In Praise of Line Cooks
I believe someone said, somewhere on these pages, that being a linecook was easy but a chef difficult.
Well this article from the Washington Post is an interesting read.
... scurrying with sizzling hot pans from the stove to the counter and back.
But neither the head chef -- whose name is on the menu -- nor his second in command, the sous chef, will be counted among them.
These are the line cooks. When you go out to eat, these are the people who actually cook your food.
"It doesn't matter what the chef does. It doesn't matter what the waiter does. When it comes to a restaurant's success," Joe Raffa, the sous-chef at Alexandria's Majestic Cafe, says bluntly. "Everything comes down to the line cook."
For five years, I worked as a line cook in kitchens here ...
Comments
Ethnic food stores for ingredients
I find that most supermarket type grocery stores have a poor selection of ingredients, and ethnic food stores do much better.
Agreed
I love cooking. Just wish I had more time to get the ingredients. That is the hard part really.
E/.
http://home.justwerks.com/node.php?id=22
Being a head Chef
wud b one of the best jobs on earth.
That was probably me
I think I said something to that affect. I was thinking back to my days working in a restaurant. The story describes a slightly different class of line cook than what I was thinking of.
The physical work of a line cook is quite difficult, especially on busy nights. But without the planning, the portioning, the recipe testing, the food ordering etc. etc. that the chef does, a line cook has nothing to work with. The end of the article admits that it is the goal of every line cook to move up to chef.
I liked the article.