How can you tell a cook from a chef ?

12 tell tale signs it´s a chef 

 ( and what ¨from cook to chef¨ mean to us )

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Quite literally, chef is simply the French word for chief. In any French speaking country or business you will hear that word a lot, and not just in the kitchen. Our staff would always call us chef , i.e boss, even though there was also a chef in the kitchen.

So there´s the chief de cuisine, and chiefs in general.

1. Chefs wear Funny hats !

  Cooks don´t tend to wear hats, but chefs are more likely to.  We like the idea of wearing hats to keep things neat and hygienic,  but aren´t fans of those tall stiff hats that chefs wear ( called Toques blanches – white hats ).  I suppose it means you can tell the hierarchy from a distance in a big kitchen but in a small one it can look a bit ridiculous don´t you think ?

2. They only cook in a restaurant

Chef de cuisine is usually in charge of a restaurant or hotel kitchen, and responsible for all the cooking that goes on in it. A professional kitchen is a serious place, and we know that it can only work well if run like a military operation. Nomatter what chaos Marrakech felt all around outside, it was always such a pleasure to watch our own restaurant kitchen during service – felt like a well oiled machine at work .

Cooks generally just ´cook´  and it is generally the term given to domestic cooks. Some cooks love it passionately and some home cooks just have to do it to survive. Most are still, in charge, of their kitchen too though – whether they like it or not ! Some cooks even make much better food that some chefs.

However there are cooks in a professional kitchen too – they just don´t usually have the professional qualifications or skills expected of a chef. The lower ranks can still be called cooks, and we also had a local ´mama´style cook to make the traditional home cooked dishes for the hotel guests to sample. Cooks are regarded, by the professionals, as those that haven´t got the professional skills, e.g. knife skills, or knowledge about the science of cooking or the cuts of meat etc, and they don´t speak the same cheffy language.

3.  qualifications

In professional terms, a chef tends to be a cook that has been educated, usually professionally, with culinary qualifications,  to show how well they can cook. They will also usually have lots of on the job education in a professional kitchen. The greater the name of the head chef and restaurant, the better the únwritten´ qualification is too.

Even if they can cook to the level of a professional chef, they may still be referred to as a cook simply because they don´t have a professional qualification, or have never worked in a professional kitchen. Apparently, Nigella Lawson refers to herself as a cook not a chef, for that very reason.

4. Skill

A trainee chef can start with very menial tasks even after having the college qualifications- sorting the salad leaves even. Someone has to do it ! Then they work their way up the ladder picking up technical or organisation skills in different areas of the kitchen. Salads, vegetables, meat, fish, pastry etc. To be a great chef you need to be both an artist and a scientist, to understand food, how to balance it, how to cook it, how to plate it beautifully. Then by the time they get to the top, they also have to be an organiser and a leader. People don´t even think of chefs as having these skills… well actually many still don´t which is why there´s a lot of shouting going on under the pressure in some kitchens. 

5. Experience

In some ways you could say that a  chef is really just a skilled cook with lots of experience.  Chefs really do work their way up from cook to chef. Working their way up the ladder takes time, an incredible amount of dedication to gain different skills in many areas of the kitchen.

6. Equipment

Chef´s equipment is usually well battered from use. They´re usually metal ( stainless steel ) rather than plastic, and well worn with lots of repairs perhaps. They don´t tend to use the all-in-one devices you´ll find in domestic kitchens like instant pots. They do use the tools that were first developed by chefs for restaurants,  but have now made their way to the home cook – such as the hand blender, the food processor, the sous vide machine. The most important tool to any chef though is… the sacred knife ! Their knife, or set of knives, usually in a canvas roll that they carry with them, is usually their most coveted item. They usually have a favourite and will stick with that for their whole career. They have a real respect for knives – a professional´s knife is super super sharp and there´s always a pack of blue plasters in a professional kitchen for the newbies.

We have a favourite chef knife, but it´s not an expensive one – and yes, we do take it everywhere too on our travels !

7. time

A culinary qualification usually takes 2 years at a specialist college. This is a great foundation but the real education is in the professional restaurant kitchen and you have to usually start right at the bottom. It then usually takes 2-4 years to climb the ranks in a professional kitchen. A lot depends on what spaces come up on the ladder too. The hours are long and unsociable, but the camraderie in a good kitchen can´t be beaten.  It´s a real family and you´ll probably find a good brigade still together outside working hours too.

8. rank

Within the kitchen, different titles tell you what expertise someone has, what work they do, and, where they come in the cook to chef hierarchy ladder! The executive chef or chef patron ( chef/ owner ) are the highest titles. Chef de cuisine is next, then  second in line is the supporting sous chef – their right hand chef.  In fact, the sous chef is often the one doing a lot of the work, whilst the top chef keeps an eye on everything – if the chef has to be somewhere else the sous chef handles everything as usual and the restaurant guests shouldn´t know the difference temporarily. Third line of cheffing is the chef de partie, in charge of each line / part, or ´station´ in the kitchen. So they usually have a specialist area – like patisserie or sauces or meats. Finally, the commis chef is the real worker supporting everyone else, cutting and slicing and prepping for the chefs de partie.

I´d be happy being a commis chef. I love sorting ! In our tiny kitchen at home in the UK, Paul created a station for patisserie incorporating a stainless steel tray into the tiles, a coffee shop station with his huge commercial grade coffee maker and grinder ahaha ?  . Our kitchen was so tiny, that we´d use the outside doorstep to stack the dirty dishes during a dinner party. 

9. responsibility

A chef is responsible for the kitchen and all the other chefs or cooks in it. There may be an executive chef to answer to if the restaurant is large, very famous, or part of a chain. The executive chef is more often an office job now ! Apart from that, the chef de cuisine is responsible for everything that comes into, and leaves their kitchen. From ordering the food supply to organising the work flow for the team, and managing the process. They are usually responsible for the creative side of designing the menu, the functionality of the kitchen, and the HR role of managing the staff… but not always.  At our restaurant it may have been unusual that this wasn´t the case.

10. STRESS

Passionate home cooks have the appearance of happily creating heavenly foods in their beautiful kitchens, seemingly promoting a nice, balanced life-style.

Chefs on the other hand are often pale and worn out. Exhausted from the long hours, the responsibilities and the low return for all their hard work. They´re just as passionate about food, and cooking , and the professional chef reputation, but boy is it tough. I think the toughest gig of all is the chef de patron… the chef that starts his own restaurant.

11. Ego

You´re more likely to find a chef with an ego, than a cook with one, although nowadays there are so many more keen cooks that act more like an amateur chef and you can find some on a real ego trip too. It´s a tough journey from cook to chef and for some, when they get to the top they let it go to their head. Being in charge of a strong team of upcoming competitors means they have to find their way to keep them in line. Being responsible for everything that goes out to the customers is a huge stress.

This of course doesn´t apply to all chefs but there are definitely a lot of chefs that let their ego get in the way. And for the same reasons as this might happen in life, it´s often someone that´s new to the job and not experienced yet as a chef de cuisine, or simply not confident enough in their own skills, either in cooking or in being in charge. 

12. Passionate… carers and givers 

Above all else, a chef has passion. There is no way they could do that job if they didn´t have a fire inside them driving them to do this. But you can´t tell a chef only by the passion because cooks are also passionate. So this is what chefs and cooks have in common. 

Both cooks and chefs have a passion to celebrate food, and create amazing dishes that are good for you, and that will delight, or even surprise you. Cooks and chefs are givers, pleasers, and we love them ? for making this world a much better place. 

… and learn some French too.