Zeff in One Piece

Past

Zeff was originally a pirate and the captain of the Cook Pirates. He was a skilled chef and a powerful pirate and people called him the ‘Red-Leg’. It was his dream to find the ‘All Blue’ which led him to enter the Grand Line. Even though he traveled around the world for a year he returned back to the East Blue without achieving his dream. Later on, Zeff and his crew raided Orbit and he and his crew had no intentions to harm anyone on the ship and only raided the ship for treasure and nothing else, not even the food. Sanji who was on the ship tried to attack Zeff, saying that he wanted to live and find the All Blue which was also Zeff’s dream. There was a fierce storm which hit them and it wiped out both the Orbit and the Cooking George which almost drowned Sanji. Zeff went in and saved him as they both shared the same dream.

After the storm, Zeff and Sanji washed up on an island totally stranded. Zeff gave Sanji all his food but lied to him saying that he kept the larger portions of the rations for him. He said that because he knew that Sanji would not accept the food if he finds out that he has no food with him. Later on, Zeff cut off his own leg and ate it in order to stay alive. After Sanji ate all his food supplies, he made a plan to go to Zeff and kill him in order to take his food. When he went to Zeff he was shocked to see what he had done to his leg and the big pile of food he had was actually the treasure and not food. He then realized what Zeff had done for them. He then told Sanji that if he got off the island alive he would open a restaurant on the sea and would serve anyone who was hungry irrespective of them being marines or pirates.

Just moments later, they were rescued by a ship and years down the line, Zeff made his dream come true and opened a restaurant and called it the ‘Baratie’, which is a floating restaurant in the shape of a fish and became famous for its great food and fighting cooks.

Baratie Arc

During the Baratie arc, Luffy temporarily worked as a chore boy in Baratie; the restaurant was attacked by the Krieg Pirates after Sanji had given Gin some food. Gin took the armada to Baratie as he was starving. After Zeff gave Krieg food, which the cooks of Baratie couldn't do, Krueger tried to hijack Baratie saying that it would be a perfect disguise to attack towns and ships. This didn't sit well with the cooks of Baratie and they prepared to fight the Wolves of the Sea. After a long battle, Krieg was defeated by Luffy and Baratie was saved.

Enies Lobby

After the Enies Lobby incident, Sanji received his first bounty. Zeff and the chef were really happy and told all their customers that Sanji used to work in the Baratie to get the restaurant more recognition. They even laughed at his horribly drawn picture on the poster.

Before becoming a chef Zeff was a pirate and he used to be hard on everyone around him and was always in a serious mood. After becoming a chef, Zeff does not show his emotions. He is known for his hot temper and has a firm grip of the chefs at Baratie. Despite having a hot temper, Zeff is very compassionate, this can be seen when he hands all his food to Sanji when they were stranded on the island together and did not keep anything for himself. Zeff respects food a lot. He even kicked out one of his cooks as they were stealing from him. Whenever Sanji made bad food during his training, Zeff made him eat it rather than throwing it away. He even gave Don Krieg food for his crew as he knew what starvation felt like, despite knowing that it would lead to a fight.

There was a point where Zeff was not really fond of kids. Whether it is true or not is unknown because of the father-son relationship he had with Sanji, this showed that he made an exception for him. Zeff hates any kind of violence against women. He does not hire female staff as he sometimes uses violence in his kitchen. He passed this trait onto Sanji saying that men can never harm women no matter what.

When he was a Pirate, Zeff had short blonde hair and a braided mustache that he tied with blue ribbons on each end and had a bit of stubble. He was seen wearing a red and white vertical striped shirt with gold buttons. When he became the Head Chef of Baratie, he still retained his blonde hair and his mustache also grew very long. He even grew a beard. He wears a chef’s uniform with a blue ascot and a white apron. After he lost his right leg he now has a peg leg and does not have a problem walking with it.

Currently Zeff wears a horizontal striped dark and light colored shirt with dark colored pants. He wears the chef’s white uniform draped over his shoulders with his ascot.

Zeff is an excellent teacher as he was able to pass on most of his teachings to Sanji. He was a really powerful pirate and a great chef. He possesses an extremely high level of skill in cooking and taught Sanji all his culinary skills and knowledge about cooking. His cooking experience extends to the four seas to the Grand Line. He also has really great leg strength and can break through rocks and iron and can overpower his enemies easily. Even after getting a prosthetic leg, he had the strength to produce an air current that can extinguish burning projectiles in mid-air. He is also extremely agile despite his age and has great amounts of stamina.

Black Leg Style

Zeff was known for his extremely powerful kicks and because of this power of lethal kicks he got the name ‘Red Leg’. Even after getting a peg leg his kicks are still as strong as before. He is also capable of using hand-based attacks like body throws and punches. He is also seen using this on Sanji to discipline him.

Weapons

Zeff is seen using a hand saw but has never been seen using it seriously for combat.

Cook Pirates

Zeff values his and the Cook Pirates’ Grand Line voyage memories greatly. This shows that even though his days as a pirate have ended, he still treasures them and was reluctant to let Don Krieg just take them away. Zeff was a tough but kind captain who would kick any crew member who tried to break the rule of never taking food from others, but who also grieved their deaths to the point where he gave up being a pirate after he lost them to the sea.

Sanji

Zeff was always tough with Sanji. He did this in order to turn Sanji into an excellent cook and strong fighter. Zeff told Sanji about his one strict rule that he must never use physical violence towards women, threatening to beat him up or even have him castrated if he were to ever break this rule. Sanji was fostered by Zeff as his adopted son because he felt it was his responsibility to pass on knowledge to him, including helping him in refining his cooking abilities and teaching him the value of a cook's hands. As a result of this instruction, Sanji developed his own fighting style.

Zeff gets irritated by Sanji's weakness for attractive women. When Sanji worked as a kitchen boy in Baratie, he would often fall in love with hot female clients right away and mess up his work by dropping a dish. Zeff spent most of his time trying to convince Sanji to leave the Baratie, in an effort to persuade Sanji to realize his dream. There is a close connection between them as they have the same dream.

Baratie

Zeff earned the respect of the other cooks in Baratie because everyone there stayed to fight the Krieg Pirates.

Monkey D. Luffy

Zeff ordered Luffy to work as a chore boy on the Baratie right when they first met as recompensation for the harm caused by mistakenly diverting Fullbody's cannonball onto the restaurant's roof. However, Zeff did not hesitate to accept Luffy's offer of lowering the debt in exchange for taking down the Krieg Pirates because Luffy's habit to eat meals intended for customers and carelessly breaking every dish that he was supposed to be washing was causing more difficulty than help. Zeff was pleased by Luffy's determination and claimed that he would make it in the Grand Line.

Krieg

Don Krieg tried to take the Baratie and get Zeff's log book from his days as a pirate, hoping to recreate his fleet after it had been destroyed by Dracule Mihawk. Even though they were grateful to Zeff and the chefs for feeding them, Krieg ordered his crew to attack the Baratie.

Zeff has not only made an appearance in the anime but also in the form of video game characters.

Video Games

• One Piece: Grand Adventure

• One Py Berry Match

• One Piece Treasure Cruise

• One Piece Thousand Storm

• One Piece Bounty Rush

• One Piece Bon! Bon! Journey!!

• One Piece: Grand Battle! Rush!

• One Piece: Gear Spirit

• One Piece: Burning Blood

• One Piece: Become the Pirate King!

• Grand Battle!

• Birth of Luffy's Dream Pirate Crew!

• Grand Battle! 2

• Aim! The King of Belly

• One Piece: Dragon Dream!

• One Piece

• One Piece: Pirates Carnival

• One Piece: Unlimited Adventure

• One Piece: Gigant Battle

• One Piece: Gigant Battle! 2 New World

• One Piece Romance Dawn: The Dawn of the Adventure

• One Piece: Pirate Warriors

• One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3

• One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4

He is a master of kicks who never fights using his hands. With his powerful legs, he can crush boulders, and leave footprints on steel. He earned the name Red Leg from his shoes which are dyed from the blood of defeated enemies.

You are a hundred years too young to challenge me as a chef, stupid boy! I am a man who has cooked on all of the seas in the world.

Have you bastards ever once experienced what it is like to starve to death? How horrible it is to suffer by losing both food and water in the vast ocean?