Meaning of Chef

A chef is a person who cooks professionally for other people. Although over time the term has come to describe any person who cooks for a living, traditionally it refers to a highly skilled professional who is proficient in all aspects of food preparation.

Chef de cuisine, executive chef and head chef

This person is in charge of all things related to the kitchen which usually includes menu creation; management, scheduling and payroll of entire kitchen staff; ordering; and plating design. Chef de cuisine is the traditional French term from which the English word chef is derived. Head chef is often used to designate someone with the same duties as an executive chef, but there is usually someone in charge of them, possibly making the larger executive decisions such as direction of menu, final authority in staff management decisions, etc. This is often the case for chefs with several restaurants.

[edit]Sous-chef

The Sous-Chef de Cuisine (under-chef of the kitchen) is the second in command and direct assistant of the Executive Chef. This person may be responsible for scheduling and substituting when the Executive Chef is off-duty and will also fill in for or assist the Chef de Partie (line cook) when needed. Smaller operations may not have a sous-chef, but larger operations may have several.^[2]

[edit]Expediter

The expediter (in French aboyeur) takes the orders from the dining room and relays them to the stations in the kitchen. This person also often puts the finishing touches on the dish before it goes to the dining room. In some operations this task may be done by either the executive chef or the sous-chef.^[3]

[edit]Chef de partie

A chef de partie, also known as a "station chef" or "line cook",^[4] is in charge of a particular area of production. In large kitchens, each station chef might have several cooks and/or assistants. In most kitchens however, the station chef is the only worker in that department. Line cooks are often divided into a hierarchy of their own, starting with "first cook", then "second cook", and so on as needed.

Station-chef titles which are part of the brigade system include:^[5]

English	French	IPA	Description
sauté chef	saucier	[sosje]	Responsible for all sautéed items and their sauce. This is usually the highest stratified position of all the stations.
fish chef	poissonnier	[pwasoɲe]	Prepares fish dishes and often does all fish butchering as well as appropriate sauces. This station may be combined with the saucier position.
roast chef	rôtisseur	[ʁotisœʁ]	Prepares roasted and braised meats and their appropriate sauce.
grill chef	grillardin	[ɡʁijaʁdɛ̃]	Prepares all grilled foods; this position may be combined with the rotisseur.
fry chef	friturier	[fʁityʁje]	Prepares all fried items; this position may be combined with the rotisseur position.
vegetable chef	entremetier	[ɑ̃tʁəmetje]	Prepares hot appetizers and often prepares the soups, vegetables, pastas and starches. In a full brigade system a potager would prepare soups and alegumier would prepare vegetables.
roundsman	tournant	[tuʁnɑ̃]	Also referred to as a swing cook, fills in as needed on stations in the kitchen.
pantry chef	garde manger	[ɡaʁd mɑ̃ʒe]	Responsible for preparing cold foods, including salads, cold appetizers, pâtés and other charcuterie items.
butcher	boucher	[buʃe]	Butchers meats, poultry and sometimes fish. May also be responsible for breading meats and fish.
pastry chef	pâtissier	[patisje]	Is qualified in making baked goods such as pastries, cakes, biscuits, macarons, chocolates, breads and desserts. Pastry Chefs can specialize in cakes in patisseries or bakeries by making wedding, cupcakes, birthday and special occasion cakes. In larger establishments, the pastry chef often supervises a separate team in their own kitchen or separate shop.

[edit]Commis

A commis is an apprentice in larger kitchens who works under a chef de partie to learn the station's responsibilities and operation.^[3] This may be a chef who has recently completed formal culinary training or is still undergoing training.^[6]

[edit]Kitchen assistants

Kitchen assistants (often known as kitchen porters or kitchenhands) are usually kitchen workers who assist with basic tasks, but have had no formal training in cooking. They carry out relatively unskilled tasks such as peeling potatoes and washing salad. In a smaller kitchen, assistants may be assigned a wider variety of tasks to reduce staffing costs.^[3]

A communard is in charge of preparing the meal for the staff during a shift. This meal is often referred to as the staff or family meal.^[3]

The escuelerie (from 15th century French and a cognate of the English "scullery") or dishwasher, is the keeper of dishes, having charge of dishes and keeping the kitchen clean. A common humorous title for this role in some modern kitchens is chef de plúnge^{[citation needed]} or "Dish Pig".

Fast food

Fast food (also known as Quick Service Restaurant or QSR within the industry itself) is the term given to food that can be prepared and served very quickly. While any meal with low preparation time can be considered to be fast food, typically the term refers to food sold in a restaurant or store with preheated or precooked ingredients, and served to the customer in a packaged form for take-out/take-away. The term "fast food" was recognized in a dictionary by Merriam–Webster in 1951.

Outlets may be stands or kiosks, which may provide no shelter or seating,^[1] or fast food restaurants (also known as quick service restaurants). Franchiseoperations which are part of restaurant chains have standardized foodstuffs shipped to each restaurant from central locations.^[2]

The capital requirements involved in opening up a non-franchised fast food restaurant are relatively low. Restaurants with much higher sit-in ratios, where customers tend to sit and have their orders brought to them in a seemingly more upscale atmosphere, may be known in some areas as fast casual 

history of fast food

The concept of ready-cooked food for sale is closely connected with urban development. In Ancient Rome cities had street stands that sold bread and wine. A fixture of East Asian cities is the noodle shop. Flatbread and falafel are today ubiquitous in the Middle East. Popular Indian fast food dishes includevada pav, panipuri and dahi vada. In the French-speaking nations of West Africa, roadside stands in and around the larger cities continue to sell—as they have done for generations—a range of ready-to-eat, char-grilled meat sticks known locally as brochettes (not to be confused with the bread snack of the same name found in Europe).

Pre-modern Europe

In the cities of Roman antiquity, much of the urban population living in insulae, multi-storey apartment blocks, depended on food vendors for much of their meals. In the mornings, bread soaked in wine was eaten as a quick snack and cooked vegetables and stews later in the day at a popina, a simple type of eating establishment.^[3] In the Middle Ages, large towns and major urban areas such as London and Paris supported numerous vendors that sold dishes such as pies, pasties, flans, waffles, wafers, pancakes and cooked meats. As in Roman cities during antiquity, many of these establishments catered to those who did not have means to cook their own food, particularly single households. Unlike richer town dwellers, many could often not afford housing with kitchen facilities and thus relied on fast food. Travellers, as well, such as pilgrims en route to a holy site, were among the customers.

Definition of Culinary Arts

It is not everyday that a person can take up or get an education on something he or she loves and then build it into a career. But in the case of culinary arts, it is possible. Those people, who have the passion for cooking and the gift of good taste, have a brighter future in the food service industry if they wished to.

If you think you have what it takes to be successful in the field of culinary, then you should think about making a career out of it. But, you should know first what you will be getting into. The things you should be familiar with include the definition of culinary arts and According to the definition of culinary arts and the nature of the job. It would be best if you know the overview what culinary arts is all bout so that you can weigh things down whether to pursue a career on that field or not.

According to the web definition of culinary arts, it is the practice or manner of preparing food or the food so prepared. Considering the definition of culinary, it may sound easy to do. Maybe it is simple to you if you are used to cook your own dinner or party. Yet, you have to remember that in the world of culinary, you are to work longer hours. The nature of the work is very physically demanding. For example, requiring you to keep you on your feet, lifting heavy kitchen stuff, mixing large food vats, rolling pounds and pounds of dough, and only those who work in the real kitchen know what other things happen inside. Also, the working schedule is unusual. In other words, you are to work on weekends, holidays, and evenings which can mean not much time for social life.

But then again, as the definition of culinary arts implies, you are not to do all those things. Just don't ignore the possibility, though, that you will have to do them someday, if the situation calls for it. Despite the negative aspect of a career in culinary arts, there is still a high level of satisfaction according to those who are already in the field. In fact, they commented that what they have for a career is a very rewarding profession. Who can argue with that if you are doing the thing you most enjoy performing add it up with customer's satisfaction of what you've prepared - truly a rewarding job!

Each one of us has always dreamed of having a career that will give us the kind of life we wanted, but having one that will make you utilize your passion and expertise is another story. The story applies to culinary arts and to all those who have the talent for cookery and pursue a career in the food service industry. You can never be happier to be in a job you love doing, can you?

Slow Food

Slow Food began in Italy with the founding of its forerunner organization, Arcigola, in 1986 to resist the opening of a McDonald's near the Spanish Stepsin Rome.^[1] In 1989, the founding Manifesto of the international Slow Food movement was signed in Paris, France by delegates from 15 countries.^[2] This was done not so much a protest against the restaurant chain as a protest against big international business interests.

The Slow Food organization spawned by the movement has expanded to include over 100,000 members with chapters in over 132 countries. All totaled, 800 local convivia chapters exist. 360 convivia in Italy — to which the name condotta (singular) / condotte (plural) applies — are composed of 35,000 members, along with 450 other regional chapters around the world. The organizational structure is decentralized: each convivium has a leader who is responsible for promoting local artisans, local farmers, and local flavors through regional events such as Taste Workshops, wine tastings, and farmers' markets.

Offices have been opened in Switzerland (1995), Germany (1998), New York City (2000), France (2003), Japan (2005), and most recently in the United Kingdom and Chile. The head offices are located in Bra, near the famous city of Turin, northern Italy. Numerous publications are put out by the organization, in several languages. In the US, the Snail is the quarterly of choice, while Slow Food puts out literature in several other European nations. Recent efforts at publicity include the world's largest food and wine fair, the Salone del Gusto in Turin, a biennial cheese fair in Bra called Cheese, theGenoan fish festival called SlowFish, and Turin's Terra Madre ("Mother Earth") world meeting of food communities.

In 2004, Slow Food opened a University of Gastronomic Sciences^[3] at Pollenzo, in Piedmont, and Colorno, in Emilia-Romagna, Italy. Carlo Petrini and Massimo Montanari are the leading figures in the creation of the University, whose goal is to promote awareness of good food and nutrition.

[edit]Objectives

The Slow Food movement incorporates a series of objectives within its mission, including:

• forming and sustaining seed banks to preserve heirloom varieties in cooperation with local food systems
• developing an "Ark of Taste" for each ecoregion, where local culinary traditions and foods are celebrated
• preserving and promoting local and traditional food products, along with their lore and preparation
• organizing small-scale processing (including facilities for slaughtering and short run products)
• organizing celebrations of local cuisine within regions (for example, the Feast of Fields held in some cities in Canada)
• promoting "taste education"
• educating consumers about the risks of fast food
• educating citizens about the drawbacks of commercial agribusiness and factory farms
• educating citizens about the risks of monoculture and reliance on too few genomes or varieties
• developing various political programs to preserve family farms
• lobbying for the inclusion of organic farming concerns within agricultural policy
• lobbying against government funding of genetic engineering
• lobbying against the use of pesticides
• teaching gardening skills to students and prisoners
• encouraging ethical buying in local marketplaces

From time to time, Slow Food intervenes directly in market transactions; for example, Slow Food was able to preserve four varieties of native American turkey by ordering 4,000 of their eggs and commissioning their raising and slaughtering and delivery to market^{[citation needed]}.

[edit]Impact

It is difficult to gauge the extent of the success of the Slow Food movement, considering that the organization itself is still very young. The current grassroots nature of Slow Food is such that few people in Europe and especially the United States are aware of it.

Statistics show that Europe, and Germany in particular, is a much bigger consumer of organics than the US.^[4] Slow Food has contributed to the growing awareness of health concerns in Europe, as evidenced by this fact, but on society as a whole, Slow Food has had little effect. An example of this is the fact that tourists visit Slow Food restaurants more than locals, but Slow Food and its sister movements are still young. In an effort to spread the ideals of anti-fast food, Slow Food has targeted the youth of the nations in primary and secondary schools. Volunteers help build structural frameworks for school gardens and put on workshops to introduce the new generation to the art of farming.