Cooks vs Chefs and Craft vs Art

It seems that in many people’s minds, there’s little difference between and cook and a chef. The phrase chef is bandied about pretty routinely and many home cooks and amateurs don’t think twice before calling themselves a chef. This is wrong, and a little insulting to the people who have put in the time and effort to rise to the level of Chef.

“Chef” is a title that’s earned. It’s French for chief and traditionally a Chef heads up a kitchen brigade. The fact that brigade has a military meaning wasn’t coincidental and it’s not lost on a Chef. Most kitchens are run very similar to the military. There’s hierarchy and the classical kitchen demands absolute discipline from its workers. Although the Kitchen Brigade goes back several centuries, credit for its modern organization goes to August Escoffier, who simplified and codified haute French cuisine in the early 20th century. (If you’ve read Escoffier’s books and looked at his recipes, you may flinch at the idea that he simplified cooking since there’s nothing simple in his cooking.)


Auguste Escoffier, doubtlessly thinking of new ways to put fear into his Brigade

At the top of the kitchen is the Chef de Cuisine, who runs the kitchen. He creates the menu and oversees all personnel. The Chef de Cuisine may not even cook anymore and may be strictly in an administrative role. He has the last say on every matter. What he says is the Law in the kitchen. Disobeying him results in thrown shoes, shouting matches, humiliation of subordinates, immediate firing and other un-pleasantries.

Below him is the Sous Chef, who is essentially second in command. He gets his orders direct form the Chef de Cuisine, and fills in for the Chef de Cuisine when he’s absent form the kitchen. Below the Sous Chef are the Chef de Parties. There is one Chef de Partie for each station or section in the kitchen: Saucier (sauces and sauté station); Rotisseur (roast station) which may contain sub sections for grill and fry cooks; Poisonnier (fish station); Entremetier (entrée station), which may contain separate stations for soups and vegetables); Garde Manger (cold station which includes hors d’oeuvres, salads, terrines and other
Charcuterie); Patissier (pastry/dessert station); and Boucher (butcher).

Under each Chef de Partie on each station, there are numerous Cuisiniers (cooks) and Commis (junior cooks) as well as apprentices. Historically, you started as an apprentice, worked up to a Commis, then a Cuisinier, and with luck you made it to Chef de Partie. You also would work through different stations in order to learn the basics of the kitchen as a whole.

With many years of work and effort you may become a Sous Chef and with even more you may become a Chef de Cuisine. Working to this level took years. Even becoming a Chef de Partie in a good kitchen took years of work and dedication. It was something that was earned and being called Chef by your cooks and commis was a sign of respect for the time, effort and level of mastery you had attained.

So don’t throw the word chef around like it doesn’t matter. If you cook at home, you’re a cook, not a chef. There are no home chefs. We’re all just cooks, no matter how talented we are (or think we are). Give these real Chefs their due; they’ve earned it.

With the rise of celebrity chefs in this country, there’s another trend that’s developed that I find a little bothersome. It seems that all fine cooking, and winemaking and beer making is starting to be called an art and not a craft. Generally this isn’t being done by Chefs themselves, but by their admirers.

But cooking (and brewing for that matter) is a craft. Look at the whole Brigade system and the way that people advance. It’s years of dedication, and there’s an awful lot of repetition along the way. Bakers learn to make baguettes by making them day after day and year after year. A commi learns to make brown stock and demi glace and makes it every day for years. Cooks learn to make a dish correctly by making it day after day under the eye of a chef who makes sure it’s consistent every day.

There are creative elements, but those are mostly enjoyed by the people designing the dishes and not always by the cooks who make them. Cooks turn out the food that they’re told to make. And good cooks do it well and consistently. That alone makes it a craft and not an art.

The same thing goes for brewing and winemaking. Most brewers have to brew the same recipe and have it come out the same each time, because customers demand consistency. There are skills in cooking and brewing, and you need quite a lot of knowledge to do them well. But let’s remember that it’s a craft.

That’s why the only way to become a better cook is to cook more often. Make the same thing over and over until you know how to make it. Why do Italian grandmothers make the Sunday ragu so well? Because they’ve done it every week for 50 years, which means they’ve made it 2600 times. If you did it that often you’d be good at it too. (If you worked as a professional cook and did it five times a week, it would still take you 10 years to get that much experience.) You would know what worked best. So stop reading this and get cooking. Your food will only get better.