how to become a chef

My advice to budding chefs
By: Chef Cristian Feher

You want to know how to become a chef. Maybe you’re already a chef and you want to be better.

You probably found this article after asking Google that same question. Maybe you’re not even a chef, and have no interest in being one, but you’re asking that Shakespearean question - “To be”. How to be, what to be. 

Whether you know what you’re doing in life, or not, that fortunately is not a mystery - the fact that you’re being (something, someone).  So you want to be a...

I’m going to ask you to do something. I’m going to ask you to put your hands out and grab the world. Go it? Ok, now shift it slightly and look again. Same world - different view. I’m going to present a little paradigm shift. I actually had to look that word up in a dictionary today.

Paradigm: A typical example or pattern of something; a model. (what most of us agree to be true).

Joe wants to be a chef. He wants to be the greatest chef in the world. Instead of putting on a hat and throwing down a hot pan of crepes, he steps out of the door and there are no trumpets blaring. He walks into a local restaurant and no one ushers him into the kitchen. His parents frown and ask him to be “reasonable”. After all, he should be a lawyer or a doctor, or an accountant. Even the restaurants he applies to want him to start by washing dishes. He faces the daunting task of having to find the time and money to put himself through culinary arts school. If he still wants to be a chef at this point, I give him credit for his perseverance!

The point is that society is made to try to dissuade you from being what you want to be. You set out to do something in life, and you find yourself having to ask for permission to be. You have to make excuses for why you want to be. You have to explain to people what you want to be. You have to prove that you are. And you end up having to pay money to an establishment (like a university or authority) so they can finally tell people that you are something.

Before you get the wrong idea, I want to clearly state that I am not some hippie that wants to occupy a park, or tear down any establishment. I’m not against learning, or schools. I myself went through the gauntlet of schools, restaurant kitchens, apprenticeships, certifications, etc. I have brass on my jacket! But my best advise to you, is this:

It’s all in your mind. Anything you’ve ever done, you thought it up first. Before you opened the door, you thought of opening the door. Before you told someone who you were, you thought of telling them who you were. If you really want to be something, just pretend that you’re it and keep pretending that you’re it until you’re it, man. If you can pretend to be something, you’re already it. I’m not talking half-pretend. I’m not talking “try”. I’m talking about going all out. Be it. Own it. You have to believe it.

Pretend: To cause (what is not so) to seem so.

I’m not talking about being a fraud. That’s a completely different understanding of the word “pretend”. You, or someone that reads this article may find what I’m saying to be ridiculous. But that’s because they probably have never tried it, and wouldn’t have the guts to. The world is full of people that tell you things can’t be done, simply because they can’t do them. And you can’t even blame those people - they’ve been told what they can and cannot do all their lives.

Whether you’re good at something, or bad at something, or great at something, is up to your natural talent and ability to learn. You can be a good chef, or you can be a crappy chef. But my point is that if you really convinced yourself that you are a really good chef, you’re probably going to come up with some pretty tasty dishes. Anything I do in life I approach this way. I become it, and I do it. This also includes educating myself, all the time, constantly. I very rarely ask for permission to be something once I’ve decided to be it. Do not underestimate the power of your mind.

Yes, you may have to go to school and get certifications, etc. But know that you’re not doing these things to become a chef, you’re doing them to become a better chef and to establish an agreement with the society that you live in. You were a chef way back, the moment you decided to be a chef - and if someone that day had put you in charge of a kitchen, I guarantee you that you would have done good job, and you would have kept on getting better from that day forward.

How often have you looked at someone driving a fancy car, or in a big office, and said to yourself “Man, I could do that guys’ job.” Well you know what? It’s true. If you really decided so, and were given the guys’ job, you actually, probably could (with a little orientation) do it, and do it well! So remember, that it’s these strange paradigms in society you’re up against, not your natural ability and decision to be something.

You can’t practice medicine or law without a license - not because you couldn’t, but because it would put you in jail. Just know that the only thing stopping you would be a law. You could very well become a good doctor or lawyer if you decided you wanted to be one (if that was really your passion). Luckily, there is a lot more freedom in the arts. You can be an artist, an actor, a sculptor, a painter, a musician, a chef, etc - and just get better by doing. It’s just a decision.

Do not seek to work your way up to becoming something some day. Decide to be it today, totally, 100%, and then do what you have to do in order to communicate it to the society in a way that it can understand. This is the correct order of things - That’s the actual picture of the world. You’ll be much happier, better at what you do, and more successful in anything that you choose to be if you look at it this way.

You want to be something? Start doing it now in whatever capacity you can, as often as you can - don't read about it, or start asking for permission - do, do, do, and you'll soon realize that you became it the moment you started doing it. Prove me wrong. 

Becoming a better cook
By: Chef Cristian Feher
www.tampabaychef.com

A bead of sweat trickled down the side of Susan’s face as she focused painfully on her task. The severity of the situation was well understood. The air around her became still, as if electrically charged. The sound of the environment receded to a point of mute silence. Slowly, her left hand reached across and grasped her shaking wrist. The container hovered slowly across what seemed to be an expansive abyss below.   “Ok, Susan, this is it..” She muttered to herself. “Do or die. Don’t mess this up.”

The onlookers held their breath as she completed the pouring process into the heating container. It wasn’t until the last drop went in that she remembered to breathe again. 236.59 milliliters was called for, and 236.59 went in - Susan made sure of this. She thought that any more would have caused a catastrophe, and any less would be utter failure. She let out a short sigh of relief and readied herself for the next phase in this intricate process.

The next line down on the page called for a dash of soy sauce. She frowned, wiped her brow, and read it again. She paused before the horror set in. “A dash? A dash? What’s a dash?!” she screamed, “How many teaspoons make up a dash?” She dropped the book on the floor and steadied herself on the side of the counter. She looked up and fixed her family with a crazed look. “How much is a dash?” She demanded. They quickly turned and ran from the kitchen.

Susan stood there, alone and trembling. She gave in to the fact that she would not be able to finish the chili and all was lost. There was no universal measurement that equaled a “dash”. Dinner would have to be cancelled. A team of specialists would have to be called in.

Do you, or anyone you know cook like this? Are you afraid to deviate from a recipe? As a personal chef I have taught hundreds of people how to cook. And no matter what your level of cooking prowess is, you can always increase your knowledge and gain more confidence as a cook.

Here are some tips that will help you go from a Heat Application Technician (that’s what I call literal recipe followers) to a cook that can enjoy making his or her own dishes with creativity and flair.

When to follow recipes.  It’s not a bad thing to follow a recipe. A well-written recipe can result in a delicious dish. You should, however, understand why the recipe works. And you should work up the courage to use the recipe only as a suggestion and give it your own flair by changing the quantities and adding your own ingredients. That’s how you start learning to “create” dishes, instead of “reproducing” them.

A recipe in regular cooking, is not terribly important. With some experience, you can learn to fix your mistakes and adjust the differences to work in your favor. The only time I ever follow a recipe closely is when I’m baking. Baking is the branch of cooking that requires a more standard application and exact measurement of ingredients.

Recipes are also good when you want to standardize a certain food. As in a recipe that you really enjoy, a famous family recipe, or when you have a restaurant and expect your cooks to follow what you do exactly. It’s a written record to show what you’ve made, and it allows someone else to re-create exactly what you have written.

You can paint by numbers (remember those?), or you can just paint. Use recipes as a learning aid until you’re not afraid to paint your own picture.

How much is a dash? Probably the hardest part of making a dish, is getting it to taste right. You may be afraid to ruin it by adding the wrong spice or the wrong quantity. My advice to you is to add small quantities of spice, mix the dish, and taste. Repeat these three steps throughout the cooking process until you achieve a flavor you like. If you’re not tasting your dish as you go, you’re not cooking - you’re just applying heat to it.

The right amount of spice does not depend on the recipe, it depends on how much of it YOU like. You may even want to split up your dish into two pots, and experiment by adding different spices or amounts to each pot.

Don’t be afraid of salt. There are many variables that can make a dish good or bad. But a basic variable between flavorful and bland is salt. I notice that many people are afraid to use salt in their everyday cooking - whether they’re afraid to over-salt, or their doctor told them a scary story about it. If you deconstructed your favorite restaurant meal, you’d be surprised how much salt is in the dish. I look at salt as the carrier wave of flavor signals (sorry, I was reading about how radio waves work before I wrote this). Salt makes things taste good.

How much oil do I use? This is a question that is often asked. And this question is easy to answer when you understand why you need the oil in the first place. Oil is used to keep foods from sticking to a cooking surface. For this you need just enough to keep the food from sticking. 

Oil gets hotter than water and air. So when foods are coated with oil, they get hotter and therefore cook faster. 

Certain oils (like olive oil, walnut oil, truffle oil) are used for flavoring. In this case, you use them as you would a spice - to add flavor to your dish. Add a little, mix the dish, and taste.

Although there are many more things to learn about cooking, I hope these tips will help you move away from heat application technician, and closer to cook. If you are interested in learning more, you should consider giving us a call for private cooking classes. I’m always happy to help people learn the art of cooking! www.tampabaychef.com