by Pierrette Komarek

Created on: November 23, 2008

Whether on T.V or in his restaurant, a Chef should always dress like a Chef! In fact such are the traditions in France, where cooking is a highly regarded profession (unlike America) that there are a lot of steps before one can even aspire to be the head man; First they'll have you washing the dishes, and then you work your way on above, with the higher the hat. the higher the rank in the kitchen.

As a matter of fact when Fernand Point of the restaurant "La Pyramide" died some years back, his funeral was attended by no less then the president of France- Jacques Chirac at the time.. They showed the closed kitchen on french TV, and Chef point's hat was standing sadly there on the top of a shiny and unlite stove. In fact the Avenue where the restaurant is located is named after him, in the town of Vienne outside Lyon. This man trained many other famous chefs like Paul Bocuse, George Perrier in Philadelphia. the Troisgros brothers-for it is very important in a resume' to have trained with a well known cook.

One of my granddaughter (Corey) is also a Chef, who has worked her way to Australia and even Vietnam..and recently she was a finalist in the hellish show aptly named "Hell's kitchen" run by a tyrant by the name of Gordon Ramsey; although an English man I understand he has more then one 3 stars restaurant. So I guess it belies the french sage Voltaire who once said "The English have only 3 sauces but 40 religions." Corey would not even think of working anywhere without her uniform, anymore then a nurse or a doctor would. After all it is part of the tradition otherwise you might as well run the kitchen in Mc Donald!

One of my brother is a Master pastry Chef in France as well, he said that in the beginning all young apprentices are allowed to eat all the pastries they want, until soon after they get so sick of it, they never touch it again.! very often as was the case in my brother's Patisserie, the young apprentice will eventually buy the business, but such was the renown of the place that the boss's name is still above the front door!

As Toyve wisely sang in "Fiddler on the roof" Traditions -traditions! what would we do without them? Soon Thanksgiving will be here and I pray everyone will eat some turkeys..with cranberries and all the trimmings. Come to think of it, this started during the Pilgrims time and it is still with us today -so some traditions never die, and I say thank God for that!

Learn more about this author, Pierrette Komarek.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.