[cookermacgregor]

howdy all. I cook for a living, and have for the past 18yrs or so. I love my job which happens to be cooking exclusively for a family. I'm their "private chef" which is a term that sometimes make me wince. I feel the term chef should be reserved for the chief of a kitchen restaurant. I definately feel that the term chef is tossed around way to loosely, ultimately diminishing its meaning. A recent culinary school grad is not a chef. it takes years ,I feel, in order truely assume that titlle. I like the term "cooker" as opposed to cook. A cooker is a budding craftsman while a cook is someone slinging hash.
Semantics aside, cooking for a living is the best. I live in Napa,Ca. and work for that family in the Oakland hills. I went to the CIA 14 yrs. ago then spent stints working for Brad Ogden and Michael Chiarello before landing a spot in the kitchens of Chez Panisse. I cooked there for over 4 splendid yrs. prior to my current job. I've done a lot of culinary trips through Europe and currently am planning one to Vietnam.
My love of hearth/live fire cooking led to me build a beautiful "earth oven" in my back yard. It cost next to nothing (except time) to build and was profounly gratifying. It also cooks like a dream. We are now building another oven at a friends and have plans to lead the building of 3 or 4 around Napa, effectively creating a local earth oven network. I plan to lead some local oven cooking workshops once the othe ovens are completed. I am happy to talk with anybody about the joys of such an enterprise.
That gives you guys a glimps of my seen.
Mike

[Mezzaluna]

Welcome to Chef Talk, Mike!

Your post has several interesting aspects to it. We've had past conversations about who can claim the title of chef and who cannot. You might want to use our search feature to have a look at the threads. Interesting discussions!

Your background will enrich all of us, so we hope you will share by posting and participating in our discussions. By the way, we have a discussion going on with master cheesemaker Sid Cook, so don't miss that.

Enjoy the site and the community. Welcome!
Mezzaluna