I have all the EPs. I wanted to make a sim-owned restaurant business, but first I'm testing it as a regular community lot staffed with the usual NPCs. The only problem is, my new restaurant doesn't have a chef. It still works! The hostess shows the guests to their tables, the waiter takes their order and walks back to the kitchen where the stove is. Nothing happens for a while, and then suddenly the food pops up on the diner's table without the waiter bringing it.

I'm using the correct stove, the same one that is in Simbowl Lanes. The room also has extra counters, a sink, and the new Freetime dishwasher, trash compactors.

Here's a pic of the restaurant.
http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/6732/restng2.jpg

You can see one of the diners already eating.

How can I get a chef?

That is so strange! I've never really had that problem but your chef seems to be invisible, lol. Is that even possible? Maybe it's just a bug. But still it's weird.

Well, it's definitely a bug. The waiter never even carries the food back to the table. It just suddenly materializes after a pause.

The other restaurants in the neighborhood work fine, like simbowl lanes (I have multiple copies of that one). Either I am missing something in my restaurant or something else is interfering.

The games are buggy, that's too bad. For example, ever since I installed Free Time I can't make toys with the toy table from OFB.

At least your restaurant works so-so.

Okay, I got it to work. What I did -- I replaced the counters with the same ones that were in Simbowl Lanes (the Cicoletta counters). Weird that should matter.

I have this happen in my game sometimes- it seems to be that the waiters spawn too close to the stove, so the chef is invisible. Usually forcing an error works, and I often have to redesign my kitchens (not have a door or sprinkler too close to the stove for example) to stop it happening on every visit. However, I can't see why this would have happened in your case, Doc Doofus- I've never found that I have to have a certain counter type either.

Hey I would have left it the way it was and just changed the decor to a sci-fi theme. Meals 'beamed' direct to your table - how cool would that be? :D