting with recipes, using company goods as she went. Sookie’s wastefulness wouldn’t have just cost Sookie her job; it probably would have cost Mia the entire business. 

A real boss would have fired Sookie for failing to delegate

Sookie didn’t let anyone else handle her dishes. That’s perfectly fine for a home cook or even a private chef. When running a busy commercial kitchen, delegation is necessary to keep things running. Sookie refused to delegate to anyone, at any moment, for any reason. 

Her controlling nature was highlighted when she was placed on bed rest, and Luke Danes jumped in to keep the Dragonfly Inn’s kitchen running. Not a single member of the kitchen staff had any idea what to do in Sookie’s absence. One has to question what they were even doing there in the first place. 

For a head chef, Sookie St. James didn’t have a lot of concern for kitchen safety 

Aside from cutting into profit margins and failing to manage people, Sookie had almost no concern for kitchen safety. The acclaimed chef tossed kitchen towels onto open burners, left the stove on, and regularly ate off a spoon, then put it back into the food. She fell often, bled just as much, and regularly required medical care. She also didn’t pay much attention to the cleanliness of her ducts.

Sookie might have been an amazing chef. Her food might have been a revelation. Still, she was a terrible employee and likely would have gotten fired from any real-life kitchen. She was a bigger liability than she was a talent.