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The Newbies Arena Are you new to knife making? Here is all the help you will need.

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  #16  
Old 03-10-2011, 03:01 PM
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ckluftinger ckluftinger is offline
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Hey, I AM a chef, and let me tell you, you're not exaggerating. Many of us are among the most fickle, temperamental and insecure bunch out there - right up there with actors. We live for the "applause" of our audience and can't take criticism well. Many of my colleagues are self-centered, egomanical hot heads who make their cooks' lives miserable on a daily basis. Some of us, however, never forget where we came from, and how tough it was to work under such demanding chefs when we were young. Some of it was useful, much of it just abuse. I never felt the need to humiliate a fellow cook, a tadesman or a customer (yes, they do that, too) for any reason , and yet I always - or at least most of the time - get the results I want. You also mellow with age...
Oh, and by the way, the "hefty salary" is usually a myth. For the hours we put in, and the amount of experience we need before we can really be considered a CHEF, not just a cook, we ought to make way more than the industry standard. But that's an entirely different story altogether.
Cheers,
Chris


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  #17  
Old 03-10-2011, 03:56 PM
The Tourist The Tourist is offline
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Originally Posted by ckluftinger View Post
Some of us, however, never forget where we came from, and how tough it was to work under such demanding chefs when we were young. Chris
You sound like the kind of chef I'd like to work for. I do know some sous-chefs who came up through the ranks, and they appreciate the service folks who support them.

Hey, send me a damaged knife that used to be your favorite. I'll polish it for you. If you take care of your people, I'd like to take care of you.
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  #18  
Old 03-10-2011, 04:50 PM
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ckluftinger ckluftinger is offline
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Thanks for the offer, but you know, one thing my "master" has taught me was to respect my knives. I still have every knife I had as an apprentice 35 years ago - in as good a condition as it was then. They're not fancy or expensive, just well made.


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  #19  
Old 03-10-2011, 06:01 PM
The Tourist The Tourist is offline
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No prob. But as you probably can guess, I've seen some odd stuff in kitchens!

I once saw a sous-chef dicing vegetables with a hunting knife--at a four star.
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  #20  
Old 03-11-2011, 04:43 AM
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Crex Crex is offline
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Guess I've been lucky, all my dealings have been one on one with the user. Most of the time it includes a pretty good kitchen snack while we talk. Can't abide a "prima donna", they don't wear boots or drive 4x4's!
I tried 2 wheelers when I was much younger. Just wasn't my game. It's hard to carry all my forging equipment, especially the anvil. Gotta have four on the ground (most of the time), even when it's a horse. Hope you get good weather, we get it every third day around here.


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  #21  
Old 03-11-2011, 07:17 AM
The Tourist The Tourist is offline
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Guess I've been lucky, all my dealings have been one on one with the user.
If I had to define my clients as a whole I would also say that my dealings have been good and amicable. However, if you have ten clients in one day, and only one of them melts down like a spoiled child it wrecks your day.

There's an additional issue. When we personally feel we have been wronged on some transaction, we feel that the store or tradesman should 'make it right.' We always view ourselves as reasonable and justified.

That's the problem with this particular segment of chefs. They feel their rants are "reasonable" for their position.

Sadly, many restaurant patrons do choose a establishment because of signature dishes, or the variation of the menu (or in my case) the attention to detail and pleasant presentation of food, even at my favorite Japanese buffet. This is due to some level of management, and largely because of the chef.

(Speaking of this Japanese buffet, their presentation improved with new additions to their sushi staff.)

When this principle is mixed with an egocentric head chef it creates the condition that effects me. It's never about the edges, it's about power and control. I don't have to work there, there are many knives out there and numerous pleasant people. A control freak with a childish mentality will never be happy, and summer is coming. They are welcomed to look up "togishi" in the yellow pages.
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  #22  
Old 03-11-2011, 09:00 AM
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ckluftinger ckluftinger is offline
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The thing about being a chef is that you HAVE to come up through the ranks. This is not a career you can learn at school or get a university degree for and start at the top. Even the most hoidy-toidy chef was a lowly apprentice once, and I guess for some it's "pay-back time" when they become chefs. Bad attitude. Being a top chef is very, very stressful, for sure, but it's no excuse to be an ass. I have no use for the likes of Gordon Ramsey (although I'm sure most of his antics are "made-for-tv"), and my "pay-back" opportunity is when I get to put a wannabee top chef in his place. I'm a state certified assessor for cooks; perhaps the "top dog" in the chefs' world in this province, and I don't mince words when I run into a chef candidate who thinks he knows it all and throws his weight around in the kitchen. In fact, when I judge cooking competitions, I have failed some competitors for their bad attitude in the past. I like to say that we have come a long way in the last forty years, and although there are still some bad ones out there, its not like it used to be when a chef could go entirely unchallenged in his behaviour. I remember my old master telling me how his master almost drowned him in a pot of soup for making a mistake, and when he went and told his own father about it, his dad told him to be more careful and not make any more mistakes...


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  #23  
Old 03-11-2011, 02:58 PM
The Tourist The Tourist is offline
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his dad told him to be more careful and not make any more mistakes...
LOL, he sounds like my Dad! And it is needed in this age more than ever.

Madison, Wisconsin while being the Capital of the State is often referred to as "the biggest little town" in the world. Just to see how long it would take, I once left "the square" where our Capitol Building resides, and drove my bike until I smelled the manure of a dairy farm.

It took about ten minutes. (I went East Washington to the 39/90/94 on-ramp, and north up the slab. Yeah, I have a 'heavy foot,' but you get the idea.)

Long story even longer, we don't have access to top flight chefs. We have perhaps six places that might keep pace with Chicago, but never would in San Francisco. We only have one B&M store that sells good kitchen knives, and that is only the Shun line. I know of no other person besides myself that sells or polishes a knife like an Hattori.

We do have a culinary school here at the Madison Area Technical College (MATC). You can become a cook or sous-chef with that degree alone. I know only one trained chef from a culinary school in Japan itself, and he works at The Ginza of Tokyo. That's a place that juggles food and knives for the entertainment of patrons. I do not know a Cordon Bleu trained chef.
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