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.