CHEF ATTITUDE

Food preparation is a modern term in professional cookery. It denotes preparation and cooking.

It follows a flow pattern which commences with the purchasing and selection materials, their handling, processing and the ultimate presentation of dishes to customers, where “food service” takes over.

THE FOLLOWING ARE THE POINTS THAT A CHEF MUST HAVE IN HIS BEHAVIOUR AND HIS ATTITUDE

  1. Positive attitude toward the job
  2. Staying power
  3. Ability to work with people
  4. Eagerness to learn
  5. A full range of skills
  6. Experience
  7. Dedication to quality
  8. Good understanding of the basics

POSITIVE ATTITUDE

In order to be a good professional cook, you have to:

  • cooking and want to do it well.
  • Enjoyment comes from the satisfaction
  • Works together
  • There’s real excitement in the air
  • Pride in their work

STAYING POWER

  • Requires physical and mental stamina,
  • Good health, and a
  • Willingness to work hard
  • Dedication

ABILITY TO WORK WITH PEOPLE

  • Food service work is teamwork
  • You can’t afford to let ego problems,
  • Petty jealousy, departmental rivalries, or feelings about other people get in the way of doing the job well.
  • In the old days, many chefs were famous for their temper tantrums. Fortunately, self-control is more valued today.

EAGERNESS TO LEARN

  • There is more to learn about cooking
  • First to admit more to learn, and they keep working, experimenting, and studying. 
  • To be open to new ideas.
  • No matter how good your techniques are, you might learn an even better way.
  • Gain new knowledge and experience.

A FULL RANGE OF SKILLS

  • Most people who become professional cooks do so because they like to cook.
  • This is an important motivation, but it is also important to develop and maintain other skills that are necessary for the profession.
  • To be successful, a cook must understand and manage food cost and other financial matters, manage and maintain proper inventories, deal with purveyors, and understand personnel management.

EXPERIENCE

  • One of our most respected chefs said,“ You don’t really know how to cook a dish until you have done it a thousand times.”
  • There is no substitute for years of experience. Studying cooking principles in books and in schools can get your career off to a running start.
  • You may learn more about basic cooking theories from your chef instructors than you could in several years of working your way up from washing vegetables.
  • But if you want to become an accomplished cook, you need practice, practice, and more practice. A diploma does not make you a chef.

DEDICATION TO QUALITY

  • Many people think only a special category of food can be called gourmet food.
  • It’s hard to say exactly what that is. Apparently, the only thing so-called gourmet foods have in common is high price. The only distinction worth making is between well-prepared food and poorly prepared food.
  • There is good roast duckling à l’ orange and there is bad roast duckling à l’ orange. There are good hamburgers and French fries, and there are bad hamburgers and French fries.
  • Whether you work in a top restaurant, a fast-food restaurant, a college cafeteria, or a catering house, you can do your job well, or not. The choice is yours. High quality doesn’t necessarily mean high price. It costs no more to cook green beans properly than to overcook them. But in order to produce high-quality food, you must want to. It is not enough to simply know how.

GOOD UNDERSTANDING OF THE BASICS

  • Experimentation and innovation in cooking are the order of the day.
  • Brilliant chefs are breaking old boundaries and inventing dishes that would have been unthinkable years ago.
  • In order to innovate, you have to know where to begin. For the beginner, knowing the basics will help you take better advantage of your experience.
  • When you watch a practiced cook at work, you will understand better what you are seeing and will know what questions to ask. In order to play great music on the piano, you first have to learn to play scales and exercises.