Chefs

[MynameisLuca]

I've worked in kitchen's, I find a lot of chefs very arragont and not up to the job. I'm not talking about the TV show chefs, just regular restaurants kitchen chefs. Honestly, some of them haven't a clue. Yet they're lauded over. I guess you'd have to work in the catering trade to see what really goes on. Anyone else noticed this?

[elliemay1]

My husband often jokes that some chefs couldn't even boil an egg!

[MynameisLuca]

He'd be right, Elliemay, I don't know how they get away with it.

[pastafreak]

Haha...I ran a kitchen for a charity, and had some former chefs as both volunteers and employees. Some were prone to hissy fits and had 'high' standards. Most were really nice guys though but had issues with stress and booze.

[MynameisLuca]

Most are nice, but Jesus, they'd burn boiling water. I've no credentials but I could do a better job than some of them.

[diddlydo]

Let those who throw stones learn how to spell "arrogant".

[vulcan42]

There's a lot of pressure being a chef when you think about it. In a lot of jobs people can have a off day and not firing on all cylinders as it were without making a big difference. A chef has to be on the ball 100%, producing food that is perfectly cooked on time every time.

[andy-hughes]

I know that I have the tastes of a five-year-old when it comes to food, and I am less than interested in anything but very plain food, but even so, I remain baffled at the nation's fascination with chefs, and their elevation as TV stars.

It's less the fact that I couldn't care less about what they cook if I tried, it's that they routinely come across as singularly unatrractive people competely undeservng of the adoration their receive.

[Atheist]

Andy, chefs don't come under admiration. They are not elevated as TV stars, they are just doing a job. I worked as a kitchen porter in the sixties and the chef was a harrassed man whose job was to produce 500 meals a day for a building full of office workers. As a chef de cuisine, he had to cooperate with an office wallah. They worked together to deliver the goods. We dealt with sacks of ready-prepared chips, we dealt with tubs full of lambs' kidneys (stinking of urine), we whipped up real cream for the custard-pie shenanigans at the Lord Mayor's parade, we washed down the plughole many litres of ice-cream when the fridge had broken down overnight (I had my share!).
Chef was the boss (he killed a kitchen porter once was the joke for the new kids like me!) and he rarely ate on the job, simply smoked and looked worried (and flirted with Betty, the patissiere).
Lovely man, and I was told when I left to pursue my musical career that I would be welcome back whenever I needed a job.
Lovely memories.

[andy-hughes]

Atheist - // They are not elevated as TV stars, they are just doing a job. //

Clearly I am referring to the plethora of chefs who actually have been elevated as TV stars, and without exception, the come across as singularly unattractive individuals.

I have less than no interest in what they cook, or why cooking on television appeals to the level that it does, but I can only reiterate that I cannot think of a single TV chef in whose company I would want to spend even a moment.

(Apart from Nigella Lawson of course!!!!!!!!!)

[lankeela]

I've worked in a few kitchens and the vast majority had real bullies as chefs, particularly to the younger staff. As for celebrity chefs I am with Andy on this, cookery programmes leave me cold. Pretentious carp served in a pile on a load of lettuce leaves is not what I call good food. Give me a nice roast dinner spread around the plate with loads of gravy. I really can't see what people do see in cookery programmes, because every meal turns out different so there is no real competition in it. How can you find watching someone else doing a household chore like cooking to be entertaining?

[pastafreak]

Many, many chefs...mostly young...appear on Great British Menu. Most come across as quite ordinary. A few are full of ego. On Masterchef both Marcus Waring and Monica Galleti seem to be down to earth individuals...even Gordon Ramsey when not in shouty mode. Other cookery stars...Jamie Oliver, Nigel Slater, the lovely Nigella...are not chefs.
Those who work in catering are under enormous stress...running their team, maintaining hygiene standards, budgeting, menu development, long, physically tiring days.
For many its a job. For a few its a love of food that they want pass on to others.

[andy-hughes]

lankeela - // How can you find watching someone else doing a household chore like cooking to be entertaining? //

Clearly we are in the minority here, hence the vast number of cookery programmes that infest the schedules, and the increasing numer of charisma-bypass chefs who front them.

[pastafreak]

Andy, if you don't watch the programmes, how do you know character/ personality of the chefs?

[andy-hughes]

Pasta - I have seen enough clips in passing to get a flavour (!!) of what chefs on tv are like.

They started with the personality vacuum that was Fanny Craddock, and went down from there.

[TonyV]

Andy and her husband

[bhg481]

Was it Bob Todd who played a drunken Johnny Craddock in a Benny Hill sketch?

[burlyshirley]

The only 'chefs' I like on TV are the, often hilarious, ones on Come Dine With Me. The members of the public who cook a three course meal in their own kitchens ! I love looking at other people's kitchens too. Wish this programme would come back ...

[pastafreak]

I remember the very first Come Dine with Me I watched. One young women bought ready meals from M and S. I was hooked. I'm sure it will be back...though maybe just repeats or can they do socially distanced dinners?

[burlyshirley]

I suspect the only reason we haven't had a new series for a while is because of the pandemic. Hopefully when things get back to normal again, there will be a new series - hopefully !

[andy-hughes]

Bhg- it was indeed, apparently Johnny was a bit of a cancer, and there was a scandal when it was discovered that they weren't actually married.

There is a story, possibly apocryphal, that Johnny's wish, after one of the recipes was "I hope all your donuts turn out like Fanny's."

Oo-er!!