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| Yes | 55% | 81 votes | Total: 146 votes | |
| No | 45% | 65 votes |
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Add to FavoritesI am a Food Network fanatic. I love watching the chefs on this network work their magic with the different foods. In addition, I learn an awful lot from their shows. My cooking has improved tremendously since I began observing the little tips and techniques demonstrated on the shows.
Paula Dean is my favorite. Then there are the cute couples such as the ones on Down Home With the Neeleys. On TVOne, I find that I love the soul food cooking antics and cooking skills demonstrated by the chef of Turn Up the Heat with Garvin.
While the chefs are preparing food, I do understand and realize that this is television. The chefs of the shows are aware that millions of viewers are watching their every move. It is great to see their kitchen gadgets and cookware, but people are not interested in designer fashions of these stars. Viewers major interest and the reason for tuning in is to improve their cooking skills, learn how to prepare dishes with appeal and taste, understand the how's and when to use certain foods and pick up a few tips on how to prepare a meal.
There are millions of individuals who tune in regularly who have no idea about cooking hygiene. They watch intensely every move the chef makes. The actions each chef demonstrates is potentially molding the future method used by some when preparing food.
Not only should each chef be very aware of their attire while cooking, they must also be very aware of every move they make. For example, one of the most popular of the day time chefs has a garden in her back yard. While preparing a meal, it is nothing for her to scoot out to the garden and pick a fresh tomato from the bush, snip off a few sprigs of parsley or clip a bay leaf. She will then rush right back into the kitchen and begin to chop the tomato, parsley or bay leaf never indicating that she washes it first before chopping and placing it into her dish.
In another cooking session, I observed a chef with her pet dog in the kitchen with her while she prepared a meal. She took a quick second, introduced the pet, patted him on the back and then with that same hand, she went right back to preparing her dish.
These are things I hope the outcry from the audience has brought attention to the hygienic actions of the chefs and made network executives understand: Hygiene is imperative.
Never should a chef be caught without proper attire, petting an animal, demonstrating any unclean actions on their show.
I think it is vital that all chefs set an example for the audience while demonstrating their culinary skills. Just as we need to be more aware of what we are teaching our kids in school, we must also be aware of what we are teaching our cooks of tomorrow.
A message to the Network chefs: We love you! Our meals have grown so much more favorable and appealing since seeing the actual preparations on television. Now show us how to make sure the food prepared is prepared in a manner in which is appropriate from beginning to end.
Learn more about this author, Claire Voyant.
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No
I do not think that industry approved uniforms are necessary for television chefs. The need for industry approved uniforms in an industrial kitchen is usually for reasons of hygiene and to denote "rank" among the kitchen staff. Checks and chef whites are common place in some industrial restaurants, but is really not an across the board standard. Having worked in a kitchen and being on the catering staff, the caterer never wore a uniform even though he was a chef trained at the Culinary Institute of America, arguably one of the best schools in the United States. Whenever he was cooking and in the kitchen he, as did all of us, wear a hair net and slip safe shoes as well as gloves when handling food, but that was the extent of it.
When discussing chefs on television we must remember that some of the most loved chefs are actually not chefs at all. Paula Deen as well as Rachel Ray both admit that they have not been classically trained and they will be the first to tell you thay consider themselves cooks and not chefs. Paula Deen owns one of the most popular restaurants in the South without being a chef, and it is doubtful that she wears anything more than an apron. What should be done about non-classically trained individuals who are technically not chefs at all? Would those individuals not be required to then wear a uniform on their show?
Typically I enjoy watching cooking shows because I can relate to them. Common cooking shows have a setting that feels more like home than industrial kitchens, and the fact that the chefs and cooks wear what I would wear in my own kitchen allows me to relate to them and gives me a sense that I too can accomplish the same types of dishes. Some cooking shows are actually set in the home of the respective chef and cook, while others are set outside. I believe the show would lose appeal if a chef was cooking in a very relaxed environment but was forced to wear a stiff, stuffy uniform. As an example when I watch a show such as Iron Chef on the food network, they wear an industry type uniform and I never watch with the intent to learn something, it is a competition and I have no delusions of being able to prepare those meals. The competition aspect of the show makes it a suitable place for a uniform, but if I am trying to learn from a cooking show the "everyday" clothing makes me feel much more comfortable.
As far as hygiene is concerned I do believe it important that television chefs and cooks stress this part of the process and demonstrate proper food preparation and hygienics. As models of how to prepare quality meals they must also make sure that the meals are prepared safely, but with or without a uniform, a chef or cook can demonstrate proper food handling techniques.
A required industry approved uniform would do nothing to enhance a television program, but would certainly take something away, and perhaps some people, who would have otherwise learned something valuable from a television cooking program, would feel intimidated by the official looking figure cooking a fabulous meal and never discover that they too can cook wonderful meals.
Learn more about this author, Anthony Cosenza II.
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