Appetizer

Becoming a Chef is not like ‘Love at first sight’ it is more like an ‘arranged marriage’

The very first instance an aspiring Chef walks into a professional kitchen, all the dreams of a perfect workplace get a very rude wake up alarm. You are here standing in a big, hot area divided into sub sections where Chefs work like an army simulation. It’s strange, confusing and shocking for many to see how that bloody operation works.

As the newest (and many at times the youngest) member of the Brigade you need to perform a lot of petty tasks like receiving, peeling, turning, slicing, and most important CLEANING. The chance of actually cooking food is very rare. And since you are new and have a lot to learn, you are obligated to work extended hours.

So why would any one still want to become a Chef?

Passion? for food/cuisine

Vision? for future endeavours

Dreams? To become a celebrated Chef, and blah! blah! blah!

Etc…

I believe, that they are all important. But at the start these take a back seat, and the budding Chefs needs determination, perseverance and willingness to learn.

It is with time that a young trainee chef gets acceptance by the kitchen. Every single day you learn something new, you do things that you had only seen other Chefs doing. And of course you TASTE and SEE the ingredients you had read about and seen in books. the first taste of a dish always stays with you and becomes a standard.

It was a sense of achievement I got when I made my first bread in the tandoor. It was not perfect, but the motivation to make it perfect comes from within and from the senior Chefs who encourage you seeing your effort.

Slowly Kitchen becomes more than just a workplace. It becomes Home. You love spending time there. The more responsibility you take for your work the more willingly others teach you the tricks of the trade. Earlier it was the Chef who used to push you and made you do extra hours and later it becomes a routine for you. Even if you leave on time on an occasion you have that feeling of guilt.

With time and study you start understanding the philosophy of cooking. How and why a certain ingredient is treated in a certain way. Why you add salt after the tomatoes, why you need to brown the onions slow and well to get that perfect curry. Slowly these theories that you had learned in college come to life as a practical session in front of you.

Different ingredients, different cooking techniques, different combinations. You start relating to food.

THAT’S WHEN THE ROMANCE STARTS…