Quite often I have read posts from individual cooks who express a high level of dissatisfaction with their choice to work in kitchens. In some cases this dissatisfaction leans towards contempt – loads of anger pointed at the job and those who employ cooks in service of the guest. While many of the concerns expressed…
Tag: chef
THAT KITCHEN SENSE OF URGENCY
There are some things in life that can’t be taught. Only the experience of impending doom can push a person to dig deep and find solutions that they never thought were possible, discover skills that were never present before the challenge occurred, and either sink or swim under the pressure of creating order out of…
HEY CHEF – WHO ARE YOU?
What does it really mean to be a chef? Is it strictly a position of authority – a position well-earned through time, trial and error, loads of cooking skills, business savvy, and a brand that helps the operation and the person? Or, are there other responsibilities and opportunities that come with the turf? It was…
BEING A CHEF – THE PASSION AND THE COST
Let’s first separate those three types of cooks who stand tall behind a range: Those who consider cooking to be their purpose in life, the career choice that inspires them, and the choice that let’s them jump out of bed in the morning to face the opportunities that cooking will provide today Those who view…
A LINE COOK’S LEGAL VICES
The dictionary may define a “vice” as a bad habit or fault, but sometimes those habits cause less harm than the definition may imply and far more joy than one might assume. We all have a vice or two, some are related to our personal lives and occasionally they are connected to what we do…
IS THE KITCHEN A COOK’S “SAFE PLACE”?
Look around the kitchen and pause to really assess what you see. The lifeblood of the kitchen is not found in stainless steel, contemporary equipment, or even the ingredients that fill cooler and storeroom shelves. The lifeblood of the kitchen is the people who stand tall in their hounds tooth pants and double-breasted white jackets.…
THE CHEF’S INTELLECT
It is certainly true that professional cooks and chefs live in a tactile world. The kitchen is attractive to many as a vehicle for working with your hands – building and creating dishes and presenting them with flair that inspires others. But in reality a chef is a person with a highly developed intellect that…
WHY COOKS HANG OUT WITH COOKS
In the era of social media the term “friend” has been misconstrued. A Facebook friend is likely distant from the true definition that has been an essential part of a full life since the beginning of time. A social media friend is likely only a person who chooses, in the moment, to click on that…
WHAT MAKES A CHEF’S JOB SO CHALLENGING
If you cook in a serious way, if you have defined the process of cooking as something that you want to invest in, if you find that the passion of working in a professional kitchen is something that inspires you, then you will have an undeniable desire to become a chef. What many do not…
I REMEMBER – A CHEF’S REFLECTIONS ON TIME
It was 1964 when Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones sang: “Time is on my side, yes it is.” I wonder now if there is any truth to that statement. When you are 14 years old, as I was, time seemed endless – boredom was a choice that some elected to dwell in, while others…
