Well, there’s at least one woman on that show I lust after. As long as she doesn’t smile. :shudder:
With Giada!!
Was curious about it. Google N-Gram essentially produces no result.
Arnold Wesker’s 1957 play The Kitchen seems to use the phrase as under discussion.
If I remember correctly, it’s been around since the 1800s, since the term “chef de cuisine” and other terms were adopted in the French school. Somehow I doubt that television had something to do with it.
Ok, I get what y’all are saying, and it makes sense. I guess I wasn’t clear as to the particular usage I was referring to.
My bother isn’t with the use of the phrase ‘Yes, Chef’ as an acknowledgement of an order or request. Of course, it is more respectful than ‘Mkay’ or ‘Got it, sport!’
In the examples that rubbed me the wrong way, the ‘Yes, Chef’ was a barking, militarily subservient shout/tone that is usually reserved for settings like boot camp or military school.
EDIT: But to say on topic: Damn your eyes, Alton Brown!! shakes fist
It was a plot point in one of the crime scene/criminal minds shows … murder in the kitchen, asshole chef. I forget which one.
That’s the way it was always said in Lenny Henry’s Chef! (1993-1996) and I don’t recall thinking that it was new at the time. Chefs have often traditionally been portrayed as Sergeant Carter-style, screaming martinets who demand exacting obedience from the staff. It’s not new.
“CSI: Las Vegas,” season five or six, I think. Back when it was still good.
As I recall, each chef had a “thing” about his or her personal knives…
I’ve disliked Alton Brown ever since I followed his advice and used apple jelly to make an apple pie: “It contains pectin, which will bind the apple slices together!”
B-S! All it does is make one gawdawfully runny, almost liquid pie filling!
Very well then! It struck me as a bit over the top, but I guess if that’s the way it is…
Doesn’t pecting come from…um…apples in the first place? Saying that the apple pie will have pectin in it is a bit redundant, then, innit.
Or does the pectin come from the peels…
You apparently didn’t buy Alton’s brand of uber-pectiny apple jelly especially for pie making available only on FoodNetwork dot com. Oh well, you probably can’t afford it anyway.
That would be the epitome of* food porn*…
There’s a great book called The Perfectionist that provides a lot of background on French haute cuisine and detailed descriptions of how the brigade de cuisine actually operates in top French restaurant kitchens. I don’t watch Food Network, but after reading that book, I believe that they are closer to reality than you might think.
I think the hosts of the realty competition cooking shows are told to be buttnuggets. That Buddy guy from Cake Boss is a totally different person when he does his cake boss from the person he is when he hosts that baking competition show of his.
I don’t think astrophysicists and virologists are often under the intense time sensitive environment as a busy kitchen. Not to say they don’t have bosses and deadlines, but those are usually measured by days and weeks rather than minutes and seconds, and those occupations don’t usually have to deal with angry customers.
Having worked in a busy fast food kitchen before, I can say that it does get stressful and oftentimes you have to yell to be heard, and its just easier to bark acknowledgement rather than talk calmly.
zombywoof’s cite nails it - the whole brigade de cuisine system was largely the creation of Auguste Escoffier the whole system was ‘militarised’ from the start.
Try the Cooking Channel instead.
I miss Julia Child and her The French Chef. You know? Just her and a kitchen. No gimmicks. No bizare editing (Gordon Ramsay is unwatchable due to the lightning editing).
Julia was awesome.
Have you tried Ramsay’s show “The F Word”? It’s much more… subdued. (On BBC America in the US, dunno how/if it’s carried elsewhere.) It’s a bit of celeb food chat, a small cooking competition with a 4-person team that he teaches, some “this is where your food comes from” demonstration, and teaching a couple recipes to a few regular people and the home audience. He’s very rarely shouty.
I haven’t.
I just really miss the cooking shows where the person cooked, and there was no fake drama or competition.
Like woodworking with the New Yankee Workshop: just Norm in the workshop building things, and the audience along for the show.
Nowadays, there’s always some damn gimmick or fake drama.
Alton seemed to forgo drama with his Good Eats, but at times the lecturing was a bit much. I seriously love to just see a good cook doing their thing. It really can be an art form of skilled use of time and honed skills.
sigh
I add about a tablespoon to my apple pies and it seems to add some rich deliciousness. How much jelly did he say to put in?
Also PBS is offering some French Chef classic episodes from the 1960s in August, in recognition of the 100th anniversary of Julia Child’s birth. We’re running one of them but I think the offer is three. I’ll post the dates tomorrow.