Say It Clear, Say It Loud: I Am COOK, I Am Proud...

From Merriam-Webster:

chef: n.

1: a skilled cook who manages the kitchen (as of a restaurant)
2: cook

No toque or white coat. Just me and this apron. ^^

As I'm gearing up to start another monthlong blogproject on cooking basics, I'm downloading some culinary-related mindworms so I can start fresh.

There was a thread started on chowhound a few weeks ago about a blogger named Ree Drummond aka The Pioneer Woman getting her own show on the Food Network, and within the subdiscussions, one of my fellow chowhounders voiced their displeasure at the fact that Food Network is referring to Ms. Drummond as a chef. And quite a few people disagreed, because as with so many things in life, there are so many different takes on a thing.

But I agreed - heartily, repeatedly, and in a detailed fashion. Not because I have anything against The Pioneer Woman (I don't even really know what she does except from what I've read on that thread). But because I think we've diluted the term *chef* so much in our culture that it has no meaning anymore. Notwithstanding the second definition above, I think most of us can agree that we don't see the terms *cook* and *chef* quite the same way, and the term *chef* has a certain prestige and cache to it. One I believe should be earned.

And well-meaning compliments from others aside (I am only pleased and grateful when my friends call me a chef out of kindness and encouragement), it would be quite another thing for me to call myself a chef when I have not

- toiled in the figurative and literal pressure cooker that is a busy professional kitchen,

- worked on my feet for hours on end, every day, weekends and holidays included or especially,

- managed and/or babysat a motley crew of hard partying back of house staff with hangovers, frequent smoke breaks and babymama drama issues,

- managed and maximized inventory to produce hundreds of orders a night,

- and taken responsibility for every last plate of food that has left my kitchen

for years, sometimes decades, that I could in good conscience call myself *CHEF*.

Not even that I was paid and fairly well by others to cook for them in their homes during my two year stint as what I begrudgingly and reluctantly call a *personal chef* makes me comfortable to refer to myself as a chef. Not then, not now.

Today, I am a damned good, very experienced and dedicated home cook, and I am proud of that distinction. While I very much admire the likes of Thomas Keller, Eric Ripert, Alice Waters, or any number of great sushi chefs whose creations I've had the pleasure of eating, or Florent over at Marche Moderne, I am not them. And Ree Drummond is not them. Nor is Giada or Ina or Alton or Rachael... And neither is that kid who just graduated the CIA with honors.

As someone who cooks in a tiny, and quite average home kitchen, I probably know a few tricks some of those chefs don't about how to navigate a kitchen as humble as mine, and those are the notches on my apron strings I proudly display. But far be it for me to cheapen what those people have earned through years of blood, sweat, tears, cuts, burns, and other kinds of sacrifice in the kitchen that I've never known and likely never will know.

THEY are CHEFS.

I am COOK.

And that is all the distinction I need.

shinae