Above, Kevin McAllister, 32, is a Wisconsin native and executive chef at the Robey Hotel in Chicago, the city where the movie Home Alone was set. He shares the same name as the film’s star character
For nearly three decades, it was the highest-grossing Christmas film in history. Home Alone had it all: slapstick pranks, an iconic soundtrack, memorable catch phrases, a festive spirit and a heartwarming message.
On top of that, the 1990 comedy featured a clever child star whose performance ensured that an entire generation – and now their children – would watch the movie over and over, countless families screening the film as a tradition on Thanksgiving and continuing until after Christmas Day.
Kevin McCallister – the suburban Chicago eight-year-old played by Macaulay Culkin who was mistakenly left ‘home alone’ to fend off two bumbling burglars – became a box office sensation and a pop culture legend.
So imagine growing up in the Midwest in the Nineties and sharing his name. And now working in Chicago, where the movie was set.
At Christmas. Surrounded by tourists.
That’s the plight of one good-natured 32-year-old in the Windy City, who laughs as he walks through the hall-decked Robey Hotel where he’s executive chef. Kevin McAllister is from Wisconsin and has been working at the Robey in Chicago for three years, his name emblazoned on the menu. It’s also embroidered on his kitchen uniform as he sits down with DailyMail.com.
Home Alone opened in 1990, starring child actor Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister, the youngest in a big family who gets left behind by mistake by his parents when they fly to Paris over Christmas. Above, an iconic moment where Kevin screams ‘Ahhhhh!’ after trying his father after shave lotion in a still from the film
In the film, Kevin has to fend off two bumbling burglars; Home Alone became an instant classic and remained the highest-grossing Christmas film ever for nearly three decades. Chef McAllister says that, almost more frequently as he’s gotten older, people constantly quote lines at him from the film – and he even uses them himself
Macaulay Culkin, above, reenacts iconic scenes from Home Alone in a still from a Google Assistant commercial. Culkin is now 39 while Chef McAllister is 32. The chef has even considered creating a special menu featuring the character’s favorites in the film, such as macaroni and cheese or plain cheese pizza
‘The other day, one of the servers came up to me and was like, “If I had a dollar …” and I said, “For what?” chef McAllister says.
‘And she goes: “For every time that people ask me if the name on the menu is real.”‘
The questions are particularly frequent during the holidays, when the movie is on everyone’s mind, McAllister says – especially among other people in their thirties who remember the film as a childhood favorite.
But the jokes and the queries come year-round, he admits, both in his personal and professional life. The Robey is home to the Cabana Club – a popular summertime rooftop bar with an outdoor pool.
‘We use the same elevator, and a lot of those guests … know the name and just go crazy,’ he laughs, adding that it’s not unusual for him to be in ‘an elevator full of drunk people. I’m standing there by myself; all of a sudden, one of the patrons sees my name and they just lose their mind – and then the whole elevator! It’s always funny. I think in the summertime I might change my coat just to not have the name.’
That name recognition has only gotten worse the older McAllister gets, he says. The first film was released in 1990 and Home Alone 2 came out in 1992, both of them wildly successful, the franchise exploding in popularity.
Initially, he says, ‘I don’t think kids were old enough to know or put it together – so it wasn’t too much until getting … out of high school.
‘Once I got out of high school, it was more of a thing where people would watch the movie, year after year, and it would be ingrained in their head – the name. Usually, like with job interviews a lot of the time, they’d be like: “Is this your real name?” – or starting jobs, people would, you know make jokes.
‘All the phrases would just come out while working with people.’
‘KEVIN!’ is perhaps the most famous phrase, uttered by actress Catherine O’Hara – now the star of award-winning, cult favorite Schitt’s Creek – who plays McCallister’s mother in Home Alone and screams the line in a Paris airport when she realizes her son has been left behind and subsequently faints.
There are other memorable quotes from the movie that chef McAllister employs in his own working life, he tells DailyMail.com – ‘like “Buzz, I’m going through your stuff!”
‘Usually, if I’m going through someone’s station at work, I’ll use that line.’
Not only did Chef McAllister, pictured left as a child in Wisconsin, endure good-natured Home Alone ribbing; his sister, pictured with him, is named Alex – which became the name of the lead character in Home Alone 3 after Culkin was replaced by a different child actor
McAllister, above, says the staff at the Robey restaurant are constantly asked whether the name on the menu is a joke or made up – and he’s so often accosted by excited partiers that he’s considered taking his name off of his uniform in the summer to avoid extra attention
His staff at the Robey, he says – who call him ‘Chef’ or ‘Chef Kevin’ – were ‘joking with me earlier. They’re like, “Kevin, you should come in dressed as Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone one day.”
That’d be a uniform of ‘red sweater, khaki pants, some dockers,’ he adds.
Today, he’s sauntering around in jeans, a white chef’s shirt, a striped denim apron and a black hat, holding a ladle as he walks through the kitchen behind a Christmas-wreath-decorated bar. At least two songs from the Home Alone soundtrack – Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire and Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree – have played on the speakers at the Robey restaurant as he cleans his station and directs his staff.
He’s even considered creating a special Home Alone menu – cheese pizza, macaroni and cheese, an extravagant sundae, the type of eight-year-old delicacies consumed by Culkin’s Kevin in the film and envied by juvenile moviegoers internationally. ‘I’m eating junk and watching rubbish! You better come out and stop me!’ shouts the movie Kevin to his missing family.
The menu hasn’t happened yet, though, and Chef McAllister grins shyly as he cooks. He’s barely told anyone he agreed to this interview.
Despite the constant comments and jokes, however, he says: ‘I’m not sick of it. I’m used to it, so it doesn’t really bother me too much.’
He does admit, however, that he’s had customers ‘ask to take pictures with me’ – while most people ‘get a little laugh out of it’ and ‘move on.’
Josh Lecoq, a 27-year-old foodrunner at the the Robey, says: ‘I’m just like, “Embrace it, chef – Embrace it”.’
Lecoq laughs as he tells DailyMail.com that Chef McAllister ‘Likes to say that he came first.’
Adding to the amusement, however, is the fact that McAllister isn’t the only one in his family inadvertently caught up in the Home Alone craze. He points out that his older sister, Alexia, goes by ‘Alex’ – the same name of the main character in Home Alone 3. They have no other siblings, so both of them somehow shared names with Home Alone stars.
Despite the jokes about their respective McAllister monikers, he says, ‘It doesn’t get old. It never comes off as harassing; it’s always a question, it’s always met with … joy.’
And his thoughts on the film, nearly 30 years later?
‘I still watch it,’ he tells DailyMail.com ‘Because I like it!’
Above, a movie poster for Home Alone. Released in November 1990, the film became a box office sensation