Becoming a Chef (Paperback)

Chapter One

"A country without a past has no future." In a culinary sense, we have to reaffirm our past because we have one. And if we have any future, it is our past. We have to understand who we are and where we are. MARK MILLER

Rick Bayless's life is not atypical of the lives of America's other foremost chefs who, like Rick, alternately wear the hats of chef, restaurateur, businessperson, author, television host, activist, and/or sometimes even celebrity. Bayless runs two successful restaurants-Frontera Grill and Topolobampo-in Chicago, but he crisscrosses the United States to participate in various benefits with other chefs, and regularly travels the globe for business and pleasure. He's an active leader of the Chefs Collaborative, a not-for-profit organization of chefs concerned about the quality of food in America. Rick is also a spouse and a parent-and, even more impressive in this demanding profession, he has found a way to balance all of these professional and personal roles admirably.

Before even having a shot at reaching this level of success, however, working cooks-as I was for ten years-are known to experience "rites of passage" not unlike those one might encounter in boot camp. Our hours are long, the work is physically demanding, and the conditions are, well, hot. Our "uniforms" are anything but-while most kitchens require cooks to wear the traditional white chef's jacket, these days the pants worn could be anything from the traditional black-and-white houndstooth check to a brightly colored print of red chile peppers. Headgear ranges from a traditional toque (the classic tall white hat) to a baseball cap. Footwear might be tennis shoes or clogs, which are particularly popular among cooks who've worked in French kitchens. Kitchen work during lunch or dinner service is always intense, but the atmosphere may range from a tense calm to loud and frenzied screaming and yelling.

Those able to stand the heat are finding that the growth of the foodservice industry today is opening up greater opportunities for cooks and chefs in the profession. These opportunities carry with them an important responsibility, as the choices made by the next generation of chefs will transform the food of tomorrow. I believe aspiring chefs should recognize this influence and use it responsibly, striving to master their profession. This process starts with an understanding of its history.

Looking Backward

Why is it important to understand culinary history? It is the rich tradition of the culinary field that allows this profession to be so much more than standing at a cutting board or a hot stove all day. I have worked with fellow cooks who didn't understand my own interest in the subject. They would ask, "Who cares who James Beard or Escoffier were? Why should I care what anyone did twenty years ago, let alone two hundred years ago? I'd rather hear about what's new."

In fact, the media's emphasis on the latest culinary trends adds to the pressure chefs feel to come out with something new and different to attract attention, to define their style, or to satisfy our American desire for innovation. However, how much is ever truly new? André Soltner provides an interesting perspective of history's importance: "We've had the same food for two hundred to three hundred years-everything we do today was already done before." Could he possibly be right? Think about the wide variety of ethnic and regional cuisines we eat today, the modern demands for convenience and sophistication placed on today's cook, and our concerns about healthful food. Consider these cooking magazine articles: "Foods of the Rio Grande Valley and Northern Mexico," "Italian Cooking," "Russian Recipes," "Fifteen-Minute Meals," "Lentils: A Meat Substitute," "When Unexpected Company Comes," "World-Famous Recipes by the World's Most Noted Chefs," "Creole Cooking," "Delicious Cooking in a Small Space," "Making Gnocchi," "Homemade Timbales," "Making and Serving Curry." Could such variety and such specific needs even have been imagined more than a few years ago? Well, yes. Each article listed appeared in a United States publication between the years of 1895 and 1910!

In addition, how many people are aware that architecturally structured food, covered extensively in the food press in the 1990s as a "new" trend toward "tall" food, was prepared by chefs in the nineteenth century? As one might imagine, the chefs who pushed food in new directions were real pioneers in their day and thus, not surprisingly, fascinating human beings. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "There is properly no history; only biography." History is simply compelling stories about compelling people, and the people who played a role in culinary history particularly so.

Until recently, the chef's profession was not particularly prestigious. Only in the last twenty-five to thirty years have chefs begun to gain the respect and recognition they deserve. Much of the media coverage today stems from their participation in various high-profile charity benefits. But turn to history and you'll see that chefs have long contributed to their communities through food. One example described in the pages that follow includes a chef who fed more than a million people over three months during the Irish potato famine.

As a not-unimportant bonus, an historical perspective allows cooks to give their food greater depth. At the School for American Chefs, Madeleine Kamman would have us think about where and when a dish originated and what the local people might have used to season it in centuries past. In preparing a particular Mediterranean dish, we saw the value of that thinking when we substituted anchovy for salt, and the dish took on a deeper richness and complexity. Understanding the profession's history will make you a better cook-in more ways than one.

Today's cook has a rich and impressive lineage dating back thousands of years, and understanding one's place as a link in a chain to the past-as well as to the future-can help a cook see the profession in a more balanced perspective. The timeline that follows doesn't pretend to be comprehensive-it merely highlights some interesting people, books, and events we hoped might help stimulate the reader's appetite to learn more and feel a stronger connection to the past.

Great Moments in Culinary History

5th Century B.C.

Chefs play an important role in society from this time forward.

4th Century A.D.

Apicius reputedly writes De re conquinaria libri decem ("Cuisine in Ten Books"), considered to be the very first cookbook, in which sauces are prepared in much the same manner followed by the French up to 1955.

Middle Ages

Guilds are formed, with chefs beginning their long tradition of community.

1380

Guillaume Tirel Taillevent (1312-95) writes Le Viandier, one of the oldest cookbooks written in French, which provides a complete synthesis of all aspects of cookery in the fourteenth century. Its main contribution is considered to be its emphasis on spiced foods and sauces (predominantly saffron, ginger, pepper, and cinnamon), soups, and ragouts, which include the preparation of meat, poultry, game, and fish. (The heavy seasoning served the useful purpose of disguising the taste of stale or rotten food.) He served as the cook of Charles VII of France.

1390

Richard II of England's cooks write The Forme of Cury ("The Art of Cookery"), which emphasizes heavily seasoned dishes and recommends the liberal use of almond milk in cooking.

A fourteenth-century European guild manual described the early master chef this way: "He is a professional craftsman. He is a cook. He takes fowl from the air; fish from the waters; fruits, vegetables, and grain from the land; and animals that walk the earth, and through his skills and art transforms the raw product to edible food. He serves to sustain life in man, woman, and child. He has the sacred duty through his efforts and art to sustain and maintain the healthy bodies that God has given us to house our souls."

1475

De Honesta Voluptate ac Valetudine ("Honest Pleasure and Health"), the first printed cookbook, is published in Italy by Bartolomeo Sacchi Platina (1421-81).

1533

Italian princess Caterina de Medici marries the Duc d'Orleans (later Henri II) of France and arrives in France with her Florentine chefs in tow. They collectively give rise to Florentine influences on the classic French fare, including simplicity, elegance, more delicate spicing, and the addition of new ingredients, most notably spinach.

1651

Pierre François de la Varenne (1615-78) publishes the first cookbook to give an insight into the new cooking practices of the French: Le Cuisinier François. It is important as the first book to record the advances of French cooking through the Renaissance era, and represents the turning point when medieval cuisine ends and haute cuisine begins. Notable is the use of mushrooms and truffles, imparting more delicate flavors, and the use of butter in pastries and sauces instead of oil. La Varenne may also have written Le Pastissier François, the first exhaustive French volume on pastry making.

1671

The Prince de Condé's cook Vatel (1635-71) commits suicide by falling on his sword when the fish he ordered for a banquet honoring Louis XIV fails to arrive. (The fish is delivered fifteen minutes later.)

1765

The first restaurant (or eating establishment serving restorative broths, known then as "restaurants") opens its doors in Paris, with proprietor M. Boulanger hanging out a sign: "Boulanger sells restoratives fit for the gods."

1774

Antoine Augustin Parmentier (1737-1813), an agronomist, begins his campaign to promote the potato, at the time regarded as food fit only for cattle or the destitute. A highlight of his efforts includes serving an entire meal-from appetizer and entree to bread and dessert-made from potatoes! Hard evidence that history repeats itself: The night of our first visit to Charlie Trotter's, the dinner menu featured a "potato study" of eight courses using potatoes.

1782

The first restaurant as we know it today, with regular hours and featuring a menu listing available dishes served at private tables, is opened by Antoine Beauvilliers (1754-1817) in Paris. Its very French name? The "Grande Taverne de Londres (London!)."

1789-99

The French Revolution spurs many French chefs, previously employees of the monarchy or nobility, to flee the country, and many go on to open their own restaurants elsewhere.

1796

Amelia Simmons publishes American Cookery, the first cookbook written by an American for an American audience, giving voice to an "American mode of cooking" and providing the first printed instructions for the cooking of colonial produce such as corn, and specialties such as Indian pudding and johnnycake. One hundred and ninety-three years later, another New Englander, Jasper White, will publish a cookbook with his own recipes for the same.

1800

Count von Rumford, a scientist born Benjamin Thompson (1753-1814) in his native United States, develops the stove. Prior to this, cooking was done over open hearths.

1801

When Thomas Jefferson (1743-1836), a gourmand and wine connoisseur, becomes president of the United States, he hires the first French White House chef, Chef Julien, and stresses the utmost freshness and quality in produce and other ingredients. His garden features broccoli, endive, peas, and tomatoes (still considered poisonous by some Americans of the day), as well as fresh herbs. He is credited with introducing ice cream, pasta, and new fruits and vegetables to America.

1803-14

The first restaurant guides are published, sparked by the growing popularity of restaurants in Paris.

1820s

Chefs begin to wear the now traditional large white hats known as toques (a white version of the black hats of Greek Orthodox priests).

1825

Seventy-year-old gastronomy philosopher Jean Anthelm Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826) anonymously self-publishes Physiologie du Gout, in which he challenges, "Tell me what you eat, and I shall tell you what you are."

1833

Marie-Antoine Carême (1783-1833), the most celebrated culinarian of his time, known as the "chef of kings, king of chefs," dies. In 1856, his La Cuisine Classique is posthumously published, thanks to the help of his student Plumery. As a young cook, Carême copies architectural drawings, upon which he bases his patisserie creations, which are greatly admired and gain him favor. Through his apprenticeships with the best chefs and pastry chefs of the time-in addition to assisting other leading chefs with special events-he develops in twelve years into their superior. Carême uses his sense of what is in vogue and whimsical to prepare both dramatically presented and elegant dishes, and his work as a philosopher, saucier, pastry chef, craftsman, and author of recipes raises him to the top of his profession. He is credited as the originator of grande cuisine.

Carême believed that "of the five fine arts, the fifth is architecture, whose main branch is confectionary." He saw the ideal cook as having a "discerning and sensitive palate, perfect and exquisite taste, a strong and industrious character; he should be skillful and hardworking and unite delicacy, order, and economy."

1846

Alexis Soyer (1810-58), a French cook, publishes his first book, The Gastronomic Regenerator. While contemporary chefs like Jimmy Schmidt and Wolfgang Puck later popularize the wearing of baseball caps (instead of the traditional toque) as headgear in certain American kitchens, Soyer is known for characteristic headgear of his own: his trademark red velvet cap. Even contemporary chefs who donate their time to charitable events on a regular basis would be impressed with Soyer's contributions to the less fortunate: In 1847, Soyer starts a large soup kitchen in London, which feeds thousands of people a day, and during the potato famine the following year, he does the same in Ireland, where he feeds over a million mouths in three months. In 1855, he publishes A Shilling Cookery for the People, establishing himself as the "Frugal Gourmet" of his time. Long before the creation of American Spoon Foods by Larry Forgione and other contemporary businesses started by today's chefs to sell their prepared products to consumers for home use, Soyer markets his own bottled sauces (and so will Escoffier!).

Publicity is like the air we breathe; if we have it not, we die.

Continues...

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Excerpted from Becoming a Chef by Andrew Dornenburg Karen Page Excerpted by permission.
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