Pro opinions on home cooks

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Home cooks are...

  • just like us, except less cool.

  • annoying wannabes with no knife skills.

  • stupid! Why do you need a $500 gyuto to cut your one onion?

Results are only viewable after voting.
Matt Zilliox said:
I'm not quite sure what we are discussing. I'm a home cook who does events as a "pro". Wine dinners, yoga retreats, private events.
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I literally thought you wrote that you did "yoghourt retreats" on first pass. And couldn't for the life of me imagine what a yoghourt retreat would be, and why someone would want to do one.
 
Thank you to all you posters! By far the best non knife related thread on KKF that I read since I joined many years ago!
 
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Reactions: ian
Ya'll need to catch up talking about pro chefs here...modern hipster chefs just "forage" for ingredients and then have their guests do the cooking now.

 
orangehero said:
Ya'll need to catch up talking about pro chefs here...modern hipster chefs just "forage" for ingredients and then have their guests do the cooking now.

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This level of eating out has always had a significant component of theatre as a core ingredient. Nothing wrong with that - it’s just a different way to go.
Personally, I much favour the more simple approach where people don’t tell me what I’m about to eat and how great it is while they serve it to me. I’ll be the judge of that. But some love it...
 
outofgamut said:
This level of eating out has always had a significant component of theatre as a core ingredient. Nothing wrong with that - it’s just a different way to go.
Personally, I much favour the more simple approach where people don’t tell me what I’m about to eat and how great it is while they serve it to me. I’ll be the judge of that. But some love it...
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Literally the #1 restaurant in the world.
 
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orangehero said:
Literally the #1 restaurant in the world.
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Yeah.

Redzepi was here in Australia with a pop up version of Noma a few years back and scoured the shore for things to serve to his guests. Why René Redzepi Chose Australia for Noma

This level of cooking isa strong crossover to the area of arts in my mind. As I said, that’s perfectly fine. I’m just perfectly happy without the drama and more down to earth environments.
 
outofgamut said:
Yeah.

Redzepi was here in Australia with a pop up version of Noma a few years back and scoured the shore for things to serve to his guests. Why René Redzepi Chose Australia for Noma

This level of cooking isa strong crossover to the area of arts in my mind. As I said, that’s perfectly fine. I’m just perfectly happy without the drama and more down to earth environments.
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I agree I'm skeptical when someone is trying to sell me a story about how the seaweed from the beach is worth $300. If you can be convinced that kind of meal brings you joy, and if world renowned joy no less, then it's worth it.
 
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I really do respect home cooks that take it to a high level, because most foods I'd never make if I wasn't getting paid and I'm not curious enough to make dishes I have no frame of reference for just to try. Everything in my repertoire was learned on the job. The industry was fantastic pre-COVID and merc work was a great way to get paid while getting educated.

When left to my own devices I'll just refine what I already know. Basically, if I was a home cook my Stove Top stuffing would be unmatched.
 
I don’t judge someone who isn’t a pro the same way as someone who is. Beyond that I’m sure there are plenty of enthusiast cooks with professional level skill - just like in a lot of fields probably, photography, whatever. My girlfriend is an interesting example in that her food is certainly typical family cook style (very good though) but the way she moves in the kitchen is like we do. I don’t know where she learned that but she’s one of the few people I can cook with in a small kitchen.
 
I think it's worth pointing out that I have worked with many people that fall into the 'Annoying Wannabe' classification, and have eaten many home cook's food that made me blush a little because I didn't know if I could measure up.

I have hired more than one cook that had an eager stage, showed up with expensive knives, and knew a bit about cooking, and then subsequently fired them because they were untrustworthy, unable to take direction, lazy/slow/a hack. It is a common misconception that every line cook is an aspirational Michelin chef with a Spanish soccer player's haircut. Likewise there are lots of crusty dirtbags that can blow you away with their food, but they are only aspiring to be a gun for hire.

I myself got my start working FOH when I was 19 and weaseled my way into the kitchen when I was 20 because I was an avid home cook (also a wannabe). If you apply yourself you will learn to make good food, work hard, clean up after yourself, be an chef (at home or in a restaurant).
 
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I am merely a home cook, but cook often, and we are four adults in my household. I'm always trying new things, improvising, trying to please everyone's palates and stomachs. Often I succeed. But I imagine I would fail in almost any role in a professional kitchen, from lack of experience, lack of efficiency, and, if nothing else, then I'd surely die of heat stroke.

I have great admiration for the talented people in grueling, hot, stressful restaurant kitchens, and I often wonder what exactly they each do back there. How do things flow and how is it organized? How can a kitchen kick out dozens of dishes simultaneously that emerge plated so beautifully? For me as a restaurant diner it's rather a mystery, and I imagine for the cooks it must be disappointing to know how little the customers know of what goes into getting a fine meal out to their table in a timely fashion.

Also, I hate to think of the impact the Covid pandemic is having on so many restaurants and workers. I haven't eaten out in a year. Someday I'll be eating in restaurants again, and hope the myriad talented cooks will have survived in good health and good spirits, and will be back at it.
 
ian said:
My deep seated inferiority complex asked me to post the poll above
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It is easy. The bean counters and people who pull the purse strings know exactly how to measure this. It is the C-index - the number of meals you have cooked, 'C', such that the meal fed at least C people. Just compare your C-index to other people and you will know your intrinsic value as a chef/cook, nay, a human. It is the cook-or-crook paradigm... cook more meals than last year or you're eighty-sixed.

[Edit: I realise I am narrowcasting here...🤨]
 
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YumYumSauce said:
What grinds my gears more are those "foodie yelp reviewer influcencer" types who post pics for the "gram" and think they know more about food cause they can afford nice places but can probably barely boil a potato
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1000%

Nothing more boring than people who serially brag about food somebody else prepared. People width mad toaster skills impress me more than 'Foodies'.
 
JaVa said:
A good chef makes good food from great ingredients.
A great chef makes great food from any ingredients.
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Looks cool on paper, but definitely comes with severe limitations in practice. Some ingredient lists just don't make great food no matter what you do with them, and a lot of great chefs derive a large part of their greatness from having a wide variety to choose from - and making smart choices from it of course. As well as smart non-food business decisions.

Making the best of bad ingredients is useful, but not a be-all/end-all.

My proposal: a great chef is one who you never have to cut any slack for having a bad day, because as far as anybody can tell, they never have one.
 
DavidPF said:
Looks cool on paper, but definitely comes with severe limitations in practice. Some ingredient lists just don't make great food no matter what you do with them, and a lot of great chefs derive a large part of their greatness from having a wide variety to choose from - and making smart choices from it of course. As well as smart non-food business decisions.

Making the best of bad ingredients is useful, but not a be-all/end-all.

My proposal: a great chef is one who you never have to cut any slack for having a bad day, because as far as anybody can tell, they never have one.
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There was an interview with Jacques Pepin where he talked about how his mother would go to the market at closing to pick up the unwanted produce at discount for the family and for the restaurant and how she was a master of making the most of it. I wish I could find it.
 
orangehero said:
There was an interview with Jacques Pepin where he talked about how his mother would go to the market at closing to pick up the unwanted produce at discount for the family and for the restaurant and how she was a master of making the most of it. I wish I could find it.
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Maybe the Jaques and Anthony Bourdain interview? I know I've seen him talk about it as well.
 
orangehero said:
There was an interview with Jacques Pepin where he talked about how his mother would go to the market at closing to pick up the unwanted produce at discount for the family and for the restaurant and how she was a master of making the most of it. I wish I could find it.
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I don't deny it's an excellent skill, but it's far far more important for a home cook than it is for a great chef. The TV stunt of cooking with a dramatically small ingredient list is just that, a stunt.

When transportation and cold storage was much more limited, and local & in-season was the only possibility that existed rather than a choice to make, it was much more important.
 
in the same interview Anthony is taken aback by Jacques stating that he (JP) believed that ingredients superceded technique. In fact, Anthony derails the whole interview to argue it.

also orangehero taking pot shots at Redzepi is so in-character Im starting to wonder if it's an act
 
tcmx3 said:
orangehero taking pot shots at Redzepi
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I hadn't paid attention to that exchange.

@orangehero You're literally arguing against your own point. Redzepi was making use of what he could get and creating something from it, and by your own definition that makes him great. So please make up your mind.
 
tcmx3 said:
in the same interview Anthony is taken aback by Jacques stating that he (JP) believed that ingredients superceded technique. In fact, Anthony derails the whole interview to argue it.
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Honestly I think they are both are right. There are plenty of restaurants that are at the "top" of the restaurant world that really buy the best, most expensive ingredients, and don't adulterate them and plop them on a plate. It's quite easy on the execution, just insanely expensive. Similarly, there are equally prestigious restaurants that straight up use mountains mirepoix, bones, and very few lux ingredients to create cuisine of the same level. Each come with their set of difficulties, but from a cooks perspective restaurants that lean on more expensive or rare ingredients feel like cheating. But hey, from a dinning and critic perspective, they are seen as equal.
 
ragz said:
Honestly I think they are both are right. There are plenty of restaurants that are at the "top" of the restaurant world that really buy the best, most expensive ingredients, and don't adulterate them and plop them on a plate. It's quite easy on the execution, just insanely expensive. Similarly, there are equally prestigious restaurants that straight up use mountains mirepoix, bones, and very few lux ingredients to create cuisine of the same level. Each come with their set of difficulties, but from a cooks perspective restaurants that lean on more expensive or rare ingredients feel like cheating. But hey, from a dinning and critic perspective, they are seen as equal.
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sure. I didnt mean my post as an endorsement of either side. frankly I think like a lot of things "it depends" on the context. just pointing out that the way it was brought up was inconsistent with what Jacques himself was actually saying.
 
TSF415 said:
Some are good, some suck.... same as pro cooks.
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Definitely ... though the skills are sometimes different. As a cook I'm disorganized and slow, so much that in a pro situation I wouldn't last an hour, let alone a shift or a week.
 
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