The all-star roster of a professional kitchen
I received an e-mail from a reader the other day, sparked by an earlier column in which I highlighted the importance of Frenchman Auguste Escoffier in categorizing and structuring the modern professional kitchen.
The e-mail asked whether I could elaborate on the breakdown of duties and responsibilities in a working kitchen. A ‘who does what and what are they called’ exposé.
It got me thinking about all of the different jobs and personalities that are required to make up a successful brigade.
Let me first convey that the ‘hot’ kitchen, or ‘the line’ as commonly referred, requires a completely different type of cook than is needed in the pastry kitchen. I know that previously I painted all cooks as ‘pirates,’ and I stand to that in terms of camaraderie and ethos, but piracy like a kitchen requires different characteristics among the crew to be a success. Some brandish the cutlass, some plot the map.
To be a champion on the hot line one needs to be comfortable with chaos, fire and tension; possibly a little crazy. A hot line cook must be flexible.
The pastry kitchen, on the other hand, requires very detailed oriented personalities; people who crave quietly working alone on meticulous projects — perhaps days spent making gum paste flowers for a cake, or piping chocolate script endlessly. A pastry cook must be orderly and strict; definitely crazy.
To borrow a music analogy, the hot line cook resembles the dyed in the wool punk rocker, immediate in the fray, while the pastry cook smacks of a classically trained concert pianist.
So now that all of that is cleared up, it is easier to describe the positions in the kitchen. Both the hot line and the pastry kitchen have a tree of jobs, from top down. If a shop is big enough, there will be an executive chef who holds all of the strings, including the number crunching side of the business, staffing, ordering and menu design. There may be a pastry chef and a chef de cuisine who run the intimacies of a service; calling the line, etc.
Below the chefs will be sous chefs (literally translated from the French as ‘under chef’). The sous chefs are pivotal in organizing the jobs in the kitchen. They keep things running and work hard to make sure the chef looks good (remember, chef is the next rung up on their ladder). Below the sous chef is a title called chef de partie. There can be several CDPs in a kitchen and the title really means that they own a certain section of the line. In most kitchens there will be a CDP for cold food and appetizers, called garde manger, or larder. There will be a poissonier, who runs the fish and seafood section. And there will be a saucier, or meat chef, considered the top of the line in many kitchens.
The tree continues from these positions to include demi chefs de partie, who are to the CDPs what the sous are to the chef. Below the demis are the commis who work with prep jobs on all stations — where the learning begins. And, finally, apprentices who are just getting their feet wet.
Now that we are at wet feet, there is one final position in all kitchens.
The truly unsung heroes of a successful line: the porters or dishwashers who keep everything clean. After all, the most magnificent dish is nothing if it is served on a dirty plate.