# How does one become a "chef"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 4, 2001, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-become-a-chef/48478 "2001-01-04T23:09:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Girl\_Next\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@Girl\_Next\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_Next_Door)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2001, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-become-a-chef/48478/1 "2001-01-04T23:09:58Z")
In other words, are there standards or qualifications that must be attained to truly earn the title of “chef”? Is it like a degree? I realize lots of people call themselves “chefs”, but my sister believes that they are really just “cooks” unless they have acquired proper chef credentials. Whaddya know? ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2001, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-become-a-chef/48478/2 "2001-01-04T23:39:18Z")
Formal training is definitely a part of it. According to [this site](http://stats.bls.gov/oco/ocos161.htm), > [@](#): > > About 700 schools offer culinary courses across the Nation. The [American Culinary Federation](http://www.acfchefs.org/certify/crt.html) accredited about 100 training programs and a number of apprenticeship programs in 1998. Typical apprenticeships last three years and combine classroom and work experience. Accreditation is an indication that a culinary program meets recognized standards regarding course content, facilities, and quality of instruction. The American Culinary Federation also certifies pastry professionals, culinary educators, and chefs and cooks at the levels of cook, working chef, executive chef, and master chef. Certification standards are based primarily on experience and formal training. Anyone can be a cook (in theory, anyway), but to become a chef, you must be trained and tested. To be a chef is to enter one of the most stressful and competitive career fields in the world (I’m not kidding). The brother of a good friend of mine went through the testing portion went to France to train as Sous Chef for a three-star restaurant there. He came back after three months on the verge of nervous collapse. ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2001, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-become-a-chef/48478/3 "2001-01-04T23:42:48Z")
**ACK!** So sorry about the goofy formatting. I’m not sure where I went wrong, either. For now, here are the important links: [American Academy of Chefs](http://www.acfchefs.org/certify/crt.html) and [Chefs, Cooks, and Kitchen Workers](http://stats.bls.gov/oco/ocos161.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Torgo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@Torgo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torgo)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2001, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-become-a-chef/48478/4 "2001-01-05T00:42:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Girl Next Door \* > \*\*I realize lots of people call themselves “chefs”, but my sister believes that they are really just “cooks” unless they have acquired proper chef credentials. > > Whaddya know? \*\* There are no chef “credentials.” The only difference between cooks and chefs is that chefs wear the tall, mushroomy white hats whereas cooks either wear no hat at all or they wear the smaller, sailor-type hats made popular by the character “Mel” on TV’s “Alice.” Chefs (especially French ones) are also sometimes required to grow the little pencil-thin mustaches and prance effeminately around the restaurant berating customers who adorn their dinners with ketchup. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2001, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-become-a-chef/48478/5 "2001-01-05T01:08:43Z")
I filled out an application. ---
**Author:** ![King\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7bcc69/32.png) [@King\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/King_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2001, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-become-a-chef/48478/6 "2001-01-05T01:38:17Z")
We like to think of New York as the culinary capital of the world. To see what a curriculum at a private cooking school would be like, here are two of many examples > **[Closed School Information Page |](https://www.artinstitutes.edu/closed-school-information-page)** > > Formats the Html codes.FormatFix the Html to be XHtml compliantFix > Write > Validate that the text is XHtml compliant.Validate > Proofing [http://pkcookschool.com](http://pkcookschool.com) For a public school education, see [http://www.nyctc.cuny.edu](http://www.nyctc.cuny.edu) click academics click nyctc degree programs (2000-2002 college catalog) click hospitality management (aas) they also have a bachelor’s program. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2001, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-become-a-chef/48478/7 "2001-01-05T04:54:16Z")
“Chef” is just short for “chef de cuisine,” roughly translated as “kitchen boss.” The role of the chef de cuisine is to oversee all the cooks with the specific jobs…the roast cook, the vegetable cook, the soup cook, the pastry cook, etc., plus all their scullions and subalterns…bringing the entire professional kitchen into a harmonious whole (snort). That’s why when I’m preparing a meal and a guest wanders into the litchen and calls me the “chef,” I knock him upside the skull with a meat tenderizer and inform him that _I_ chop my _own_ onions, thank you very fucking much, and he should call me the _cook._