[NickMA]

Hi guys,
So I feel like this should be pretty easy for myself to answer, but I'm finding that I really need to hear from the rest of you:

I've been apprenticing for a short time in a reasonably upscale place and the experience has been mixed. Most of the people have been welcoming and understanding, which is great. The quality of ingredients seem above average as well. Above all, I'm finding that my time in this kitchen is also teaching me about myself and what type of food I'd really like to prepare.

So here goes: Can you still be a well respected, top-notch cook/chef without doing fine dining? I am in no way criticizing those that thrive and greatly enjoy fine-dining, but the ring mold two-bite salads and the two scallop appetizers on huge plates just don't do it for me. I've eaten in similar places where I've had to run to the drive through shortly after for being hungry.

Anyway, I want to prepare great food, decent portions while serving a smaller, more intimately sized crowd.

Would this fit the definition of a bistro or maybe just a small family-run restaurant? I'm just not into the fine-dining, nouvelle cuisine-ish stuff.

Thanks in advance for the insight and advice!

[boar_d_laze]

It sounds like you have a pretty clear vision in terms of what you want. Your question about respect reveals an insecurity and ambition both of which are very human.

Good news: The style of cooking you seem to be talking about is called "New American Bistro." It's basically a very eclectic mix of regional and ethnic styles combined with the "boy food" movement. There aren't a lot of rules other than "best ingredients, simply prepared." It's very hot right now and likely to stay that way for the next couple of decades.

The style you're cooking now is probably "International." It's a descendant of "Nouvelle," and "California Cuisine" with probably a little bit of "Asian-Fusion," "Spa," and some outdated "Continental," for good measure. If you want to be at the top of the craft, you don't have to cook that way, but you do have to understand what it's about. Not only in terms of the paradoxically refined simplicity, but of presentation in well. They're reactions to the excesses of the dominant fine-dining styles which preceded them.

The driving idea in cuisine since the beginning of the 20th century has been to let the ingredients speak for themselves as much as possible. Some of our ideas about how to do that have changes since then of course. But we're always fighting the tendency to over-complicate and overload -- which we do to distinguish ourselves from homecooks and sometimes maybe just to impress ourselves. There's a lot of tension between those two things.

I'm kind of surprised to see that you're not aware of the dominant trend in good restaurants in America -- since it's what so many of the "celebrity" chef's do. I'd suggest taking a look at the work which Tom Colicchio, Charlie Trotter, Bobby Flay and Emeril Lagassie (to name a few) do to see if you find anything exciting in it. They have recipes all over the web.

The trend is balanced against a more Roger Verge/Chez Panisse influenced style exemplified by Gordon Ramsay, Thomas Keller, Guy Martin and a lot of other people. Your restaurant sounds like it has pretensions along these lines. My point is, it isn't better it's just different -- but you've got to not only be able to execute it at some level because it's the same techniques (you're doing that now), but you've got to be able to understand it -- what makes it good, and not just what you don't like about it.

Hope this helps,
BDL

As you go thru life you learn more each year that it's less what OTHERS think, and more about YOU. Making peace with certain things and getting on a clearer path to fulfillment becomes the objective.

In my career I've done it all... crappy dives, small town taverns, fancy country clubs, cruise ships and 5-Dimond Resorts... from chili dogs, all-u-can-eat smelt, and whole fried catfish w/ crispy-tail still attached... to caviar, truffles, foie gras and the whole 'pheasant-under-glass' scene.

There is prestige in a few things- but JOY in many. Truth is, you must find your own peace. After years in uppity high-end places w/ write-ups in national publications, feeding celebs and the elite, I side-stepped out of persnickety fine dining and changed to cooking at/managing remote site Alaskan work camps for the oil industry slingin' hash and cookin' for crowds of meat'n taters good ol' boys.

There were times when I missed about $300.00 spiffy uniforms and the noteriety... but the truth is at my oil camp gig I never enjoyed so much off-time and never made larger pay-checks. So, the moral of the story is: Follow your heart. You know- or you SHOULD know what makes you happy. Figger it out and be honest with yourself.

But the biggest key to it all? Once you make your decision- LIVE WITH IT. Don't look back, have regrets, or mope like a wuss. Step-up, take the leap and be brave enuf to do what you know will fulfill you. Or don't. But either way, make your peace with it.

That's my two-cents!

[NickMA]

Great posts guys. They definitely help me with my thought organization. I guess it really does boil down to what makes your heart sing. We're lucky to have so many different avenues to explore within this industry.

[greyeaglem]

I think if you prepare any food, no matter how simple, with your heart in it, that to me is what defines a chef. You can make all the fancy foams, sauces and combos of rare ingedients you want and you won't necessarily impress me (although you might), but the person who makes a grilled cheese or hamburger wth the same attention to detail that they would give a fois gras with shaved truffles, now THERE'S a CHEF! I always think of my style of cooking as American classic diner. It only seems to go out style because we get chefs with big heads that don't think making a meat loaf is worthy of their great egos. Then every few years the haute cuisine places trot out mac and cheese and meat loaf like it's some great discovery. I once had a peer criticise me for "only knowing the old stuff", which is mostly true, but it has to do with the region I'm in and what sells here. I responded that it's been my observation that you can make some fancy, interesting dish, complicated and full of expensive ingerdients and you can make a med. rare porterhouse with sauteed mushrooms and fried potatoes. Put both dishes in front of the diner, and nine times out of ten, they'll take the steak. What more do you need to know? Just my opinion though, we'll see how other people feel.

I agree wholeheartedly with greyeaglem. Very well said!

Afterall- didn't everyone see the Disney film "Ratatoullie"? The snobby, elitest food-critic dude was finally reached, and reduced to tears when he was able to dine on the lovely peasant dish his mother raised him on. Often it's the simplest that pleases the most- as it should be.

I was a chef for years- had my hands on caviar, foie gras and truffles daily... but among the best meals I've ever eaten in my life were mac & cheese from the blue box, and corndogs- enjoyed with my young, cherished niece & nephew! A close second is the bologna and velveeta on crackers my grandad and I always ate in the boat when we went fishing. And third is the peanut-butter I share with my dog!

Don't even talk to me about sophisticated, persnickety high-minded cuisine- I know the true value of basic grub and it's tops for me!

[CookingAngry]

Brilliant post alaska,

I too have eaten fois gras as well as iberico jamon and kobe beef and I still firmly believe that fried green tomatoes is the tastiest dish I have ever eaten.