Through the eyes of an amateur.
I'm 24 years old and although every job i have ever had involved food in one way or another, food has only been the what my life revolves around for about 2 years. There are literally thousands of professional chefs in the world and the large number of celebrity chef reflects that. The growing number of cooking shows and the chers we see on t.v has helped to boost the interest that everyday people are starting to show. In one way or another food affects everybodys lives. For people like my self who aspire to be one of the best it if important for us to know the history and influences of the ones that came before us. You can literally got on google, type a name of a chef and have any number of pages with biographys, autobiography and interviews that help us understand what inspired them. I have my inspirations just like you all do. But when i read about a chef that i look-up to admire who grew up with views and lifestyles similar to my own, i cant help but feel some sort of connection. The more a chef has in common with me the more apt i am to pay attention to their careers and i will obviously learn more from them cause i pay more attention and respect what they say and do. So i spend alot of time reading interviews and articles. Its fascinating to know what chefs have gone through. But memorys fade so asomeone talking about what they have done will only be a partial truth. incomplete. i believe small things matter. Chefs do things a certain way and most of the time they cant tell u much about y. they never say what they though before they learned something. Instead of the story about what they have done i want to hear the story of what someone is doing on their journey to becomming a chef. but i cant find that story. So im going to give you mine. i believe it could be inspirational to amatuers like myself to know what other amatuers are going through. working together and sharing our knowledge. chef to chef. Amatuer to amatuer. as amatuers we can only benefit
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12 Comments:
I dont believe in hero worship of chefs. They are just people doing their work and trying to find their unique take on cuisine that inspires them. The restaurant business world is a tough one. TV makes it look good with reality TV, showy contests and a themed TV channel where chefs who were no one become someone overnight. The truth is its very hard work, on your feet, long hours, trying to turn a profit margin per plate and per glass. Starting a restaurant is expensive and the survival rate is steep.
Take a restaurant management course. Restaurants are a business, chefs work in them. It is just that simple. I have certain people who I admire who write cookbooks. They have passion for the thing they love to do. This a trait I admire in people who do any kind of job. Anyone who runs a successful business in this economy gets props.
I do think the time to look toward flashy, showy, rock and roll chefs is going away. Find a local restauranteur and find out how they did it, what their motivations are and what their advise is.
It's not an adventure, it is a business. It helps if you enjoy your job.
JerzeeTomato at 1:11AM on 03/27/09
I'm only vaguely interested in a chef's life story. I'm only vaguely interested in anybody's life story, to be honest. And I agree with Jerzee about chef-worshipping. When it comes to chefs, either I want them to cook something for me, or I want to learn how they cook something, so I can do it myself.
I don't mind hearing about why or how a particular dish was created. That's a little more relevant than how many siblings a chef had or how old he was when he first ate caviar.
Um, and when you say that you're going to give us your story...do you mean you're going to post it here? Honestly, you're young, you think the details of you life are interesting, that's nice. Everyone your age thinks the world needs their wisdom, and few are correct. Write your thoughts down, file them away, and if you ever become famous and people care, you have your story already written. Or start a blog and hope that your writing skills will improve to the point where you can draw an audience for what you have to say.
I really don't think this is the venue for your life story.
dbcurrie at 2:07AM on 03/27/09
I am not in the food industry--I'm an avid home cook. You may feel that the previous posts were harsh but I think what is coming through to us is your desire to be famous. What the biographies and TV profiles cannot convey is the many years of grinding labor and unglamorous repetition that these chefs have been through. (However we can all think of a few glaring exceptions on FoodNetwork).
If food is what you truly love then throw yourself into it without thought of glory because it most likely will not come. It would probably be easier to win the lottery, statistically speaking. If I had wish for you, it would be that you could put a few things in a backpack and travel the world. Eat everything, experience real life and write daily in a journal. There is nothing wrong with being ambitious or wanting to earn a good living. Work hard, pay your dues. :) Good Luck!
carhoff at 3:57AM on 03/27/09
Most professional chefs I know will ask one question to someone who is entering culinary school and that question is...ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR F@$#ING MIND?! It is a hard life at best, rewarding only if you truely strive for perfection and you have an undying passion for food.
You never have holidays off....EVER. You work in kitchens that are well over 100 degrees, basically cooking you, while you're cooking the food. Look at a chef or a line cook who has been doing it for a number of years and then see if you can guess their age. You don't take sick days (at least not if you intend to stay employed long) because the people you work with are counting on you. It is not uncommon to work 14 - 16 hrs. a day 6 days a week. And the pay.... well let's just say you won't be living like a rockstar but you may sure as hell look like one... say...... Keith Richards?!
I'm not trying to discourage you at all, if you have the passion, drive, need, want and desire it will be a very rewarding journey. My suggestion to you would be to talk to everybody you can in the food service industry, Line Cooks, Chefs, Prep cooks, kitchen bitches and dishwashers. You can learn something from all of them, some of it might not even get you arrested!
http://linecook415.blogspot.com/ This is a great blog from someone in the trenches, he has some great stories posted once a week you can learn a lot from. And if you want to be either inspired, or scared shitless I'd suggest reading anything by Michael Ruhlman or Marco Pierre White.
Now get out there and eat everything, take notes and listen to the people doing the cooking.
Bon Chanc!
Pavlov at 6:15AM on 03/27/09
Agree with all four comments above. If you have a passion for preparing food, it may be your destiny to become a chef. The food should be your guide, not the Food Network.
Google "Culinarian Code." If you believe and accept, perhaps the culinary arts are for you. If you want to be the next Bobby Flay, you will surely be disappointed and disillusioned.
Professional chefs also have a high percentage of divorce rates, due to long hours, no holidays off, and high degree of stress. Then again, don't we all?
Best of luck to you as you pursue your dream.
smallkitchen at 7:10AM on 03/27/09
@cwindow - why not start your own blog? You can share your thoughts, you can have people come along for the ride, and with feedback, you can also learn something. There are some really awesome food blogs out there, SmittenKitchen, Orangette, Pioneerwomancooks and 101cookbooks are personal faves, but there are loads more. They talk about their lives, their food, their hits and misses.
You know, it's interesting (to me at least) that the only professional chef's blog that I have any interest in is David Leibowitz. I much prefer the amateur blogs. Maybe because they're more accessible?
chisai at 7:21AM on 03/27/09
Julia Child's My Life in France is a great book about her path in the culinary world. She started out just wanting how to learn to cook, and found a career out of that.
Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential is also great. He writes about the dirty truth of the restaurant world - burns, cuts, psychopath line chefs. It's the book that convinced me I belong nowhere near a restaurant kitchen.
If you're determined to share your story with the world in writing, please consider an editing workshop. "I" vs "i", "you" vs "u" and proper punctuation and paragraph breaks make all the difference in whether or not I'll read someone's writing. (It can also determine whether or not I'll eat at a restaurant - if they don't care enough to proofread the menu, what else don't they care enough to do?) Mistakes happen, but they should be rare.
marzipanda at 11:25AM on 03/27/09
And it seems to me one cannot be both an amateur and a chef. I don't quite get the drift of what you're aiming at, but we all need to find our own way, not try to go down someone else's road.
lemons at 12:11PM on 03/27/09
I really have nothing to say on topic, between reading dbcurrie's answer and re-reading the original post, I was reminded of Lindsay Lohan's infamous Blackberry manifesto ( http://gawker.com/hollywood/lindsay-lohan/lindsay-lohans-fully-adequite-blackberry-manifesto-220111.php _
renzata at 8:09PM on 03/27/09
@renzata---Hilarious!!! .... yet painful. Or the other way around....
Has anyone seen Idiocracy?
Pointy at 8:33PM on 03/27/09
Yes, on tv a few weeks back, and I enjoyed it far more than I expected. Also, interesting that we couldn't always tel the difference between the movie and the commercials...
renzata at 8:36PM on 03/27/09
If you want to be famous, get on a bus to Hollywood. Start a band. Anybody anywhere can name more famous actors and musicians than they can famous chefs. And becoming a chef is much, much more difficult.
sailordave at 11:20PM on 03/27/09