“Never trust a skinny chef, or one with a tan” was the tag line of an add I once saw in a industry magazine. I thought that it was a neat little catch phrase but lately I have been thinking who should we trust more: a over weight, fish-belly white chef who has never seen the outdoors, much less a garden or a farm where animals are raised humanely? Or one that cares about their health and fitness and the health of their patrons? One who cares about what they eat and cares about the food that they prepare? A chef who visits farms, who goes to farmers markets, one who grows a garden and who spends time outside of the kitchen...
The days of the chef spending every waking hour in the kitchen are a thing of the past. Chefs need to be out there where the product is growing and talking to farmers. A chef needs to know how and where the meat, poultry, fish, and any other proteins/produce that are being served his restaurant are raised/grown. Don’t get me wrong a chef still needs to spend the hours in the kitchen, but the “modern” chef must be able to balance the time spent in and out of the kitchen...
To truly understand what is fresh and in season the chef must spend time in the fields and have a relationship with the local framers, fishermen, cattlemen etc. I know that being able to spend time with cattlemen and fishermen might be a very difficult task, but chef’s need to know as much about the product they are serving as they can. And that knowledge is not learned by spending every waking hour in the artificial lights of a kitchen...
So who would you trust?
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