{"id":4208,"date":"2025-11-29T20:54:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T20:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/salonculinaire.com\/?page_id=4208"},"modified":"2025-11-29T20:56:40","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T20:56:40","slug":"13-meaning-of-the-term-title-and-status-of-a-chef","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/salonculinaire.com\/?page_id=4208","title":{"rendered":"13. Meaning of the term, title and status of a \u201cCHEF\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Meaning of the term, title and status of a \u201cCHEF\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Wonder how many commercial chefs realize or care that their legitimate trade title has been hijacked?<\/p>\n

The title \u201cchef\u201d means very little now compared to the community perception of a decade ago.<\/p>\n

Nowadays if a person can read a recipe and produce any sort of a meal, they are considered a CHEF.<\/p>\n

Numerous TV programs have contributed by diluting the real meaning of the term, title and status of a \u201cCHEF\u201d. Today it seems anyone can be titled a chef or even, God forbid, a \u201cMasterChef\u201d!<\/p>\n

This is a serious issue that needs to be debated by professional commercial chefs.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am concerned that the general public perception of this title \u2014 once used to portray a trained craftsperson capable of preparing healthy, nutritious, commercially viable, quality food in large quantities \u2014 has now deteriorated to the extent that it can be symbolized by the image of a pretender who wears no head-covering, a T-shirt and a striped butcher\u2019s apron.<\/p>\n

Even the term \u201cchef de cuisine\u201d is now understood by only a few in the industry. How many chefs identify themselves as an \u201cExecutive Chef\u201d, in many cases not knowing what the title really means (that is, to administer multiple fulltime kitchens)?<\/p>\n

There are chefs who pretentiously delight in being an \u201cexecutive sous chef\u201d while being responsible for two cooks, two apprentices and one kitchen attendant in a small kitchen \u2014 where careless opening of the kitchen front door can break the window at the back of the kitchen! And what about the \u201cjunior sous chefs\u201d who have not yet completed their training?<\/p>\n

This adulteration of the terminology started when cooks believed that using the title \u201cchef “was a self-promotion and increased their status within the community. Employers are just as guilty by advertising ambiguous, more impressive job titles as an alternative to a \u2018true\u2019 promotion and as a substitute for salary increases.<\/p>\n

The term \u201ccook\u201d accurately summarizes in a single word the real value of the person\u2019s trade role in the kitchen and the commercial cookery industry, while the term \u201cchef\u201d accurately describes the chief administrator of all the cooks in the kitchen! It is French for \u201cchief\u201d, after all!<\/p>\n

The industry has replaced the priceless cook with a myriad of chefs who cannot cook .<\/p>\n

PS The original butcher\u2019s striped apron was used to conceal stains from blood while appearing to be hygienic \u2013 while the chef\u2019s white apron was worn to show how clean and hygienic the person is while preparing food.<\/p>\n

How clean do you and your staff look?<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meaning of the term, title and status of a \u201cCHEF\u201d Wonder how many commercial chefs realize or care that their legitimate trade title has been hijacked? The title \u201cchef\u201d means very little now compared to the community perception of a decade ago. Nowadays if a person can read a recipe and produce any sort of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/full-width.php","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"class_list":["post-4208","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/salonculinaire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/salonculinaire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/salonculinaire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salonculinaire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salonculinaire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4208"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/salonculinaire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4211,"href":"https:\/\/salonculinaire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4208\/revisions\/4211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/salonculinaire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}