The Abuse of "Chef".
I hate when people call themselves chefs and aren't.
I am not a chef. Even when I have my diploma, I won't be a chef.
I am a cook. I do not call myself a chef.
There's a saying, "you're not a chef until someone else calls you chef"; meaning that unless you're someone's boss, you don't deserve that title.
People really like to call anyone who can cook a chef. Hell, there are people out there who call themselves chef after going to culinary school. It's a disrespect to the people who've actually earned the title. I'd like to take anyone who wishes to call themselves a chef to spend an a day in a busy restaurant kitchen and see if they still feel they deserve to be called chef.
The things people do who actually obtain the title would kill a lot of people. It's a gruelling job working yourself up to that height. Even moreso if you hold a title like a CCC (Certified Chef de Cuisines) or the astoundingly-difficult-to-obtain MOF (Meilleur Ouvrier de France); two distinctions of honour. You start peeling vegetables and being the low man on the totem pole(almost always regardless of training), spending years in a job with high stress, long hours and low pay. Once you start moving up the chain, you'll probably work a dozen other stations to get a sous-chef position. There you'll probably begin to learn the ropes about running the business. Then, if you're lucky, someone will offer you a chef position. And that comes with even more work, and more time away from cooking. Then, you've got to maintain a profit in an industry with an average profit margin of 6%(remember that next time you think your dinner was expensive).
My point is; a lot of time and work is taken in earning the title chef. It's not a term to be thrown around lightly, any more than general or doctor. Building a really good model rocket doesn't make one an astronaut, does it?
Next time someone makes something delicious, don't call them chef, just tell them they're a really good cook. They probably won't care, and it keeps an already over-abused term of honour from becoming even more diluted.
I am not a chef. Even when I have my diploma, I won't be a chef.
I am a cook. I do not call myself a chef.
There's a saying, "you're not a chef until someone else calls you chef"; meaning that unless you're someone's boss, you don't deserve that title.
People really like to call anyone who can cook a chef. Hell, there are people out there who call themselves chef after going to culinary school. It's a disrespect to the people who've actually earned the title. I'd like to take anyone who wishes to call themselves a chef to spend an a day in a busy restaurant kitchen and see if they still feel they deserve to be called chef.
The things people do who actually obtain the title would kill a lot of people. It's a gruelling job working yourself up to that height. Even moreso if you hold a title like a CCC (Certified Chef de Cuisines) or the astoundingly-difficult-to-obtain MOF (Meilleur Ouvrier de France); two distinctions of honour. You start peeling vegetables and being the low man on the totem pole(almost always regardless of training), spending years in a job with high stress, long hours and low pay. Once you start moving up the chain, you'll probably work a dozen other stations to get a sous-chef position. There you'll probably begin to learn the ropes about running the business. Then, if you're lucky, someone will offer you a chef position. And that comes with even more work, and more time away from cooking. Then, you've got to maintain a profit in an industry with an average profit margin of 6%(remember that next time you think your dinner was expensive).
My point is; a lot of time and work is taken in earning the title chef. It's not a term to be thrown around lightly, any more than general or doctor. Building a really good model rocket doesn't make one an astronaut, does it?
Next time someone makes something delicious, don't call them chef, just tell them they're a really good cook. They probably won't care, and it keeps an already over-abused term of honour from becoming even more diluted.