Hayes, a Scientologist, left after a falling-out with the creators over their treatment of Scientology in the previous season's episode "Trapped in the Closet".

[8] After leaving South Park to join the "Super Adventure Club", Chef returns and the boys quickly notice that he is acting strangely as he expresses a desire to have sex with them.

As they are leaving, Connelly reminds Chef why he joined the Super Adventure Club in the first place, telling him that his life will be grand and eternal if he stays with them.

However, the bridge that Chef is crossing suddenly gets struck by lightning and collapses, causing him to fall to his apparent death, therefore crapping his pants after dying.

They decided to create "The Return of Chef" as a way of retaliating to the press release statement that Hayes had made regarding his departure.

Eric Goldman of IGN reviewed the episode and gave it an overall rating of 8.0, noting the creation of new dialogue for Chef by splicing previous recordings of his character.

[13] "The Return of Chef", along with the thirteen other episodes from South Park's tenth season, was released on a three-disc DVD set in the United States on August 21, 2007.