A chef is a person who cooks and/or operates a/the kitchen

I chose to be a chef for a few reasons. The main one is because I like to cook. It would also be a good learning experience. I would learn to properly handle certain foods, and how to make many more foods.

There is more experience required for a fancier restaurant than a lower quality one like Mc Donalds. You need to know the basics like proper food handling, sanitation, and have decent knife skills. These may vary depending on the job.

To become a chef, you don't absolutely have to go to school. If you do, you probably become more successful. To be able to work for most medium class restaurants, you will need some experience at least, if you don't go to school for a culinary career.

I think a culinary career aka a chef, falls in the physical science category. It could also be in the life science category because they are dealing with beef and pork and chicken, which all comes from live animals.

There were many things I found interesting. One was the fact that not one chef entirely cooks every dish. There are stations to distribute the work among everyone. There are also different "ranks" of chefs. Here is a chart I found

EnglishFrenchIPADescription

sauté chefsaucier[sosje]Responsible for all sautéed items and their sauce. This is usually the highest stratified position of all the stations.

fish chefpoissonnier[pwasoɲe]Prepares fish dishes and often does all fish butchering as well as appropriate sauces. This station may be combined with the saucier position.

roast chefrôtisseur[ʁotisœʁ]Prepares roasted and braised meats and their appropriate sauce.

grill chefgrillardin[ɡʁijaʁdɛ̃]Prepares all grilled foods; this position may be combined with the rotisseur.

fry cheffriturier[fʁityʁje]Prepares all fried items; this position may be combined with the rotisseur position.

vegetable chefentremetier[ɑ̃tʁəmetje]Prepares hot appetizers and often prepares the soups, vegetables, pastas and starches. In a full brigade system apotager would prepare soups and a legumier would prepare vegetables.

roundsmantournant[tuʁnɑ̃]Also referred to as a swing cook, fills in as needed on stations in the kitchen.

pantry chefgarde manger[ɡaʁd mɑ̃ʒe]Responsible for preparing cold foods, including salads, cold appetizers, pâtés and other charcuterie items.

butcherboucher[buʃe]Butchers meats, poultry and sometimes fish. May also be responsible for breading meats and fish.

pastry chefpâtissier[patisje]Is qualified in making baked goods such as pastries, cakes, biscuits, macarons, chocolates, breads and desserts. Pastry Chefs can specialize in cakes in patisseries or bakeries by making wedding, cupcakes, birthday and special occasion cakes. In larger establishments, the pastry chef often supervises a separate team in their own kitchen or separate shop.

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http://www.hcareers.com/us/resourcecenter/tabid/306/articleid/639/default.aspx

http://educhoices.org/articles/Chef_Education_Requirements_for_Becoming_a_Chef.html

http://www.fau.edu/fauclub/images/chef%20garlick.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chef

Bobby Tilot reviewed this presentation.