rant: fine dining

[jim]

He owns a restaurant? I just thought he was a foody - an enthusiast or whatever. Supplier or something like that.

[Diddy]

I thought he ran the front of a resturant. I may have been off base, just reading the comments it came off to me as jealousy that the chefs are celebs now and no one sees what he does.

[jim]

Being a chef is one of the crappiest jobs on the planet. If they get to be celebrities more power to them. I know a guy that got out, still works in the food industry but he couldn't handle the chef hours once his daughter was born. You would have to really l like to cook alot to put up with that bull [expletive].

[tlombard]

My mom was the executive chef at Glen Echo Country Club here in St. Louis until a month ago today. She just couldn't put up with the long hours, time on her feet and such. She already has a fake hip thanks to a car accident when I was a baby and her ankle had to be fused together just over a year ago. Walking 14 miles in a 12 hour shift (according to her phone's activity tracker) and doing that five or six days a week, every week, was just too much.

Now she's a line cook working morning hours at another country club in the area. She was perfectly happy going straight back to the bottom.

[33anda3rd]

He owns a restaurant? I just thought he was a foody - an enthusiast or whatever. Supplier or something like that.

Of course you didn't think that because you pm-ed me to ask if I knew your buddy who works for Fortune Fish.

[jim]

I knew you were in the business somehow but and I knew you weren't a cook. Supplier, manager, or something like that. I didn't realize you actually owned your own place.

That's a stressful occupation.

[33anda3rd]

And speaking of the "incessant media turning cooks into chefs in the minds of the public."

So many dumb competition TV shows. One of our cooks, who we fired over a year ago because he could not do a simple line-cook job in our place, recently went deep on a cooking show. What do they call people on those shows? Chefs. Chef this, chef that. Good morning cheftestants. Here is your challenge, chefs. I would bet that people watching on TV actually think that the fat, bloated boozehound we fired because he couldn't prep a station for service see him go deep on a TV show and think he's a "chef." Most of them are line cooks on those shows, not chefs, and the talent is worse the further down the ladder you get from Top Chef, which does have legit talent. Not everyone with a high school degree, a body full of tattoos, and an achy body from working 70 hours/week in the kitchen is "chef." The overwhelming majority of them are not.

Jealous much?

I don't think you get what I'm saying. Maybe you do. There's a guy worked for us. 60 pounds overweight, a trainwreck of a person who we fired because he was a sweaty, hungover, mess of cocaine and booze who could not hack it as a line cook in our kitchen. He was on a reality show, did pretty well. On that show, and others, it's: "Ok, chefts, here's your next challenge." He's not a chef. He's a cook who has had like 5 jobs since we canned him a year ago and who is currently, far as I know, not employed. Those shows make the public think a cook is a chef. Some are, on Top Chef, but most of those competition shows are line cooks being elevated in the minds of the public. They're reality TV stars with cook jobs. Not chefs.

If you go to a restaurant and see over-worded food descriptions mentioning every farm and ingredient like "Grass-Fed Slagel Family Farm Loin Of Beef With Mick Klug Farms Compote of this and that and so on" you're probably under the control, food-wise, of a kid promoted far too soon to chef because the demand for chefs, driven by TV and social media and the hagiography of the chef, means we have to promote cooks to chefs too soon. That's a residual effect and it's not always a good one.

Am I jealous? No. I've gotten more than my fair share of publicity both personally and for my business in the Trib, Chicago Magazine, etc. We've piled up some pretty damn good accolades the last couple years, which I won't list because most of them narrow it down so far that I risk puling back the veil of internet anonymity here. When I go to bed at night I'm not up tossing and turning, envious of an unemployed mess who got to be on TV for 10 hours. I'm tossing and turning right now over the concept for the second spot that we're trying to get open by the end of this year and the third spot after that.

[jim]

If I owned a restaurant on the north side of Chicago and I saw any Cub players come in I would be serving a nice filet covered in a white arsenic sauce.

[Diddy]

And speaking of the "incessant media turning cooks into chefs in the minds of the public."

So many dumb competition TV shows. One of our cooks, who we fired over a year ago because he could not do a simple line-cook job in our place, recently went deep on a cooking show. What do they call people on those shows? Chefs. Chef this, chef that. Good morning cheftestants. Here is your challenge, chefs. I would bet that people watching on TV actually think that the fat, bloated boozehound we fired because he couldn't prep a station for service see him go deep on a TV show and think he's a "chef." Most of them are line cooks on those shows, not chefs, and the talent is worse the further down the ladder you get from Top Chef, which does have legit talent. Not everyone with a high school degree, a body full of tattoos, and an achy body from working 70 hours/week in the kitchen is "chef." The overwhelming majority of them are not.

Jealous much?

I don't think you get what I'm saying. Maybe you do. There's a guy worked for us. 60 pounds overweight, a trainwreck of a person who we fired because he was a sweaty, hungover, mess of cocaine and booze who could not hack it as a line cook in our kitchen. He was on a reality show, did pretty well. On that show, and others, it's: "Ok, chefts, here's your next challenge." He's not a chef. He's a cook who has had like 5 jobs since we canned him a year ago and who is currently, far as I know, not employed. Those shows make the public think a cook is a chef. Some are, on Top Chef, but most of those competition shows are line cooks being elevated in the minds of the public. They're reality TV stars with cook jobs. Not chefs.

If you go to a restaurant and see over-worded food descriptions mentioning every farm and ingredient like "Grass-Fed Slagel Family Farm Loin Of Beef With Mick Klug Farms Compote of this and that and so on" you're probably under the control, food-wise, of a kid promoted far too soon to chef because the demand for chefs, driven by TV and social media and the hagiography of the chef, means we have to promote cooks to chefs too soon. That's a residual effect and it's not always a good one.

Am I jealous? No. I've gotten more than my fair share of publicity both personally and for my business in the Trib, Chicago Magazine, etc. We've piled up some pretty damn good accolades the last couple years, which I won't list because most of them narrow it down so far that I risk puling back the veil of internet anonymity here. When I go to bed at night I'm not up tossing and turning, envious of an unemployed mess who got to be on TV for 10 hours. I'm tossing and turning right now over the concept for the second spot that we're trying to get open by the end of this year and the third spot after that.

I understood just tried to read more into it. Maybe alittle because I've got a family member who used one of those reality shows to further his brand and given him some great oppertunities

[Jocephus]

If I owned a restaurant on the north side of Chicago and I saw any Cub players come in I would be serving a nice filet covered in a white arsenic sauce.

poo poo platter