I watch the Food Network often and the one thing that I have noticed about the network is that there are two types that have shows on the network cooks and chefs.
What is the difference you might ask. That is what this blog is going to accomplish tonight. The difference between a cook and a chef.
Simply put, a cook follows recipes and feeds the hungry. A chef is an artiste who produces food creations on the fringes and convinces that only the really cool find these creations tasty and satisfying . The problem with both of these definitions is that they are based on economic and class issues.
Rich people have their food prepared by chefs who make ice cream with liquid oxygen or nitrogen and create petite meals that are more visual than they are to fulfill someone who has worked a long shift and needs something to eat . They are more for people who sit on their asses all day and are more concerned with staying pale and thin that actually eating.
A cook on the other hand prepares food for those who need to replace the calories lost from working on a construction site, driving a truck or teaching a classroom full of screaming teenagers. Cooks work at diners, drive inns and dives. Chefs work at off the beaten path places with names only we graduate educated people can pronounce. They work at the places my friends usually ( old friends ) pick where the wine bill alone comes to $200 and I do not even drink. The food is so minimal that I have to eat when I get home because I am still hungry.
Now I am no longer an over-eater in fact to date I have lost 90 lbs but when I eat, I want to be fed. Meat no potatoes, vegetables, no bread and a good salad with ice water. My meals should and are only prepared by cooks. I have no time for chefs. Rachel Ray, Guy Fieiri, Sunny Anderson and Paula Dean are Cooks. Bobby Flay, Gadia Delorentas and Mario Bataly are chefs. They are all capable of cooking substantial meals but you would pay a lot more for the ones prepared by chefs.
I travel a great deal, sometimes I travel with friends and although I love all of my friends I prefer to travel with the friends of mine who love cooks over chefs because then I know that I will eat well for cheap BLD ( breakfast lunch and dinner) . I am going to Chicago at the end of September and I have made it clear chef lovers need not come. Simple Chicago fare is on the menu not unpronounceable unfilling fodder fit for failing fiscal fools.
My Aunt Rosie now she was a cook. For years, she prepared filling meals for the starving lunch crowd in Jackson Mississippi's Washington Addition . My Aunt cooked everything from hot dogs to short ribs with the precision of the finest iron chef but any man or woman who walked out of Mother's Inn on any given week day left with change in their pocket, food in their bellies and a smile on their face.
Bon Appetite
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Cook or Chef . You Deceide
Posted by lerex at 7:34 PM
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment