It has been about a month since I launched this blog project and it's companion podcast http://www.blogtalkradio.com/giantforkandspoon and I'm loving it. Today's broadcast was made extra special since we had our first live caller!
Speaking with all of these food lovers can reinvigorate my spirit and ignite a new spark because sometimes chefs can get a bit burned out and needing something to get you motivated. Educating the kids that I serve gives me much more than I give out and in many ways they have all become my kids from other mothers.
With today's guest, Chef Teoskii Washington, I am proud to see him utilize some of the advice he sought from me in the past and how well it is being put to use. I am also glad that I was careful when I did give other's advice because positive results are not guaranteed.
Our caller asked for advice about entering the industry and we suggested a couple of books to read in preparation:
The Mind of a Chef, by Breville, there is a video series as well:
http://www.amazon.com/Breville-presents-Inside-Minds-Behind-ebook/dp/B00IN36GEK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1456601844&sr=8-1&keywords=mind+of+a+chef+book
Professional Cooking by W. Gisslen
http://www.amazon.com/Professional-Cooking-College-Version-Gisslen/dp/0471663743/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1456601929&sr=1-5&keywords=professional+cooking+book
There are many more offerings that can point young aspiring chefs in the right direction. So glad we could help.
Subscribe To Giant Fork and Spoon
Posts
All Comments
Showing posts with label cooking shows. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cooking shows. Show all posts
Saturday, February 27, 2016
Thursday, February 25, 2016
Where are the Minority Chefs?
I have worked as a chef in Chicago for over 20 years and I have always worked with Hispanic, Black and Caucasian chefs, more Hispanic than Caucasian, and always mostly men. There is no shortage of Hispanics working in kitchens all over the city, cooking a wide range of food stuffs including Sushi.
Food television is not as full with minority chefs as the kitchens happen to be, there is a sprinkling of Black chefs, and not much more in way for Hispanic. Why is this? We are doing the heavy lifting and earning the skills to make things pop, fry, and sizzle, so I know having the skill isn't the problem. Yet in still, the Italian chef, the White Southern chef, the French chef, are all the standard image of what a chef is, and most of the time they are male as well.
While we may not be able to lift as much weight as the fellow, we do hold up our share of the work in a production kitchen and I would like to see more representation of our efforts. There is no shortage of food outlets that are black run and often black owned in a city like Chicago. I have served dignitaries that were surprised at the amount of minority representation at the venue, and expressed as much.
While the average black population in this country is about 13% of the overall population, we do make up a much higher number of working chefs in this city and our Hispanic compadres may actually make up a bigger percentage of the kitchen staff. It would be nice to see more of us in the media as chefs. Whenever there is a cooking show, television series, or movie about chefs, there is a whitewashing of the kitchen, unless they are in the kitchen of an Asian restaurant, then the whole staff is Asian and does not speak English.
Am I asking too much? I don't think so. And while waiting for the media to catch up to our reality, I won't be holding my breath. And I am not the only one asking the question.... http://www.pbs.org/black-culture/explore/black-chefs/
In this article, they mention not only that there is a rise in minority enrollment into culinary schools but that there is a lack of managing or executive minority chefs. So in outlets where a multitude of different people work together, few of them are in lead positions.
Are we Jim Crow kitchens? Are we continuing prejudices in our industry? Or am I expecting to much? Isn't it accurate to expect to see a shift in the kitchen management and media representation reflect the populous? We are graduating and training up fantastic chefs of all races and genders so how long, or when, will we see a superstar minority female chef? I am not saying that their isn't any to use as inspiration, Carla Hall comes to mind, but I ask who else?
Food television is not as full with minority chefs as the kitchens happen to be, there is a sprinkling of Black chefs, and not much more in way for Hispanic. Why is this? We are doing the heavy lifting and earning the skills to make things pop, fry, and sizzle, so I know having the skill isn't the problem. Yet in still, the Italian chef, the White Southern chef, the French chef, are all the standard image of what a chef is, and most of the time they are male as well.
While we may not be able to lift as much weight as the fellow, we do hold up our share of the work in a production kitchen and I would like to see more representation of our efforts. There is no shortage of food outlets that are black run and often black owned in a city like Chicago. I have served dignitaries that were surprised at the amount of minority representation at the venue, and expressed as much.
While the average black population in this country is about 13% of the overall population, we do make up a much higher number of working chefs in this city and our Hispanic compadres may actually make up a bigger percentage of the kitchen staff. It would be nice to see more of us in the media as chefs. Whenever there is a cooking show, television series, or movie about chefs, there is a whitewashing of the kitchen, unless they are in the kitchen of an Asian restaurant, then the whole staff is Asian and does not speak English.
Am I asking too much? I don't think so. And while waiting for the media to catch up to our reality, I won't be holding my breath. And I am not the only one asking the question.... http://www.pbs.org/black-culture/explore/black-chefs/
In this article, they mention not only that there is a rise in minority enrollment into culinary schools but that there is a lack of managing or executive minority chefs. So in outlets where a multitude of different people work together, few of them are in lead positions.
Are we Jim Crow kitchens? Are we continuing prejudices in our industry? Or am I expecting to much? Isn't it accurate to expect to see a shift in the kitchen management and media representation reflect the populous? We are graduating and training up fantastic chefs of all races and genders so how long, or when, will we see a superstar minority female chef? I am not saying that their isn't any to use as inspiration, Carla Hall comes to mind, but I ask who else?
Monday, February 15, 2016
TV Food
There isn't a television series or movie that does not have a food scene. Why? Because so much of our lives revolves around food.
The romantic dinner date, a secret meeting in a diner, business lunch, the breakfast in bed, a wedding banquet, or the temper tantrum that flings food on the floor all are how we communicate with food in media. My biggest pet peeve is the old trope of the action movie chase through the restaurant kitchen with equipment being used as hurdles to slow down the bad guys. Who's gonna clean this up???? But this is my second most hated media food clique, the ruined the wedding cake stunt! I am sure that these images have added to my anxiety about delivering my wedding cakes to sites. Before I finish the set-up of your wedding cake, I am a nervous wreck, these projects are treated like my newborn child coming home from the hospital. After I take the pictures of your beauty in place on the table in your decorated room, I am done and exhausted. It's your newborn to protect after that, if your unsupervised child walks face first into the cake, I am not responsible and while I will be saddened by the news of its destruction, I have to be emotionally distant, otherwise I would never allow anyone to cut and serve them.
There are quite a few movies that focus on the life of the chef and therefore food becomes the "invisible" character in the cast, the MacGuffin that propels the story forward. Using the backdrop of a commercial kitchen often springs forth in dramas about the lead characters in the "will they, won't they" scenarios. Cinematic offerings such as Soul Food, 100 Foot Journey, Ratatouille, Eat Pray Love, Tortilla Soup, and many more all have a food center at the story, yet none of them have accurately depicted the life of a chef. Burnt is an attempt at the life of a chef and it is the second time that Bradley Cooper has played a chef in a movie. I have yet to see this depiction and looking forward to talking about this later.
Twenty four hour food television stations have brought about the new term "food porn". YouTube channels are filled with glutenous offerings that are over the top, beastly, recipes of
Viewers are no more likely to cook the foods they have been presented with on the broadcast and this type of television is no longer about food education. It is much more likely that the point of the shows are entertainment rather than education. Growing up, lots of us watched public television, this included the Great Chefs like Julia Child, Jacques Pipan, Justin Wilson, were the trailblazers that taught cuisine and technique to the masses of housewives and young children who were home during the day.
While media exposure of the profession can elevate and educate the public about this life we lead, these days it isn't much to separate its offerings from soap opera themes and game show audiences. Most of the offerings are just another style of reality competion show. Competition shows are abundant in food television. The Supermarket Sweep has birthed everything from Chopped, Master Chef, and Great British Baking Show. Timed challenges of all sorts, build a bridge made of cereal treats and licorice, mystery boxes of foods to challenge the chefs, artistic wedding cake constructions using techniques such as fondant, molding chocolate, chocolate figurines, pulled sugar art, and the like.
There are quite a few movies that focus on the life of the chef and therefore food becomes the "invisible" character in the cast, the MacGuffin that propels the story forward. Using the backdrop of a commercial kitchen often springs forth in dramas about the lead characters in the "will they, won't they" scenarios. Cinematic offerings such as Soul Food, 100 Foot Journey, Ratatouille, Eat Pray Love, Tortilla Soup, and many more all have a food center at the story, yet none of them have accurately depicted the life of a chef. Burnt is an attempt at the life of a chef and it is the second time that Bradley Cooper has played a chef in a movie. I have yet to see this depiction and looking forward to talking about this later.
Twenty four hour food television stations have brought about the new term "food porn". YouTube channels are filled with glutenous offerings that are over the top, beastly, recipes of
Viewers are no more likely to cook the foods they have been presented with on the broadcast and this type of television is no longer about food education. It is much more likely that the point of the shows are entertainment rather than education. Growing up, lots of us watched public television, this included the Great Chefs like Julia Child, Jacques Pipan, Justin Wilson, were the trailblazers that taught cuisine and technique to the masses of housewives and young children who were home during the day.
While media exposure of the profession can elevate and educate the public about this life we lead, these days it isn't much to separate its offerings from soap opera themes and game show audiences. Most of the offerings are just another style of reality competion show. Competition shows are abundant in food television. The Supermarket Sweep has birthed everything from Chopped, Master Chef, and Great British Baking Show. Timed challenges of all sorts, build a bridge made of cereal treats and licorice, mystery boxes of foods to challenge the chefs, artistic wedding cake constructions using techniques such as fondant, molding chocolate, chocolate figurines, pulled sugar art, and the like.
The individual's culinary talent often takes a backseat to the selection of the right personality. Paula Deen, for example, first got her show due to her friendship with a producer of reality television programming. While he was correct that watching her was entertaining, her culinary accumin was spurrius at best. Most viewer have no idea how these sausages are made, no idea what has to go on behind the scenes in order to make a successful show of things. I was once called to test a recipe for a cooking show. Multiple outlets will be used to test a recipe for accuracy and quality. On set, a team of chefs do all the preparation and design so that the stat can come in a make magic on camera.
What a chef does is not what a celebrity chef does. When you become a brand, a bankable product, you begin down a path that takes you away from the production kitchen. You can go from broadcast, to an interview, to a book signing, to a convention, all of which are designed to capitalize upon your cache. Watching television can broaden your understanding of how things work or what type or work a chef does. However, just like watching a medical show doesn't teach you how to be a doctor, watching a cooking show doesn't make you a chef.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)