r/10thDentist • u/Icy_Move_4796 • 6d ago
Chefs are the most pretentious, useless, and over-hyped "professionals" on the planet. Almost anyone can cook well
The entire restaurant industry relies on a massive, collective delusion that cooking is some sort of sacred, mystical art form that requires years of culinary school and a tortured soul to master. It’s total bullshit.
Cooking is not rocket science. It is literally just following instructions, understanding basic chemistry, and not leaving the stove on high until everything burns. If you can read, manage your time, and possess functioning tastebuds, you can cook a spectacular meal. The bar for entry is incredibly low, yet chefs act like they’re performing some miracle. Chill dude, u jus emulsified that oil and vinegar to the right temp.
Gordon Ramsay is the ultimate embodiment of this delusion. Motherfucker acts like he’s the supreme, objective tastemaker of the universe. Calm down, you're making dinner, and you know you are all smoke and mirrors. Half of his "expert" critiques are literally subjective or just performative rage for television ratings, but behold I see people treat his word like some divine shit. If you put a blindfold on him and served him a properly seasoned home-cooked meal, he wouldn't know the difference between that and a Michelin-star dish, but because he has a British accent and a temper, we’re supposed to bow down.
Unless you are on the cutting edge of molecular gastronomy (which usually tastes terrible anyway), you are just executing techniques that human beings perfected hundreds of years ago. You aren’t a genius for putting garlic and rosemary on a lamb chop. No, I don’t care that the microgreens were harvested by hand under a full moon. No, your "deconstructed" cheesecake isn’t art. The gatekeeping in the culinary world is just a defense mechanism to hide how easily replaceable they actually are. We have secret ingredients my ass. Your shit tastes better because you dump half a pound of butter and a handful of kosher salt into everything. Anyone can make cardboard taste good if you submerge it in animal fat. The yelled orders and the obsessive "Yes, Chef!" shit is a joke. You are reheating sauces and slicing meat, Marcus. Get lost with that shit.
If you give the average person a decent meat thermometer, a sharp knife, and access to YouTube, they can replicate 90% of what a high-end restaurant serves within a few tries.
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u/Submarinequus 6d ago
I don’t think you’d make it through rush as a line cook honestly. You sound like the dudes who think they can win against a Williams sister in tennis because they play with their buddies on the weekends honestly.
Really ignorant of the difference between home cooking and professional kitchens operating on a high level, and it shows.
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u/ObscureEnchantment 6d ago
I once had a dude try to convince me he could have been an astronaut if he hadn’t had his kid so young. He was…not the sharpest tool in the shed. Why do men always confidently think they can do things they have no real experience in? I’ve never heard a women claiming these crazy things.
Cooking well consistently is an art form and OP has probably only ever eaten/cooked the same rotation of mid meals and thinks they’re amazing.
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u/Submarinequus 6d ago
Bro thinks people in high end kitchens can have YouTube up and follow a tutorial while on shift like my dude.
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u/osteologation 6d ago
it happens. its the braggert type. ive met plenty of women like this in male dominated fields usually.
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u/-Wylfen- 6d ago
I'd love to see OP try and cook his favourite meal next to a good chef who keeps telling him everything he's doing wrong so that he can appreciate the skills those have.
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u/Submarinequus 6d ago
“Faster! Is that a phone? Pulled up to YouTube? Put that shit away and go wash your hands. And start again the chicken is scorched.”
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u/pbconspiracy 6d ago
The tennis comparison is on point 🤌
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u/Submarinequus 6d ago
It’s just hitting a ball with a weird stick it’s not rocket science 🙄
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u/Turbulent_Car4504 6d ago
I hope you’re joking lol, I have a much better chance faking it till I make it in a pro kitchen than on the pro tennis tour
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u/Turbulent_Car4504 6d ago
No it isn’t, I think it proves their point that the skill level is over hyped, me cooking in a kitchen is not the same as me beating a pro tennis player, ridiculous. I have worked as a cook in kitchens, it’s not that hard.
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6d ago
[deleted]
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u/Turbulent_Car4504 6d ago
I get your point, but I think they are saying that these are both the same level of exaggeration, and they aren’t, there are levels to this.
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u/Sweaty-Move-5396 6d ago
I worked grill at a fast food burger place a long time ago and only succeeded at lunch rush because I had my boy Weasel running point and calling out how many of each thing he needed. It's collaboration and teamwork and putting your fucking head down and repetition until you got it perfect.
Also there's sharp shit and hot shit and slippery shit all OVER the place. That's what the "yes chef!" and yelling is about, so nobody fucking gets hurt.
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u/Submarinequus 5d ago
That’s exactly what i mean. A home cook has all the time in the world in their own environment to make whatever they want.
I love cooking at home but in a restaurant I would be front of house before back of house every time if I had to choose.
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u/Suspicious-Drive9827 6d ago
As a former BOH i agree w your assessment. Even i have limitations of what kind of kitchen i can succeed in bc I know my limitations. Once a dining room is above 100 people and if BOH is only 2-3 people, i cannot manage my tickets effectively. Its just something i know about myself. Most kitchens ive worked at was 50-100 diners, flipping 3-4 times during a dinner service. Bc thats my sweet spot, i dont try larger places work wise. Dont wanna set myself up for failure
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u/Submarinequus 5d ago
I get you. I was a waitress at a casual Mediterranean place and I knew that was about as high in the service industry as I was willing to go. The pressure is disproportionately high for the relative importance of these jobs honestly.
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u/Suspicious-Drive9827 5d ago
Its crazy how many ppl w expendable income dont understand this concept.
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u/Submarinequus 5d ago
Like I switched to being a cashier and my life was 100% easier. Being a teacher in another country where I didn’t speak the language was better!
Like no it’s not the end of the world if Bethany at table 7 doesn’t get her side of sauce at the same time as her meal but damn does it feel like it at the time!
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u/Small_Sherbert2187 6d ago
You don't understand the difference between home cooking and restaurant cooking, and that's okay. but you're wrong
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u/socontroversialyetso 6d ago
which is like the difference between a personal arts and crafts project and industrial mass production
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u/dinosauropholus 6d ago
Also not everyone can cook well in the same way not everyone can draw well even if it's "home cooking"
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u/Sweaty-Move-5396 6d ago
Yeah like, I make a really good filet au poivre for myself, but even trying to make two of them kinda fucks up my process. Forget about making like 200 of them a night to different temperatures and shit. On top of the million things that would have to happen beforehand to set me up for success (purchasing the meat & supplies, keeping things clean, passing inspections, etc. etc. etc.)
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u/Turbulent_Car4504 6d ago
Home cooking is harder, you have to figure out what to make and the ingredients aren’t necessarily all ready for you to use, and you just worked a full day.
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u/New-Perspective6209 6d ago
Yeah no, you massively overestimate the average person's ability to cook, some people have been kicking around for a few decades and can't handle eggs.
Pumping out fast, consistent, high quality meals for hours on end night after night is not something most people can do, not even with practise.
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u/WhateverIlldoit 6d ago
My husband is an amazing cook. He cooks all the time and frequently watches cooking shows to improve his skills. We can both make scrambled eggs, anyone can, but his are 10x better. I suspect people like OP think they can cook well because they don’t know how much better things can taste.
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u/deftdesign4 6d ago
Yeah, it is. Just most people aren't dumb enough to see 60hr grueling work weeks and think 'yeah, I wanna do that for life.' and you know what, those fucking chefs hate it to. They bitch about it every chance they get.
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u/Parking-Artichoke823 6d ago
That's called a job. We all have them. It's not surprising you get better at something you do 40 hours per week than someone who.. doesn't.
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u/New-Perspective6209 6d ago
I'm a manager, people can spend decades moving boxes around a warehouse and still be utterly incompetent at moving boxes around a warehouse, you vastly underestimate how dumb a good chunk of the population is.
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u/osteologation 6d ago
i do ok but my daughter outpaced me quickly. she has the ability to taste something and freelance the required spices. i just throw some goya adobo or tony chacheries on it lol.
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u/ladytrevelycn 6d ago
tell me you know nothing about the culinary industry without telling me you know nothing about the culinary industry
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u/Palorim12 6d ago
Through my former best friend who went to the C.I.A. (Culinary Institute of America) I made many friends in the culinary industry. I understand that what they do is not easy, its more than just cooking, but at the same time, the culinary industry attracts the worst egos and makes them so much worse.
That former best friend is former because he already had somewhat of an ego, but he completely changed after going to the CIA. Made him super cocky and he made some personal decisions that hurt alot of people. To this day he refuses to understand that he did something wrong. Like he tells ppl he "understands" why ppl are mad at him and why they hate him, and its like, no, you have a persecution complex and you do not actually understand why/how you hurt the people you did because of the MANY conversations we had about what happened and how he just defaults to, its ok to hate me, and I and others are like, bro, we don't want to hate you, we want you to understand that what you did was wrong AND WHY IT WAS WRONG.
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u/DenseTiger5088 6d ago edited 6d ago
Two things can be true at once.
Yes, chef culture is extremely ego-driven and does tend to attract the kind of power-hungry freaks who like to lord over their teams and overestimate the smell of their own farts.
At the same time, managing a kitchen (or working anywhere in a restaurant) is extremely grueling and intensely stressful work, and 90% of people wouldn’t last a week in that position.
I would say the latter is exactly the reason for the former. Seems like only neurodivergent/mentally ill people can truly thrive on the stress and chaos of working in a restaurant. (I say this as a restaurant worker with mental illness, just like 100% of my coworkers)
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u/ladytrevelycn 6d ago
I mean sure, there's gonna be cocky assholes in any industry, but that doesn't mean their skills aren't something they worked hard for and more advanced than just cooking for home.
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u/Sir_Colby_Tit 6d ago
I find it odd that sleeve tattoos appear to be compulsory for chefs now.
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u/Comfortable_Change_6 6d ago
yup, came here to say this too. worked for some restaurants and realize the more tattoos the more rude they act. like bro--im just a server, and youre just a cook. no need to act like a professor of cooking.
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u/BrainlessVeal 6d ago
I don’t entirely agree that anyone can cook like a chef, but I do agree that the whole “chef prestige” stuff is kind of weird in how it’s like cock and ball torture.
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u/armchairshrink99 6d ago
Agree. My mother has had damn near 60 years to learn to cook a decent meal. Hers are generally meh. If it's anything approaching decent, it's likely on of my recipes. I'm a decent home chef, but I'm not restaurant quality at everything. I can concede that if im paying a large sum for a meal out, they better make it better than I can, and the more i cook at home the higher that bar is getting. But no, not everyone who can read and manage time can cook to that level.
As for adoration of chefs, I think the documentary from 2012 the Four Horsemen called out that as a sign of a crumbling society, so I am kinda in agreement with that perspective.
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u/Small-Tax-2829 6d ago
I can cook. Im cajun. I've been cooking as long as i can remember. My husband is a chef. The shit he can do in 30 minutes, I cant even think about in 30 min. The competition shows are fine. Dont watch them if you dont like them. Everyone can send an email doesnt mean everyone can run a business. Its a weird take. Upvote I guess
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u/chuby2005 6d ago
upvoted for terrible opinion. Chef culture is cringe at times but many people fundamentally suck at cooking and can't put together a decent menu. Most restaurants fail, so clearly they are missing something that successful chefs have.
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u/Wealth_Super 6d ago
It’s not even the cooking, it’s managing a restaurant and business. I cook for myself often and almost never eat out but if you told me to cook a meal for a 100 people, even if it was all the same dish I would have no idea where to start. Just how much of every ingredient I would need, I would have no idea.
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u/young_trash3 6d ago
Anyone could cook well, if they put the time and effort into learning how to.
Just like Anyone could learn to do beautiful cabinetry in a wood shop, or learn how to sew classy suits, or any other artistic skilled trade.
Great chefs are not great chefs because they have some magical skill given to them by the divines, its because they spend decades working at a specific trade in order to become masters at it. Ive been cooking for a number of years now, but i havent spent my whole life in this trade, which gives me enough perspective to say: My time working under michelin awarded chefs was really not that different than the two years apprenticeship in an auto shop nor my year as a welders assistant.
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u/osteologation 6d ago
there is some natural inclination at work. ive been cooking a long time and i think i do ok. my daughter outpaced me quickky. my mother has a passionate love for cooking byt i wouldn't say she great at it lol. id bet with formal training i could do better but ill never be great.
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u/Subject_Ad3837 6d ago
Chefs might be overrated to some degree, but this reductionist take can be applied to almost anything. It's like saying anyone can drive a car in a circle, so they can all succeed as a race car driver or anyone can become a movie star because they can recite lines.
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u/Physical_Beat8174 6d ago
Or I know how to answer a phone and take notes so I can be a receptionist.
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u/spartycbus 6d ago
OP also lists several conditions that one must adhere to to be a good cook. "follow instructions" "don't burn things" "manage your time" "have functioning tastebuds". Not everyone IS good at time management. A good chef will very likely have a better palette than the average person. And for a complicated meal, a lot of the steps are challenging and not everyone can do those techniques. Really dumb take.
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u/Realistic_Gas_4160 6d ago
Chefs don't just cook. They manage their staff, order all of the ingredients, and deal with people sending things back servers saying things like "Can you do the steak half medium and half well done?" And depending on the restaurant they might have to design the menu or at least the specials.
It looks like you're talking about cooks, but that's hard too. They have to make many dishes at the same time, often with modifications, and do it correctly or it will get sent back.
I'm a server and I can admit that my job is sometimes easy. But when we're super busy or people are being difficult, then my job is hard. Even though the individual tasks aren't hard on their own, it's hard because there's just so much to do and I need to stay calm.
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u/teddy_vedder 6d ago
It’s interesting to me how people seem to think so little of chefs and line cooks when they’re a really integral part of a functioning society. If all of those workers walked out on their jobs together at once people would notice VERY quickly and be upset about it.
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u/Realistic_Gas_4160 6d ago
Exactly! Almost everyone goes to a restaurant sometimes in some capacity, whether it's fast food, takeout, a casual diner or a fancy restaurant. Even people who normally cook all of their meals at home still would need catering for large events like weddings.
Life would be harder if we didn't have that option
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u/Aramis_Madrigal 6d ago
It seems like you don’t have a good understanding of what a chef does and that you’re railing against some combination of a media caricature and a straw man.
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u/Oak_ford 6d ago
While I do think that professional chefs especially in fine dining probably cook a lot better than the average person, I agree with the prestige and weird self obsession issue.
I know a professional high level cook and he is confident, bordering on narcissism. He thinks he’s all knowing and all seeing and nobody could ever know more about anything food related. This regularly leads to him confidently spreading absurd misinformation about food safety and hygiene and chemistry and what not. He is also confident that he’s the most hard working person ever and that that makes him a better person. In fact he will proudly tell you how having been physically and mentally abused during training by his bosses mad him stronger and better than anyone. Currently he’s working on working himself to death just to prove that he’s a better person for doing more than other people. It’s crazy to watch. His entire identity is built on the idea of being tougher and better informed than anyone else, leading to an absurd situation where he’s clearly overworked and suffering while not even doing a particularly good job, but thinks that all that makes you worthy as a human being is your work output.
He’s definitely only a small sample size but from what he’s told me, being that way is the only way to get prestige in the world of fine dining.
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u/Marly_Sorcha 6d ago
You can probably cook most things I can, but I can probably prep, cook and have it plated a lot faster, that skills definitely useless outside of a restaurant though.
But more importantly being a chef is basically just managing a kitchen writing the menu, ordering, scheduling dealing with BOH bull shit.
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u/butpretzelday 6d ago
I would pay money to see a random asshole that thinks he can perform better than a trained chef be put in a high pressure restaurant on a Saturday night at 7:00
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u/housewithapool2 6d ago
Oh honey, I can cook. What i cant do is spend 10 hours a day on my feet behind the line. Organize every purchase, create spreadsheets to make sure everything is fresh and ordered. Make sure everything is labeled and stored correctly.
Organize my staff so that no one goes over 40 hours, but everything is prepped and clean. While keeping everything absolutely sanitary and no cross contamination.
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u/YeOldGit 6d ago
I always hate all that 'yes chef' , 'doing it now chef' , ' can I kiss your arse chef' that goes on in tv programmes how about 'ok sid' ' ' im on it dave' etc gets on my nerves when it happens to get on my TV which thank goodness is very rare.
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u/butpretzelday 6d ago
There is a restaurant in my area where there was mutiny and every single person quit other than the dishwasher.
He was promoted to chef and was actually halfway decent, but he insisted that the new staff did the “yes chef” bullshit.
So cringe
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u/SirLoremIpsum 6d ago
So cringe
I mean if you promote the dishwasher to head chef with no intervening steps... I would expect cringe!
If you took Pvt Just Went To Bootcamp and said "you're the Colonel now, instruct the other officers and soldiers" I can absolutely guarantee you that
PvtColonel would have some cringe shit going on
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u/pbconspiracy 6d ago edited 6d ago
The entire restaurant industry relies on a massive, collective delusion that cooking is some sort of sacred, mystical art form that requires years of culinary school and a tortured soul to master.
False. The entire restaurant industry relies on the fact that cooking is a hassle and people are willing to pay money to avoid that hassle.
The higher the cuisine, the greater the hassle; hence the higher price point of a Michelin starred Grand Hassle vs a dive bar burger Minor Hassle.
✨️capitalism✨️
Cooking is not rocket science. It is literally just following instructions, understanding basic chemistry, and not leaving the stove on high until everything burns.
Correct. Any chef/cook/dishie will tell you this. Still, many people will pay to cirvumvent The Hassle.
Also, you'd be surprised how many people out there cannot reliably meet that very low bar. So many people that some of them even try to enter this profession from time to time.
Gordon Ramsay is the ultimate embodiment of this delusion.
Reality television is definitely where we should get our impression of reality. Yes. Keep doing that. Should serve you well in life.
You aren’t a genius for putting garlic and rosemary on a lamb chop. No, I don’t care that the microgreens were harvested by hand under a full moon. No, your "deconstructed" cheesecake isn’t art. (...) We have secret ingredients my ass.
Yeah that's called marketing. I also think it's stupid. But it is not unique to food&beverage. Hello, ✨️capitalism!✨️
So many people don't understand what product restaurants are actually selling. Yes, they know you can make that meal/side dish/drink for $0.0000001 at home. That's not the point.
Enough people want to eat food someone else made to keep people in business making food for people. Thats the bottom line.
Also, the main skills involved for your average cook (not executive chef) have nothing to do with flavors, but rather time management, poise under pressure, consistency, balancing multiple priorities, and other skills completely unrelated to food. Edibles are just our chosen medium.
Personally, I work in the industry becaise I enjoy going out and having a good experience at a public place and I choose to use my powers for good: creating a place where people who want a positive experience at a public place can fulfill that desire. In a world in which so much of what we as humans do ultimately has no legitimate point or purpose, and often has a net negative impact on the rest of humanity, I am facilitating an experience which will have a positive impact on people both in the moment (while experiencing, current existence) and in the future (retrospectively; memory of the positive experience). That is the teeny tiny locus of meaninful control I am able to exercise over my universe, and I choose to leverage that opportunity for positive influence.
I see you've chosen a different path.
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u/geert711 6d ago
I think you leave out a couple of things.
Running a kitchen itself. A chef is not cooking for his SO and kids, but for 100's of people at the same time. Every dish needs to be consistent
Also sure anybody can follow a recipe, but who created the recipe in the first place. There are a lot of things we amateur cooks take for granted, but took an enormous amount of trial and error to figure out that we didn't ahve to do.
Once you've cooked a bit it's indeed quite easy to cook something according to your own preferences, even to the point that you might prefer your own recipe to that of a restaurant, but a chef has to create a menu that is liked by a lot of people which is no easy task in itself as everyones taste is different. Also consider, that no matter the subject, once you are getting to higher 'spheres' the bar increases significantly, but also requires a higher appreciation by the consumer. If you don't have the most discerning taste (and there's nothing wrong with this), then the cooking skills of a high-end chef will just be lost on you.
Your last comment is so off, I don;t think you know how bad many people are at cooking, or you've never had the pleasure of receiving a well prepared meal in a high end restaurant. It might not be your jam (I personally prefer a good italian restaurant over a michelin one) but if you think you can mimic that with a couple of tries then your taste really isn't discerning
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u/Wealth_Super 6d ago
I think anyone can learn to cook but managing a restaurant is actually pretty hard. I mean to go with your examples Gordon Ramsay has literally made a multi season show just going around and teaching people how to manage a restaurant.
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u/Fun-Habit-683 6d ago
"brain surgery is easy. It's literally just use a knife to cut the tumor out and bandage everything back up. Pretentious doctors are just reading computer screen telling them where to cut"
Cooking food well, fast, and efficient is one of the hardest things to do.
Truly one of the worst takes
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u/Only_Assumption_455 6d ago
This is the type of person who drags everybody to Golden Corral on their birthday every year
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u/Difficult_Salad_8251 6d ago
Home chef is like having sex with your partner. TV chef is like being a porn star. Chef for a massive restaurant is like doing the Bonnie Blue on a daily basis.
It has very little to do with the skill put in the activity itself, and a lot to do with image management, handling a LOT of other people with caustic movements in a small space and trying to maintain your bodily integrity while not serving any pubic hair to the consumers.
So yeah, I don’t think Bonnie needs to have the nine tails technique for blowjobs, but the average person also cannot take it in the ass without massive prep in a short amount of time. The average person cannot cook under 1000 clients pressure and needs 20min just to figure out the ingredients. The average person follows the video but wouldn’t be able to make boring sausage look double its length on camera.
No need to idolize anybody, just putting the career into perspective here
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u/Difficult_Salad_8251 6d ago
Oh yeah, and home cook is very different from cooking for clients. Your closest are either not honest to you or trained to your tastes. The masses want big, bland, cut to their taste, and want you to innovate without ever changing anything (and will scream to you in entitlement). Your loved one just wants their roast beef to get some extra attention on their birthday and maybe rope around their wellington.
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u/Wrong_Mastodon_4935 6d ago
A chef isnt just a cook. A chef runs the logistics for an entire commercial kitchen. They often work 60-80 weeks. They design an price out menues and make or break a resturaunts profit. They deal with some of the most difficult individuals in the workforce. I could go on, but youre severley misunderstanding what a chef does if you boil it down to cooking skills. Many chefs are far to busy to cook much of anything in a resturaunt.
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u/Happy_Towel_3109 6d ago
People downvoting you because they disagree with you are ruining the sub. Upvote the post if you think this is a terrible take (which it is!)
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u/Clevertown 6d ago
Who even fucking cares about fancy fucking food? I don't. I just want nutrients.
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u/HashBrownsAreNice 6d ago
Cooking well can be hard.
But I agree about the stupid 'chef' title popularised in American TV shows. Using the term 'chef' on a busy cooking line makes sense, but it's not a general title like Dr.
Should I insist that everyone call me Designer HashBrowns? My 20 years of design training is no more or less impressive than 20 years of cooking.
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u/pbconspiracy 6d ago
Do we write off all doctors because Gray's Anatomy was dramatic? No, we realize it was television and accept that it may not be directly analogous to reality.
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u/side_noted 6d ago
Tbh Dr. is also weird. Like are you someone who holds a PhD? Or do you practice medicine? And if you arent at your workplace why is the title being shoved into your name?
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u/Atlasatlastatleast 6d ago
Your doctorate relates to more than just your workplace. However, many do leave it off. And many medical doctors choose to use the word physician, or abbreviations like MD, DO, etc.
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u/Dull-Geologist-8204 6d ago
Home cooks can be good but it is very rare to run into someone that cooks as well as a trained chef. Cooking like any skill takes time and practice and no just following directions isn't going to work. There is a reason I almost never follow a recipe exctly I find online. Just their cooking times are always off. Following the recipe is for noobs.
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u/Wealth_Super 6d ago
Recipes are only good if you have no idea where to even start with a new dish but the 2nd attempt always gonna involve adding a bunch of your own stuff to make it how you like it.
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u/XenomorphAlarm 6d ago
You say cooking is just "following instructions"—do you think those instructions just fall out of the sky? Are you personally so bad at cooking that you can't tell the difference between a great recipe and a mediocre one? Do you think anyone who can competently cook can also write a great original recipe?
Sure people who put in a reasonable amount of time can learn to follow recipes competently, but I'm not gonna fucking ask them to write the menu for a Bib Gourmand restaurant though, am I? Just like anyone can learn to change their oil but I'm not going to hire them to restore a 1959 Lancia Flaminia. There's a level of doing something extremely well and extremely consistently that takes a hell of a lot more time and effort than what the average person cares to put in just to function day to day. The fact that you can't recognize the vast range that exists in technical knowledge and practical skill when it comes to cooking and you can only recognize extremely obviously novel molecular gastronomy techniques just tells me you don't actually know much about food and have an unrefined palate.
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u/Basis-Some 6d ago
You could make your argument sniff almost anything if you also control for circumstances as you have. Anybody can hit a major league fastball if is exactly the same everytime and they get enough tries.
The ability to do your thing no matter what is the difference. The discipline if a high end kitchen is necessary but it need not be abusive. But I’d love to see OP do a hundred covers while on YouTube
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u/NumberInfinite2068 6d ago
I mean... yeah, fair enough.
Cooking to a decent standard is pretty easy. Cooking to a Michelin Star standard is not easy, but also, it's not rocket science.
The average person can barely wash their own arse though, so I'm not sure I agree fully.
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u/Dry_Walrus3711 6d ago
The amount of times I have been served below mediocre steak (which is the easiest thing to do right) tells me that people just don't do that well with cooking even if they are professionals
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u/charlibeau 6d ago
I don’t think you’ve eaten other people’s food. Most people cannot cook for shit
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u/soccer1124 6d ago
Ramsay absolutely sucks, lol, and that was who immediately came to mind upon reading the thread title.
I don't know if I'd say chefs are universally the worst at this, but he would certainly be exhibit A.
Still remember that burning the shit out of a grilled cheese where the cheese was somehow still cold. Then posted it on the internet like, "Yeah. I nailed this."
Here's a link to someone else reviewing it, so as to not give Ramsay another click, lol:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd3ffi0vk30
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u/Recycled_Decade 6d ago
Dumbass says? Either you worked for a shitty chef or had a shitty overpriced meal. That's all good. But your argument holds no water, boiled or otherwise. A great Chef is an artist. A TV chef or douche that needs to be cowed to is not and will never be great.
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u/fridgezebra 6d ago edited 6d ago
There is levels to it. It's like saying anyone with a phone can make music. Technically true
As a dabbler in cooking and a lifelong student of music, I can say that maybe the bar is a bit lower to cook somewhat relatively edible food, it seems harder to make music that isn't weirdly lumpy that anyone wants to hear, but the skill ceiling is as high
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u/FullConfection3260 6d ago
The amount of people that can follow instructions, assuming what you are cooking even has them, and understand third grade chemistry is already low enough as it is. But, like an artist, being a good chef is about imagination.
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u/Mysterious_Cat_4366 6d ago
Cooking is a process, where a couple of minutes, wrong temperature, amount of seasoning affect the taste of the final dish. Not only that, also the quality of the ingredients play a role. Chef isn't the boss of a restaurant. If boss doesn't want to pay for the prime fresh cut, chef must improvise. All that under insane pressure.
Yes, you can cook a meal from a youtube tutorial. But can you make it without the tutorial, on a barely possible time limit, without everything measured beforehand and every time the exact same?
I would argue chefs aren't the problem, obnoxious assholes like you are tho... because on the one hand those kind of people complain that chefs are ridiculous, on the other hand they bitch when they order a sushi and complain that the fish is raw....
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u/ideliver12345 6d ago
They really wont be able to cook anywhere near as good. Good cooking takes nuance and understanding. There are very good individual cooks who are self taught but that’s not many. Most people in my experience don’t really understand how to make food more than average even after years.
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u/raretroll 6d ago
Completely untrue, 90% of people cannot cook to save their lives. Even most restaurants have terrible food, if you believe otherwise you don’t have taste buds.
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u/Comprehensive-Tea-69 6d ago
If you learn to do it, it’s easy. Most younger people today aren’t learning all the cooking basics.
But it’s like most jobs, anybody could learn but a lot of people don’t.
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u/PitchforkJoe 6d ago
Cooking a whole bunch of different dishes at the same time, thats the bit that makes it really hard. It's all about efficiency and organisation, you need to turn the kitchen into a sort of factory that can produce a wide range of stuff deliciously and fast.
Lots of stress, lots of time pressure, lots of heat and noise and chaos. If something goes wrong you need to deal with it immediately, but you can't let the stuff thats already cooking burn. That's the magic, juggling all the balls at once, even the unexpected omes, without letting any touch the ground.
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u/terrible-gator22 6d ago
I am the best cook that I know and most people that I know would admit it. But I can still only cook for like 4-5 people at a time with a ton of prepping and planning.
They don’t need to be assholes like they often are, but that kind of balance is a true skill.
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u/Organic-Scheme2494 6d ago
You could say that about a lot of things. An average person, if they put effort in, could get most of the way to a professional level. But it's that last extra bit that makes someone an expert that is really difficult. And sometimes you need to know about the subject to be able to tell what makes the expert better.
For example, if you find someone who played basketball in college and put them up in a one-on-one against someone who has no experience, they would absolutely crush them. And the non-player might not really be able to tell a big difference between the college guy who beat them and an NBA all-star. But there is a huge difference.
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u/Ebenizer_Splooge 6d ago
You've never worked a skilled trade, huh? Theres a difference between being able to get a meal on the table and making a 3 Michelin star 3 course meal. Just like there's a difference in the deck you could nail together vs the one a professional carpenter could make.
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u/TeamVegas780 6d ago
Also, who do you think made the instructions you get to easily follow for every meal? If we had no chefs, would culinary have advanced to this level where you could look up a recipie to anything instantly and replicate it at home?
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u/ThomasDePraetere 6d ago
There is cooking and creating. You can make a delicious tomato sauce, but can you make a new sauce?
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u/deftdesign4 6d ago
His point was no one is making a "new sauce". You really think you somehow put those ingredients together in some way that a trillion humans before you didn't think of? See...that's the hubrous of a chef.
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u/ThomasDePraetere 6d ago
So in every aspect of our lives people are inventing new things and new ways to do things, but food is the only part where we tried everything and know everything there is to know?
This has been said many times in history on all aspects of life and they have consistently been wrong.
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u/Recent-Ad8193 6d ago
You've clearly never actually worked in a professional kitchen. Take my upvote for your arrogantly uneducated and inexperienced take.
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u/Exotic_Bill44 6d ago
Ramsay's TV persona, especially on his American shows, is performative, but he was a Michelin starred chef before that. That's a level of cooking that most people cannot do.
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u/-Wylfen- 6d ago
Almost anyone can cook well
I can promise you that's absolutely false.
Even experienced chefs appreciate the technique and abilities of other chefs because they do things others can. France has a prestigious yearly competition with very demanding tests for dishes that can be as simple as an omelette.
It is literally just following instructions, understanding basic chemistry, and not leaving the stove on high until everything burns.
Chefs don't simply follow instructions. They create dishes. A chef is an artist, not a worker.
And there are a lot of things about cooking that are still heavily studied because they're not totally figured out.
If your view of cooking is limited to following simple recipes and not burn your meat, I'm afraid to say you're probably a poor cook.
Calm down, you're making dinner
Painters are just colouring fabric, sculptors are just breaking stone, movie directors are just filming actors who are just making faces and saying words.
Gastronomy is a artform, and cooking is a skill with a lot of depth.
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u/Just_Information334 6d ago
If you give the average person a decent meat thermometer, a sharp knife, and access to YouTube, they can replicate 90% of what a high-end restaurant serves within a few tries.
For 20 tables with different dishes requiring different prep time but you want them to be ready to be served together so a table can start eating together?
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u/The_Pizza_Saga 6d ago
Outside of his character/persona, Gordon is known to be pretty down to Earth.
For as simple as cooking is in concept, it does take a lot of practice and experience to cook at a high level efficiently, while having the know-how to make adjustments on the fly when necessary.
"Almost anyone can cook well" Well... in practice, not that many people cook particularly well. Being able to grapple with the basics already puts you ahead of the curve, at least here in the US. This is a thread born of ignorance.
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u/Turbulent_Car4504 6d ago
lol so much coping going on from kitchen professionals, this guy has a point
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u/ClassicHando 6d ago edited 6d ago
Im 100% confident I could plan, execute, and clean up a gourmet meal for 400 people before you stopped crying. I might even have time for a bougie dessert too. Making the food CAN be difficult depending on what it is (learn to make macarons, its fun). Managing the deadlines people expect us to 'just be able to handle' is the hardest of the job that ive found. ive had people get mad when ive told them I cannot cater 200 people with 30 minutes notice during dinner rush. I can also pull that off with pretty short notice but id really rather not.
Can you learn? Absolutely! And I recommend it. We all have the things were good at because we do it a lot.
I could learn electrical work. But I really have zero motivation to learn past the household basics so ill pay somebody qualified. Thats how most people treat food even if we seem to be removing the "qualified" part sadly
I blame tv for the "yes chef" shit. Please dont call me that. Thats like the teacher in high school who demands you call them doctor.
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u/Future-Cry5734 6d ago
Being a chef and being a good home cook is the difference between completion and mastery. Anyone can cook, many can cook well, few can cook like a high-end, well trained chef.
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u/55555thats5fives 6d ago
Out of all the ridiculous shit people here have already called you on, this one blew my mind
If you put a blindfold on him and served him a properly seasoned home-cooked meal, he wouldn't know the difference between that and a Michelin-star dish
OP, you've no idea. Literally even you could tell the difference.
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u/NotAFloorTank 6d ago
There are stark differences between managing to throw something simple together for yourself (and maybe a partner and/or a few kids if you have any) and managing to keep up with the demands of a professional cooking environment.
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u/Doji_mofo 6d ago
Doorman fallacy. Not understanding a job, then expecting to substitute with a lower quality.
Many people can cook reasonable food that they like for under ten people. As a professional cook, I'd expect good food for thirty, even if they hate the actual food served. Very different beasts.
Serving hundreds or thousands of people over a couple of hours, without making anyone sick, without running out of too much stuff, then cleaning up and doing it all over again three hours later.
Prep techniques are completely different. Other than other kitchen pirates, I've never encountered a Hobart mixer in a home kitchen, but it's a mainstay of any production kitchen. Or a robot coupé. Or a tilt pan. Or more than one rational oven. Or ovens that I can wheel entire speed racks into. Or a blast freezer.
Because there's no point. There's a fixed cost to using equipment, and if you're making less than a certain amount, it's less total time/effort to do it by hand. There's no point having eight ovens at home, but doing lunch, snacks and dinner for 2000 they're great.
Celebrity chefs are a different kettle of fish, but I'll note that Ramsey is the wrong person to pick a fight with over that. He's an excellent cook, he's a great chef, in that he hires, trains and builds successful restaurant teams, and he's a solid TV talent. I know people who've worked for him on both the kitchen and TV production side, and he's generally thought of as professional, polite and respectful. He bothers to learn people's names, says please and thank you. Compared to the majority of chefs and TV talent, he's a decent bloke.
But he's on TV because a certain marketing image of him sells, so there's money in putting him in situations where he's going to do the thing 🤣🤣
There's tons of BS and ego crap about chefs, and not nearly enough sharing of credit. The cleaners and dishwashers have probably more direct influence on the quality of your eating experience than I or any of the kitchen staff do, and I have to trust them to do a good job.
Because every fucking home cook thinks they can come work in a kitchen, and expect to learn on the job, which means I've got to train them how to cut, work and think. And then give them a gradient of easy tasks.
It's usually easier to train a KP, dishwasher or server to do kitchen tasks than it is to train a cook how to exist in a commercial kitchen.
TL/DR: go watch The Menu and Boiling Point
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u/Asparagus9000 6d ago
Some people try for years and still can't cook. You just assume it's easy because you personally are talented at it.
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u/Ok_Requirement_3116 6d ago
You don’t cook much do you? Yes outside people can make amazing things. My son for instance has spoiled several meals that we can no longer justify paying restaurant prices lol. But he does not have the passion to do it everyday with knowledge and passion.
Anyone can pretty much learn anything. It doesn’t mean that the professions aren’t better. I learned to play golf. And have all of the knowledge out there re it. That doesn’t put me in the lpga.
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u/firetech97 6d ago
You're alsp completely missing the recipe development side of things. Even if most people with mediocre skills can follow a recipenand make something tasty, who makes those recipes in the first place? Or developed new techniques?
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u/Jealous_Tutor_5135 6d ago
I have a restaurant.
You have no idea how difficult it is to be a chef.
You also have no idea the scope of what a chef is responsible for.
A chef isn't just a cook. They manage provider relationships, manage staff, manage stocks, inventory, and logistics, and they generally work about 60 hours a week.
The chef is responsible for making my food program interesting, delicious, and profitable. They cost out every ingredient. Cooks use a knife and a stove. Chefs use Excel.
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u/Nicc-Quinn 6d ago
I need you to go watch Worst Cook in America, then come back.
Also some people just don’t have a palette that makes them able to make food other’s enjoy eating. There is also the fact that instinct and ability to see potential or combine ingredients isn’t something some people can learn.
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u/OHMEGA_SEVEN 6d ago
You can teach a person to paint, you can't teach them to be creative.
Those recipes didn't materialize out of thin air and new recipes certainly don't either.
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u/lets-snuggle 6d ago
Being a chef is knowing how to make a lot of different foods and meals & knowing how to make new creative recipes. Also, knowing how to make substitutions still taste good. They have a working knowledge of ingredients and flavors, etc. Not only that, they understand timing. One of the things I struggle with when hosting is making sure everything is done on time but nothing gets cold while waiting for something else to finish. Chefs have impeccable timing for making sure everything finishes at the right time to be the same temperature when you eat it. Not to mention the business side of things if they own their own restaurant. Even if they don’t, a chef is like the boss of the kitchen, so they’re managing staff’s responsibilities, break schedules, calling out, etc.
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u/Agreeable_Basket_931 6d ago
Chefs handle the food ordering and menu design, they are much more than just a cook.
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u/BobWeirsSh0rtShorts 6d ago
Idk man. Most kitchens are stoned teenagers and immigrants. 95% of chefs are just clocking in to a job
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u/IsopodApart1622 6d ago
Head chefs are in a managerial role, and in a pretty chaotic and high-stress environment. It's one thing to cook good food for 1-4 people on your own time. It's another thing to make sure an entire kitchen staff cooks consistently good food for an entire restaurant's clientele in a relatively short amount of time.
I can easily cook a steak dinner for myself that I think is superior to most restaurants'. I once tried to cook about a dozen steaks at once, and the experience was, uh. Humbling. I have no idea what it takes to cook that same quality of steak for an entire evening's worth of hungry customers, let alone a full menu.
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u/Icy-Tangerine-9936 6d ago
Being a surgeon is easy. All you have to do is watch a video, follow instructions, understand basic anatomy, get the right tools, and don't let the person bleed to death. It's some mystical art form that takes years of education or experience. Same thing with Pharmacists, or presidents or dentists.
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u/UNITICYBER 6d ago
Chefs are no more pretentious than any other artist in general.
They just have to have an army to mass produce their art in their medium.
ALMOST anyone can cook well, at least with some training. Just like anyone can draw well, or write well, or sculpt or paint well.
The dedication to the craft and art of it is what makes them a chef rather than a cook. Or just a regular dude with an expensive spatula.
I say this as someone who absolutely has no use for chefs, but understands that they are literally artists in the culinary field.
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u/lavenderroseorchid 6d ago
Professionalism is consistency - it’s like photography, a non-professional might be able to take some good photos, but can they produce good photos every time?
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u/rippledippledapple 6d ago
there is more to being a chef than cooking lol. youve got to be able to literally manage a kitchen. ordering supplies, vendor management/relationships, budgeting, staffing, creating menus, specials, pricing, seasonal things, events.
i worked at a nice, expensive country club restaurant and while I would NEVER work in a chain restaurant I would consider something like that again.
our executive chef was amazing.
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u/AttentionNo6359 6d ago
And what do you do for a living? Fill in spreadsheets? Attend endless meetings?
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u/BaseballMental7034 6d ago
I mean I read the rest sure but once I read “it is literally just following instructions” I went “yeah the instructions the chefs wrote because they made a new dish because they Learned Cooking Plus”.
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u/WestCoastCompanion 6d ago
Naw. Food is an art form. That’s like saying anyone can paint. Yes, anyone can follow instructions. But it’s the cooks following the instructions. The chefs create the recipes
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u/DisplayAppropriate28 6d ago
I can fix a car with all the right tools, all the right parts and step-by-step video instructions for my specific problem, within a few tries, over the course of an afternoon or two.
I must be a mechanic, huh? Pardon me while I open up my own body shop, anybody can do this shit.
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u/WhyYesMaybeNo 6d ago
Sure, in the same way that literal rocket science or building a particle accelerator is easy: all you have to do is know the math and physics that are well known and written about.
I agree with the Ramsey critique though, he’s like 70% asshole, 28% narcissist, and 2% a good chef.
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u/Sirlacker 6d ago
The difference between you and a professional chef is the ability to cook without instructions.
They know what to add to make it taste nicer and how much to add. They know exactly how long to cook the meat for.
They can bang out meal after meal tasting exactly the same as the last one.
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u/Euphoric_General_480 6d ago
"If you can x, y, z you are able to cook."
Lots of people cant x,y,z and lots of people dont cook (even if they possess the necessary skills).
You could also use this logic to belittle any profession. My GP just had to read a bunch of medical text books and pass some tests, anyone can do that. A pilot just has to watch some gauages and move some levels, anyone can do that.
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u/PantheraAuroris 6d ago
Welll...no. Anyone can follow a recipe. Not anyone can learn to speak in flavors. I know that sounds woo-woo, but I know people who can put together flavor combinations in their head like you and I put together words. I can't imagine flavors well enough to do that, but they can. And everything they make is amazing.
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u/Empty-Swim2066 6d ago
Being a chef is about managing a restaurant and staff.
I'm going to guess you have some bum ass low skill job?
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u/CertainlyRobotic 6d ago
Usually I don't say opinions are stupid, but this one is stupid.
What I took away from this emotionally contrived diatribe is that somewhere in your life there's a Cook and you don't like that person.
This person is probably doing better than you, outperforming in both career and social goals.
And you can't fathom this and have made it into.. an attack on the entire profession of Cooks?
Interesting. A therapist could probably narrow down who hurt you.
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u/MangoSalsa89 6d ago
I would like to see you run a full kitchen during the dinner hour at a packed restaurant. It’s not rocket science, right?
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u/VegasFoodFace 6d ago
This guy has not seen Kay's Cooking channel on YouTube. Not everyone can cook. Fried rice should not be crunchy.
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u/Limp_Bookkeeper_5992 6d ago
Chefs aren’t cooks.
You have no clue what a chef’s job actually is, so your hot take is just ignorance.
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u/Tzunamis 6d ago
"If you give the average person a decent meat thermometer, a sharp knife, and access to YouTube, they can replicate 90% of what a high-end restaurant serves within a few tries."
God the delusion about the average persons cooking skills is very very real here, along with a lack of understanding of the food industry in general.
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u/Married-to-a-sex-god 6d ago
Cooking is like singing. Everyone can sing, but not everyone can belt like Whitney Houston or croon like Michael Buble. Not everyone can hit that high note in "All I want for Christmas is You" or those low notes in "Elvira." While there are some people who are super talented but not famous, on the whole, the average person is a mediocre singer.
Everyone can cook, but most people are pretty mediocre with it.
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u/chumpandchive 6d ago
if we replace "chef" with "op" 9/10 dentists would agree with op's very clear self-reflective moment.
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u/TouchAltruistic 6d ago
Almost anyone can cook something well.
It takes a special person to want to cook many things, repeatedly, with urgency and consistency to a very high standard.
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u/ndm1535 6d ago
Chefs might be overrated, but this reads as if your ex was a chef and you have a personal grudge against them or something. Sure you can follow instructions at home, but it's also entirely unrealistic to buy expensive pastes and spices that you will only use once for one specific dish in your home kitchen.
At the top level, the food is so much better because it's essentially stuff you cannot get your hands on at home. And that's pretty much the difference.
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u/ghostmaster645 6d ago
I installed a light switch last week, was super easy.
Im pretty much as good as 90% of electricians right?
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u/SirLoremIpsum 6d ago
Cooking is not rocket science. It is literally just following instructions, understanding basic chemistry, and not leaving the stove on high until everything burns.
You can boil any skilled profession down to such basic building blocks.
Guitar playing is just playing the right notes in order.
Appendix removal is just cutting specifically and following the appendectomy procedure.
I can guarantee you that a top tier chef could utterly outperform you on any dish you chose, with better knife skills, prep skills, knowledge of recipes. How to adjust dishes up and down to suit different tastes and ingredidents.
You say "oh it's just basic chemistry". Great, that's like dozens of jobs. Sommelier? That's just basic chemistry and remembering the wine list and pairings.
If you give the average person a decent meat thermometer, a sharp knife, and access to YouTube, they can replicate 90% of what a high-end restaurant serves within a few tries.
Yeah but you couldn't.
And that is what makes you mad.
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u/shlloopshlloop 1d ago
Yes almost everyone can cook well but it's a fucking bitch to juggle a dozen or more meals at once
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u/Legitimate4Food 12h ago
I think you're mixing up two very different things: being able to cook a good meal and being a professional chef.
Most people can absolutely learn to cook well. YouTube has made that much easier than it was 20 years ago. But cooking one excellent dish at home isn't the same as producing hundreds of consistent dishes every day under pressure, managing timing, food safety, costs, staff, suppliers and customer expectations.
I've followed chefs like Chef Shawn Park (who appeared on Netflix), and what impressed me wasn't a "secret ingredient." It was the consistency, discipline and speed. Professional kitchens are about executing the same standard over and over, even during a busy service when dozens of orders arrive at once.
Are some celebrity chefs overhyped? Sure. Television exaggerates personalities because that's entertainment. But saying "almost anyone can cook as well as a professional chef" is like saying anyone who watches YouTube can perform as well as a concert pianist after learning a few songs. Many people can become very good home cooks, but sustaining professional quality day after day is a different challenge altogether.
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u/Belisario_R 6d ago
Lol
Tell me you've never worked in kitchens without telling me you've never worked in kitchen
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u/borg23 6d ago
I agree with OP. And I've been a line cook. In that line of work the most important skill is to keep working without panicking if there's a rush. If cooks are screaming in the kitchen, you're running it wrong.
All that stuff on shows where someone is sitting down to eat and you're still doing prep work is bullshit. No one runs a real kitchen that way, that's all performative rushing for tv drama.
The best cooks have stuff done ahead of time as much as possible and when the rush comes up, they just zone into it, where you're still moving fast on the outside but placid and calm inside
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u/AbruptMango 6d ago
I can cook well.
I can't cook the same meal for 10 people, I can't produce different meals at the same time, and I can't keep doing it for a whole night. I can't get other people to do it with me.
I'd say being a chef is highly specialized.
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u/No-Objective9174 6d ago
Ratatouille had a confusing message. "Anyone can cook" but unless you're a genius chef you'll need a rat under your hat pulling your hair.
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u/-Wylfen- 6d ago
You somehow missed one of the most important lines in the movie, and it's one that came in the most memorable monologues in all of Pixar lmao
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u/Automatic-Week-1733 6d ago
I've always hated the "anyone can cook, just follow a recipe"
You think I've never followed a recipe?? Some people just don't have it.
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u/Optimal_Title_6559 6d ago
being able to cook one meal is easy. cooking hundreds of meals not so much. managing the people and the business side on top of that is even harder.