Restaurant Chefs and “Other Chefs”
Heaven forbid you become a chef and not want to work in the restaurant business. The peer pressure can be intense.
“Corporate chefing is lame. All the famous chefs come from restaurant backgrounds.”
The Sous Chef who said this is mostly correct. But so what? Does a chef really have to only work in restaurants for him or her to be noticed? And if so, must every chef be willing to give up their holidays, weekends, and nights to “build a legacy” as the same chef later put it.
I have had to face many questions as I follow the decision I've made to advance in the culinary field. One of them has been "to what degree am I willing to give up time with friends and loved ones?" To many chefs, running a restaurant kitchen is something they know they have to do; they know they have to express themselves in that way. Other chefs, like personal chefs, still want to express themselves through the culinary arts but aren’t attracted to that kind of lifestyle and the necessary hours.
I walk into work while all the lights are still out in the dining room. I guide my bike through the hall and past the sky-lit open kitchen where we cooks stress, sweat and labor, while trying to make it look easy. While the city stretches and yawns to the start of a new day, I put my bike away and change. I tighten my apron and tie it in a bow then roll up my white sleeves and climb the stairs to my station. In about an hour I will see the freshest produce the Mid-Atlantic region has to offer. It gets my giggly and sidetracked from my prep list just thinking about it. That’s the best part of mornings in a restaurant. You see the food handed to you from the hands of the farmers before it is braised, sautéed, sweated, boiled, blanched, reduced, or baked. You see it pure.
That is the most intoxicating factor of being a restaurant cook or chef. I am trying not to be narrow minded about the places that food can take me, but that purity of ingredients and the hard work and perfectionism it takes to turn it into meals - that will be hard to leave.
“Corporate chefing is lame. All the famous chefs come from restaurant backgrounds.”
The Sous Chef who said this is mostly correct. But so what? Does a chef really have to only work in restaurants for him or her to be noticed? And if so, must every chef be willing to give up their holidays, weekends, and nights to “build a legacy” as the same chef later put it.
I have had to face many questions as I follow the decision I've made to advance in the culinary field. One of them has been "to what degree am I willing to give up time with friends and loved ones?" To many chefs, running a restaurant kitchen is something they know they have to do; they know they have to express themselves in that way. Other chefs, like personal chefs, still want to express themselves through the culinary arts but aren’t attracted to that kind of lifestyle and the necessary hours.
I walk into work while all the lights are still out in the dining room. I guide my bike through the hall and past the sky-lit open kitchen where we cooks stress, sweat and labor, while trying to make it look easy. While the city stretches and yawns to the start of a new day, I put my bike away and change. I tighten my apron and tie it in a bow then roll up my white sleeves and climb the stairs to my station. In about an hour I will see the freshest produce the Mid-Atlantic region has to offer. It gets my giggly and sidetracked from my prep list just thinking about it. That’s the best part of mornings in a restaurant. You see the food handed to you from the hands of the farmers before it is braised, sautéed, sweated, boiled, blanched, reduced, or baked. You see it pure.
That is the most intoxicating factor of being a restaurant cook or chef. I am trying not to be narrow minded about the places that food can take me, but that purity of ingredients and the hard work and perfectionism it takes to turn it into meals - that will be hard to leave.
Labels: other chefs
posted by Allison at
8:00 PM
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