🖊 I would love to hear about Stacy!!
Stacey Maxwell (she likes to go by Max) is the head chef on Infinity. She'll tell you that she got there by failing upward, but really it's her creative solutions to balancing large scale production, menu design and waste management. Doesn't hurt that even though she's rough around the edges and a hard-ass in the kitchen, she isn't an asshole food snob and if she sees someone struggling, she'll take them aside in her office and have a chat about what they're struggling with and why, if there are any accommodations that would make things easier or a job they might be better suited to, and then she'll follow through with that. She understands that to have a well oiled machine, all the gears have to be in the right spot and kept in good repair. And that means working with her crews and their strengths, not against them.
She does not, however, suffer fools. Arrogance will get you put in the dish pit for eternity faster than you can say 'babaghanoush', as will gross insubordination. Insubordination does not include challenging her ideas and giving suggestions; any chef that doesn't take critique and suggestions from their kitchen doesn't deserve the toque.
She's also very much concerned with the crew of the Infinity overall. It is, after all, her job to make sure that humans (and nowadays, some aliens) from a multitude of cultures are well fed, and she keeps a close eye on the ever shifting demographic of the crew. She uses regular polls to help determine what the overall menu should consist of, and she isn't above asking a specific group (Martians, for example) what they grew up eating and if they have any recipes they'd like to submit.
One thing she takes pride in is her organization of a cupcake brigade system specifically for Infinity Day. Delegating several kitchens to prep, cook and serve various dishes is easy. Organizing the space, people, and time to produce a whole shit-ton of one thing, utilizing spaces not designed specifically for that task is difficult, as is utilizing staff not used to making baked goods.
But she came up with a system that goes into full swing three days in advance that manages to get the job done. She even figured out how to overcome hot hands melting buttercream icing by making sure those people have multiple bags of icing on hand that they can use; if one starts to get too runny, switch it out for a chilled bag while the first one cools off.
Stacey is also the only person aboard who has smacked the captain and gotten away with it. He shouldn't have been raiding the walk-in, captain or not. She still whacked the crap out of him with a rubber spatula from the kitchen clear out into the corridor, in front of Roland, God and everyone else.
Lasky puts in a proper requisition with her these days.