exploration 1

Some major things that have stood out to me so far in the culinary arts community is that their general intensity that they have. All the observations I have made so far I have seen all the chefs be very intense and mostly quiet when working. They tend to be extremely focused on their work, which drives them to get things out on time and with great accuracy. Another large observation I have made that I was quite un aware of before coming into this project, was how much of a roll the rest of the restaurant plays in the culinary community. Though the wait staff does not play a pinnacle role in the preparation of the food, they are there to support the chefs and make sure that they are representing their food as well as possible. The language that I have noticed so far from my first interview is that they are very harsh with each other. The head chef tends to have the rest of the crew whipped into shape because it is his or her kitchen that is being represented with each meal served. During the interview I found that the language consists of a lot of cursing, which tends to be rather similar to what we see on any reality TV cooking show, but in my mind it would seem that, that is a over statement of a real kitchen just to get people to watch. But I am learning the contrary, it is much more aggressive then I would have anticipated, but am starting to understand.

Some of the questions that I still find my self wondering about are why do they decide oh that profession? It is a very high stress work environment from what I have seen so what kind of personality is one that thrives in that kind of environment? Are all chefs people that thrive on high stress? Or is it just some of them? How many chefs are ones that graduated from culinary art institutes? What is the top culinary arts institute? Also what separates someone from being able to just be a grill cook, from someone that is able to become a master chef? Are their biases between culinary arts graduates and people that have just worked their way to the top? What kind of stigma is associated with culinary arts graduates and how would that affect them in a current day job market?

Another thing that I have found is really intriguing me is why choose the kind of food to cook that they do? Does that have to do with demographics or where they grew up? It seems to me that if I grew up in say a Italian family and was going to make culinary arts my profession I would go with what I knew, but I am curious if that is how many other chefs would decided on their area of expertise. Over all, my observations have been intriguing but the interviews are holding a lot more for me. Seeing a chef in action is much different then getting the answer of why did you choose to be a chef, and it is much better to answer the rest of my questions that I still have. Through my observations so far, I am seeing how the restaurant works, which is much more intricate then taking an order and then giving the food to the customer, which is how they make it seem when you just eat at a restaurant. It is keeping my interest and I am really looking forward to my next interview, solve some more of my questions that I still have.