Learn to Cook Like a Real Chef

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No matter who you are, an education from a culinary school can improve your quality of life. Whether you go for your degree, or just take a few classes to improve your cooking skills. Whether you love to cook, or hate everything about it. Granted, culinary school is generally geared toward students who intend to pursue a career in the field. However, most cooking schools have programs that can facilitate students' differing needs. The programs at a culinary school might range from the most advanced, such as a bachelor's or master's degree in culinary business management or the finest culinary arts, to the most basic, such as an associate's degree in the basics of the culinary arts. Most likely, your local culinary school also holds recreational classes for amateur chefs. Everyday people, just like you, who just want to learn how to cook better.

Even a few cooking classes at your local culinary school should make enough of a difference in your meals to impress your family and friends. The school's recreational classes will usually cover all basic aspects of cooking, with special classes that focus on specific cuisines or techniques. Because good nutrition is such an important part of good overall health, your local culinary school should also offer classes on basic nutrition, which will help you put together healthy meals and snacks for you and your family. Getting training from a culinary school has clear advantages for both you and your family.

How A Chef Stays Slim

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My son went to culinary school to become a chef. It sounds like a recipe for weight gain, but it hasn't been a problem for him. The daily 10 mile bike ride is what helps him stay looking and feeling good. He also seldom eats processed foods or junk food. He almost always eats freshly prepared foods, so even if he is eating a dessert he isn't eating a dessert full of preservatives or chemicals. He also drinks a lot of water. While he's working he keeps a big cup of water nearby and says it is normal for him to drink two to three quarts of water during his shift at the restaurant. He doesn't deny himself any food he wants. For those of us who are trying to lose excess weight and use excuses such as "It's too hard to lose weight because I'm around food all day either making a meal or giving a snack to my kids," that excuse sounds kind of lame when we hear about someone who cooks food all day and manages to stay healthy and fit. We use our busy lives as an excuse to not exercise and eat healthy. My son works 60-70 hours a week but he has found a way to incorporate exercise into his life and to make healthy eating a priority.

All About Prep Chefs

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The prep chef is the lowest chef on the totem pole, doing all the grunt work before the Artiste de Culinaire strolls in and makes the cooking magic happen. Every time Emeril reaches under the counter and magically pulls out a bowl of minced onions or seasoned bread crumbs, a prep chef had a hand in it. Prep chefs never get their own TV show. There's no fun in watching somebody peel, chop, mince, mix, measure, slice, dice, and blend, then store the results in a Tupperware in the fridge.

Duties

Marinating is also something a prep chef has to think about.

Veggies and fruits: May have to be washed, peeled, sliced, diced, grated, deseeded, chopped, or shredded. A salad is 100% prep work. Garnishes are often all prep work as well.

Doughs and mixes are always prepped. Blenders, juicers, and mixers are part of a prep chef's life as well. The French phrase is "mise en place" and that's just what you'll practice as a prep chef.

Prep work also involves equipment. A pastry pan might need greasing or an oven might need preheating. The home cook doesn't think about this, but even stove pans should be preheated to a specific temperature before the action starts.

Tools of the trade

There are blenders, mixers, juicers, slicing machines, graters, presses, and choppers.

For measuring there are cups, spoons, and scales. Knives of every description and category, plus peelers, whips, spatulas, graters, crushers, skimmers, strainers, brushes, ballers, scrapers, tongs, cutting boards, shears, and bowls, bowls, bowls.

The Skills

A line of prep chefs resembles a factory assembly line or a NASCAR racing track pit crew. There's teamwork, coordination, and planning. Prep chef is a high-energy job, and thinking three steps ahead of the schedule is absolutely required.

One area which a prep chef absolutely must be expert at is safe food handling. A prep chef has to be a certified Safe Food Handler and usually be trained in (HACCP) Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point as well.

High energy is always needed. With enough experience, a prep chef will always find work. Usually a prep chef is just one stop in a chef's career, and many places rotate prep work. A novice or apprentice chef working their way through school will usually find themselves doing a lot of prep work.

"The Iron Chef"

The famous TV show "Iron Chef" is instructive in the ways of the prep chef. This show is a competitive cooking event. The show's resident chefs may be picked by a challenger chef for a head-to-head competition to prepare three dishes featuring a key ingredient. This format of the show allows one to see prep work in action. The action is an astounding circus of kitchen acrobatics. The show is always instructive to prep chefs to watch. If at all possible, you should forgo the American version and catch the native Japanese version.