[jess]

"a chef must have enthusiasm and a capacity for hard work, rather than food preparation and presentation skills of a high standard"

do you disagree or agree on the above statement

[Matthew357]

Spamorama tonight. Go here:

http://cheftalkcafe.com/forums/showt...&threadid=6683

Matt

[robertlorimer]

i disagree with you on that, one of my chefs have very high standards but not the capability of the hard working hours, however i have another chef with all the enthusiasm and capabilities for the long hours and hard work that god sends but they dont have the high standards of the other chef. This is why i use them for their individual strengths, one of them does all the hard work and prep and the other plates up the food and cooks it to my standard, between them they make for a good team.

[foodpump]

Thats kind of a black-or-white question. How do you judge a Chef? You can have a classical trained Chef running a school cafeteria, I know of several. The food is creative and fresh, but definately not elaborately garnished, the place is clean and well run, staff friendly and knowledeable, yet no one--including the Chef--works more than 8 hrs per day, the place makes good money, food cost is below 20% , labour below 25%. Yet the average guest cheque is below $8.00, and the guests are happy campers. Is this Chef succesfull? Yes. True, he's not putting out 5 star food, but he's doing everything right. Put the same Chef in a 5 star kitchen and he'd probably get plates thrown back at him. Everbody's different and will find their niche, and when they do, they succeed.