The Branded Chef and The Fifteen Minutes of Fame Game

Well well, here comes ‘Captain Karl – Our Famous Chef’. And what is he running around with so desperately that his very behind is burning? Oh! Pork Shanks with Sauerkraut! For which we are urged to act like a football team – huddle and signal! Rush through center! in order to get a plate. And […]

The Professional Kitchen: It’s Really Not About Your Pretty Face

It’s always fascinating to see how many people hunger for the experience of ‘having their own restaurant’. Their imaginations are filled with pretty visions of merrily cooking up a storm in a little place to call their own, where the things they cook will be delivered to the tables of admiring diners who naturally, will […]

Children in Chef’s Clothing 1915-2010

It sometimes feels as if this generation (at least here in the United States) invented the idea of food, in many ways. Or perhaps ‘re-invented’ might be the better word. There is a sense of unearthing the primal purity of all that is good and fine, of discarding the cheap and common-place, of a moral […]