Quote:
Originally Posted by undercoverbrother
Is schooling what differentiates a cook from a chef?
|
There's a few different ways to define a Chef, schooling is the easiest but not all educated cooks are chefs. It comes down to knowledge, however it's been attained. For example, the Professional Cooking course at SAIT is absolute garbage, those graduates are not chefs, they're glorified home cookers. On the other side, a guy that's been in the industry for a few years, has taken time to learn from his Chefs, and gained knowledge in the real world but never been to school, he'd also be called a chef.
There's also Chef as used as a job title or position. Sous Chef, Head Chef, Executive Chef, etc.
Also depends on the type of restaurant, is it Boston Pizza where the kitchen staff are just line cooks, or is it a place where they're more knowledgeable and constantly learning and called chef de parties. Then there's also places that don't know the difference between the terms, and call their line cooks something like line chefs. Or the ones where the only "Chef" is the chief cook. Then this also differs by region, a Chef in Montreal can move to France and not be considered a Chef anymore.
In short it's hard to define, if you're not sure just say chef.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist
Why sweat your bag off while getting verbally abused and constantly hurried by management for $14/hr after going to school for what you do?
I cooked for a number of years before going to/while in university and it was horrible. Not sure why anyone would choose the industry
|
Because it's fun, there's no corporate bs, no sitting at a desk, and you get to do something you enjoy. Just have to find an environment that isn't full of the aforementioned a-holes and social rejects. It's not difficult, just find a place that cares about the quality of the food.