List of Chefs Truly The Only List That Matters

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A chef is a trained professional cook and tradesman who is proficient in all aspects of food preparation, often focusing on a particular cuisine. The word "chef" is derived from the term chef de cuisine, the director or head of a kitchen.

What defines a chef? To simply answer this question, a chef is an individual who is trained to understand flavors, cooking techniques, create recipes from scratch with fresh ingredients, and have a high level of responsibility within a kitchen. A cook is an individual who follows established recipes to prepare food.

Chefs can fill many roles within a kitchen from introductory roles to executive level positions. In these roles, a chef may be responsible for a variety of tasks to make the restaurant run.

• Chef de Partie (Station Chefs) run individual stations within a kitchen and prepare the specific dishes and sauces or sides. Some examples of stations include sauce, butcher, fish, roast, fry, grill, pantry, pastry, vegetable and swing (who gives breaks as needed). A station chef may create recipes based on their specialty and under the direction of the head chef or sous chef.
• Sous Chef is the deputy chef who is the direct supervisor of the kitchen. They are in charge of preparing food, supervising the day-to-day cooking and filling the role of head chef if there is not one present or need to fill in.
• Chef de Cuisine is the head chef. Head chefs are the individuals running the kitchen on the day to day – assuming manager duties, supervising staff, making purchases and working with the restaurant manager to create new menus and recipes.
• Executive Chef is the top chef who manages kitchens based on operations, cost, managing multiple locations, and the business side of the kitchen. They don’t traditionally cook on the day-to-day, but they certainly have the ability to in a pinch. Executive chefs have climbed through the ranks for years to earn this position.

Personal chefs are also an option as well. Personal chefs often work in private kitchens alone or in small teams. They must be able to prepare meals of all types and design highly customized menus for their clientele. A personal chef may either cook on location for a client or create and ship meals to be heated at delivery.

Like a captain of a ship, a chef represents the highest level of the kitchen hierarchy. Chefs are expected to not only understand complex flavor dynamics and how to create the best menu items, but also manage the business side of the kitchen. A chef fills both the supervisor and manager roles within the business yet may still work intimately with his or her crew to ensure that things run smoothly.