According
to Larousse Gastronomique (Clarkson Potter, New York 2001), “Chef:
A person who prepares food as an occupation in a restaurant, private
house or hotel." Oxford
Companion to Food (Alan Davidson, Oxford University Press, Oxford
1999) explains “Chef is a French word, which has entered other
languages, denoting a professional cook. It is a contraction of the
phrase chef de cuisine hence
originally a description of rank as much as, if not more than
occupation.”
Both
of these volumes, Larousse Gastronomique and the Oxford Companion to
Food are revered in the world of food, yet each effect lessens the
mystique behind the almighty title of chef. The reality is simple, a
chef is a cook first. He, or she may have other responsibilities
true, but first and last a chef is a cook. No food regardless of how
grand it may be is conjured up by magic, it has to be prepared, it
has to be cooked.
Today
we have all kinds of chefs running around. Television with their
food networks have made the professional cook into a celebrity. We
have the angry and aggressive English guy who can make the strongest
will break into tears. At the opposite end of the scale and still
English, is the youthful, energetic fellow jumping up and down
promoting natural, well balanced diets. In between we can find a
whole array of men and women, some who have been around for years,
others appear and disappear as fast as new fashion trends on the
runways. Though haven't you noticed that the ones with an accent
somehow sound more foodie when talking about food, it's as if that
accent is a pinch of some secret ingredient in the overall recipe.
So
putting aside television and the iron chefs competing against each
other history proves that the professional cook or caterer has been
around a long time. The Deipnosophistae of Athenaeaus, a sort of
massive how to guide from around the end of the second or the
beginning of the third century, claims that “the good
cook must penetrate nature, know something about medicine, about the
seasons, the setting and rising of the stars in order to be able to
prepare food that is nourishing and will be properly digested and
exhaled.” Wonder what Gordon
Ramsay would say to that?
People
have been cooking grand, or otherwise, feasts for others for hundreds
of years. In Ancient Rome slaves did most of the cooking although
the richest people had well paid cooks called coci. Even
then some cooks were elevated to fame as gourmets such as Lucullus
and Apicious. The Oxford Companion to Food makes a reference to
Apicious, a 4th
century Roman cook, as the author of the first cookbook, and in the
broadest of interpretations of today's title as the first recorded
chef.
As
already stated the title 'chef' is a French word and prior to the
French Revolution had not been in use. Professional cooks were known
as man-cooks, master-cooks, cook-maids, professional cooks, principle
cooks and even chief cooks. It is in the beginning of the 19th
century that the term first appeared and quickly spread into other
languages.
The
stage was now set for what could be called 'artist cooks',
individuals who took the level of food preparation to new heights of
the wow factor. Antonin Careme (Paris 1783-1833) stepped forward to
become not only the most influential practitioner of the art of food
and its recorder, but also to become a role model for many aspiring
young cooks.
Antonin
Careme was born into a very poor family, and by the age of ten was
put out onto the street to fend for himself. He was taken in by the
owner of a low class restaurant where he learned the basics of
cookery and the fire was lit to last a lifetime. By the age of
sixteen he became an apprentice to Bailly of the Rue Vivienne, one of
the best pastry cooks in Paris at the time. The passion and artistic
genius was noticed by Tallyrand who offered to take Careme into his
service, where he managed Tallyrand's kitchen for twelve years.
Although
Antonin Careme will be remembered through the silent corridors of
culinary history as a passionate genius always striving to enhance
his knowledge and talent, it was his embryotic status as a celebrity
chef that had infused today's warriors in the battlefield of pots and
pans, and a celebrity he had become. Antonin had served the Prince
Regent of England, later to be King George IV, Tsar Alexander I of
Russia, the Viennese Court, the British Embassy, Princess Bagration
and Lord Steward, finishing his last years with Baron de Rothschild.
Before his death at age fifty, Careme managed to fulfill his greatest
wish, “To publish a complete book on the state of my
profession in our times.” (Larousse
Gastronomique). Although Antonin had produced many written works his
greatest endevour L`Art de la cuisine au xixe siede (1833)
was published in five volumes,
the last two written by his protegè Plumery.
Cooking
for others has been developing through the ages alongside man's own
evolution. In the great halls of the Vikings or of Ancient Greece
and Rome, presentation was not a key element. Table manners were not
yet thought of and only an abundance of what was popular and edible
mattered. As swords were exchanged for guns and cannon, the French
Revolution brought with it not only a new view on democracy but also
a kitchen with order and purpose. It was a revolution in the world
of culinary expertise with room for art and flair. Gradually modern
society brought about the birth of TV dinners, take-out food and fast
food. Some might say we have regressed to the ancient days of the
Vikings only with less gusto.
Those
who decide to walk the road of a chef are a little different to
others in the world of work. In a certain sense art plays a role in
cooking for others. After all one of the main ingredients of a well
presented meal is the emotional pleasure it gives. By any definition
the Arts provide pleasure to the emotional senses of a human being.
Yet at the same time that very human being needs food to sustain the
very basics of his or her human engine.
So
why do people want to be professional chefs? Asking some of the
young at a local culinary school, the answers were as varied as the
individuals themselves, and no one clear motivating factor was
evident. For me personally cooking provided an absolute and even
selfish pleasure. I enjoyed creating a physical response of pleasure
from smell and taste. At no time did I think of feeding the masses,
in a fashion my thrill came from having a stranger sit at a table,
open his mouth and place the food I have cooked, then glow with
pleasure. This may sound like a very selfish motivation to some,
others would understand the power of manipulation.
Gradually
I began to understand what my very first teachers had tried to
explain. Unlike the young today I did not go to a culinary school,
rather I was taught by chefs in working kitchens. It was like taking
a new recruit, giving him a rifle and dropping him in the middle of a
battlefield. Both of my early teachers made me understand that the
word 'pleasure' was synonymous with cooking. It was as important for
the cook as it was for the one who ate his food. Take pleasure away
from either and you only have a drive-through window.
Sadly
several years ago after some two decades of cooking in four countries
the flame that kept pleasure simmering and bubbling went out. Art and food had always been dancing partners, simply look at the background
of Antonin Careme, but I became disillusioned with the cute spirals
and dashes on plates with little else in substance. Rather than
allowing cooking to be nothing more than an automated response
without passion or interest I turned to designing gardens and working
with natural stone.
Opportunity
came screaming at me by true accident, on a dare if you wish. In the
introduction to Unleash Your Taste I had said that I work in a
rather unusual setting for a chef. After years in kitchens today I
prepare my recipes in front of the public. No not on television but
in a supermarket. Sobeys at Scott and Niagara Street in St.
Catharines, Ontario has taken a daring leap forward as far as food
retail is concerned. As the in-store chef I work from a station on
the retail floor, in full view of customers. Each day I prepare from
recipes that are designed to enhance the love of food and to
demonstrate how easy it really can be to prepare a healthy and
delicious meal in less time than most would think.
At
my chef's station I can play with the wonderful aroma of fresh herbs
and spices, visiting any cultural cuisine at whim. Customers have
provided the real joy, and yes the 'pleasure', once again as they
drop by to see what's on the menu on any particular day. Sobeys as a
retailer has taken a new higher road in the food business, making the
most mundane task of food shopping more enjoyable. In a fashion
Sobeys has taken the supermarket out of the realm of a drive through
and provided a decision and reason for it to be a destination of
choice.
Each
day brings with it the pleasure again. There are times when a recipe
is thought of in advance, on other days it is simply a mood or the
temperature outside that motivates. Maybe the Deipnosophistae of
Athenaeus was right after all and nature, the stars and seasons are a
part of preparing food with pleasure and passion. Regardless, it is
the people who provide much of the excitement with their willingness
to explore taste and desire to recreate for themselves at home.
These very same people provided the impetus to develop Unleash
Your Taste, and my gratitude extends to each and every one.
Diving
into historical waters of the origins of my profession had its own
pleasure but history had no mention of one great chef, whose words
are an inspiration to me, as they should also inspire each and every
one of you. It is chef Auguste Gusteau from the wonderful animated
film Ratatouille. How many of you have seen this movie?
Anyhow the main character, a rat by the name of Remy, can cook, oh
can he cook. The human who befriends Remy, Alfredo Linguini cannot.
Although it is Linguini who gets the adulation and credit for Remy's
culinary daring. Not to give all of it away, there is a famous
Parisian chef by the name of Gusteau or at least his ghost, or simply
a joyful figment of Remy's imagination. Gusteau and his restaurant
are famous and it is his one line of wisdom that stays always in my
mind. Gusteau says that “Anyone Can Cook.”
As
a nine year old helping out in my family kitchen I began to believe
this, and as a chef of too many years firmly understand it to be
true. Anyone can truly cook and it only takes some practice with a
dash of daring to reach plateaus of the wow response from family and
friends, oh and not to forget, yourself.
For
now I stand there in the centre of a supermarket retail floor playing
daily with smells and taste, enjoying each day. Stop by and take a
bite, maybe share an idea as each recipe, (yours or mine), is simply
one piece in a puzzle of life.
