In this post I will explain and discuss what are the different types of Chefs these include the Celebrity Chefs and the Elite Chefs. This post will also discuss whether Celebrity Chefs can become Elite Chefs and whether Elite Chefs can become Celebrity Chefs and the Kitchen Hierarchical Structure. Furthermore; this post will look at different Chefs that are well known and how they became either Elite or Celebrity or both.
What is a Chef?
A Chef is someone who cooks for a living and has passion for this. However; Chefs come in all different types from the top Michelin star Chefs to the training Chefs in college.
What is the Kitchen Hierarchical Structure?
In a kitchen there is a structure just like any organisations, at the top of the hierarchy there would be an Executive Head Chef followed by the Head Chef, below them are the Sous Chefs, who take charge of the Chef de Partie or CDP’s who would have Commis Chef at the very bottom of the hierarchy. Each member of this hierarchy has an important job to do to ensure that service is at the best that is can be and food is served at the highest standard. This is a very basic hierarchical structure every kitchen follows this basic structure however; they may have more people within each layer (The MA Jobs, 2017).
(Sheevani, n.d.)
What is a Celebrity Chef?
A Celebrity Chef can be a person who has a passion for cooking and no classic training or someone who has worked in kitchens with or without classical training and is now well known.
Who are the Celebrity Chefs of today?
There are many Celebrity Chefs who some of them have classical kitchen training and some of them have none, for example Michel Roux Jr is now seen as a Celebrity Chef but he has had Classical training from his father and his uncle, Michel Roux Sn and Albert Roux, Marco Pierre White is another Chef that is seen as a celebrity however he has also been trained by Michel Roux Sn and Albert Roux, furthermore there is Gordan Ramsey who is Marco Pierre White’s prodigy. On the other hand, there is Nigella Lawson who is a Celebrity Chef from simply having a passion for cooking, The Hairy Bikers who again have passion for cooking. However; Jamie Oliver found fame from a show that had gone into the kitchen that he was working in as a young Chef and was spotted as having a face for tv (Biography, n.d.).
What is an Elite Chef?
An Elite Chef is someone who has received classical training and appeal to the top tiers of society.
Who is an Elite Chef?
There are many Chefs that in today’s society are Elite or would have been seen as Elite these include Auguste Escoffier who if he was alive today would be seen as an Elite Chef of today’s society, he revolutionised kitchen culture. The Roux Brothers are both seen as Elite Chefs this in turn makes Michel Roux Jr, Marco Pierre White and Gordon Ramsey as they have all had some form of training from the Roux Brothers. Furthermore, Andrew Farley is also an Elite Chef there are many more Chefs that come under this category these are just a few.
Hairy Bikers
They are celebrity chefs who have been cooking together for more than 20 years, furthermore; they have written a number of books (Hairy Bikers World, 2015). The typology that I would give them is traditional femininity the reason I would give them this typology is because they enjoy cooking good food that would be given in a home cooking experience, by taking British classics and making them into modern up to date foods (Hairy Bikers World, 2015). It is often found that Celebrity Chefs have one area of interest that overrides all others, the Hairy Bikers area of interest is British home cooked food (Hairy Bikers World, 2015). It has also been seen that their target audience is most likely to be females who are either baby boomers and or generation X (YouGov, 2018).
Gordon Ramsay
As seen above would come under that category of Elite Chef as he is classically trained Chef who was trained by Marco Pierre White, Albert Roux, Guy Savoy and Joël Robuchon (Gordon Ramsay, 2018). This is further enhanced as he is a 3 Michelin Starred Chef amongst other restaurants with a number of Michelin stared (Gordon Ramsay, 2018). However; he has now made a name for himself in the Celebrity Chef world and to the general public he is best known as a T.V. chef on T.V. shows like Hell’s Kitchen, Master Chef, Kitchen Nightmares and the F Word amongst other shows (Gordon Ramsay, 2018). He has an interest in gourmet, fine dining foods (Gordon Ramsay, 2018). Gordon Ramsey has the typology that I would give him is Hegemonic Masculinity the reason being the fact that he is classically trained, and he has professional skills (Gordon Ramsay, 2018).
Nigella Lawson
Nigella is a T.V. Chef that has not had any classical training (NIGELLA, 2018).She creates recipes for different seasons such as turkey recipes for Christmas dinners (NIGELLA, 2018).She falls into the traditional femininity typology as she cooks home cooked food with different more modern ways (NIGELLA, 2018). Her area of interest is how to make home cooked food with a twist (NIGELLA, 2018). Finally; her target audience is mainly females (NIGELLA, 2018).
Can Elite Chefs become Celebrity Chefs, and can Celebrity Chefs become Elite Chefs?
As said above there are a number of Elite Chefs who have become Celebrities it possible to do it this way round however it can not be done the other way around as there are steps that have to be undertaken to achieve Elite Chef Status.
Reference list
Biography. (n.d.). Jamie Oliver Biography. Retrieved from https://www.biography.com/people/jamie-oliver-507439.
Gordon Ramsay . (2018). About Gordon. Retrieved from https://www.gordonramsay.com/gr/about-gordon/.
Hairy Bikers World . (2015). The Hairy Bikers. Retrieved from http://www.hairybikers.com/about.
NIGELLA . (2018). AN EVENING WITH NIGELLA LAWSON. Retrieved from https://www.nigella.com/.
Sheevani, T. (n.d.). Organizational Structure of the Kitchen, , . Retrieved from http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/home-science/kitchen/organizational-structure-of-the-kitchen/86366.
The MA Jobs. (2017). Kitchen Hierarchy – The Different Chef Titles Explained. Retrieved from https://jobs.morningadvertiser.co.uk/article/kitchen-hierarchy-different-chef-titles-explained/.
YouGov. (2018). The Hairy Bikers Cookbook. Retrieved from https://yougov.co.uk/topics/media/explore/tv_programme/The_Hairy_Bikers_Cookbook.
Food Culture and Society with Steph Gregory 