Home cooks vs chefs

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Posted at 11:48AM, 01 April 2008 by Mary Cadogan - Food writer

What's the difference between chef's food and home cooking? Well the main difference as I see it is that chefs are professional cooks working in a restaurant kitchen and have a brigade working with them. Home cooks usually go it alone, or get the odd helping hand from their partners or kids.

So when a chef designs a dish, he or she is safe in the knowledge that much of the chopping, prepping, sauce-making, spud bashing etc will be done by one of the kitchen team. A main course could have as many as 30 elements to make up what lands up on the plate. That's why trying to emulate restaurant cooking at home is incredibly tiring, time consuming and perhaps a bit crazy.

Restaurant dishes are plated up, sauced and garnished before they are presented to the customer. Have you ever tried doing this for a dinner party of eight and managed to get the food to the table without feeling as if you've run a marathon? It's great to challenge yourself occasionally by following a Gary Rhodes or Gordon Ramsay recipe from start to finish, but home cooking is a different sort of skill and a really worthwhile one - and one I feel is often overlooked on cookery shows.

A home cook must shop for, prepare and cook meals day after day, get the food on the table while it is hot, cater for everyone's tastes and usually do all the washing up to boot. All this after a hard day's work, and at the same time check homework, answer the telephone and doorbell while mentally writing out yet another shopping list.

Home baking techniques are also skills home cooks have honed over the years, unlike chefs who tend to avoid this part of cookery.

A home cook must be always on the lookout for something different to tempt the family (that's where Good Food mag and this website comes in handy) and keep a keen eye on what's in season, what's healthy and within the constraints of a weekly budget. These are amazingly valuable but much underrated skills. I'd love to see a cookery show that celebrates the talents of us home cooks instead of trying to make us all into chefs.

Comments

James

1 April 2008, 12:51PM
James

The lack of 'real' cookery shows goes back to the celebrity culture - they make the chefs into celebrity heroes, but does anyone seriously cook the food at home? It makes good TV though. Delia gets close to real life in her recent show - meals that can be whipped up after a day's work with all the other things to do in the evening and she gets panned by the critics and a large portion of the audience. Even Masterchef is now beyond most people.

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James

1 April 2008, 12:59PM
James

What about a 'good food' branded show. 5 minutes long. Famous for 5 minutes where you take the camera to everyday cook's - i.e. viewers homes. 1 recipe, 1 tip. You look at the Great British Menu and they repeat the same footage at least twice in the same show. Or they could send in Youtube videos which could be posted on this website - that would be free. The cook along online is the way forward, but why not make it easy every day food and do it as a podcast which can be played on the laptop in the kitchen while you cook. Then you can stop when the doorbell goes.

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bronte

1 April 2008, 1:30PM
bronte

I think Delia Smith's new so called food show is disgusting and really hope is in no way close to real life, as James suggests. Tinned mince, frozen mashed potato and frozen onions - YUK!! Bring back a proper cooking show with fresh ingredients!

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Jenni

1 April 2008, 1:43PM
Jenni

A point Mary very generously doesn't make here (but I will!) is that the number of chefs who check whether their recipes work in domestic kitchens is disturbingly few. And very few publishers or tv producers pull them up on it. If you want reliable recipes to cook at home, it makes sense to go for recipes that have been thoroughly tested in a home (or home-style) kitchen.

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Lucy

1 April 2008, 3:10PM
Lucy

James, am liking your idea there. Gets my vote

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Mary Cadogan

1 April 2008, 4:24PM
Mary Cadogan

I think chefs often find it hard to adapt their recipes for the home cook, which is why all the chefs recipes that are featured in Good Food magazine and on the website are thoroughly tested in the Good Food domestic style kitchen so you can rest assured they will work for you. Loving all your comments, by the way!

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Haddock in the Kitchen

1 April 2008, 7:50PM
Haddock in the Kitchen

I agree with all of the above - I am saddened by the plethora of "Celebrity Chefs" out there - talented , doubtless, but are they conveying anything to us home cooks? A sense of inferiority sometimes, and a desire to achieve the impossible most of the time. I additionally get frustrated with "trendy" ingredient usage, marsh samphire, pea shoots (think that's their name - not dissimilar to my sweet pea plants I harden off in a cold frame!) and the like - my family pull a face if we have no cabbage to eat from our garden, because they like it, no pretensions, it just tastes good. (like Mary - am a little North of her), there seem to be very few "celebs" around - Cyril Lygnac is one that comes to mind, but good reputations are a state secret here I feel. Not a bad thing.........pay a man to do a job and all that. Now , where's that cabbage.......?

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thisediblelife

2 April 2008, 2:39PM
thisediblelife

Coming back to your idea, James, wasn't there a programme on TV called The People's Cookbook that visited the general public in their homes to see what they were cooking? It was hosted by two "celebrity chefs" though- AWT and Paul Rankin.

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Antonia

3 April 2008, 12:54PM
Antonia

I couldn't agree more, Mary. I love to eat out and experience 'cheffy' food but have always been disappointed by 'Chef's' cook books - the recipes are just not easily achievable in the home kitchen. I love writers like Nigel Slater and Nigella Lawson whose recipes are made at home for friends and family. Realistic, acheivable and inspirational.

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Emma

3 April 2008, 1:19PM
Emma

I have to admit I am taken in by the celebrity chef cook books, and often I'm dissapointed when it comes to trying out the recipes (yes I do try quite a few recipes - not just look at the pretty pictures). Tana Ramsay's 1st book which I thought would be good for me as a home cook with small children, was the worst. A lot of the recipes do not work (although the minnestrone is good). Of course Nigel Slater is brilliant for home cooks, and I also like Sivarna Fraco - no nonsense yummy food. I used to watch Good Food Live (on UKTV Food) and got many good recipes from that, but the replacement Market Kitchen is totally up it's own wotsit. I can not think of a single thing on that show that I have wanted to replicate at home. It's just a forum for chefs to come on tv and show off to one another. Back to the original topic though - my mum always told me that chefs were male and cooks were female. She does say a lot of silly things though!!

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Gayns

3 April 2008, 9:38PM
Gayns

Cooking good food and doing it well in your own home for friends is hard work. No help with prep and plating it up like the "chefs" but just the same satisfaction and buzz that they get when your guests comment on how lovely the dishes are you have lovingly slaved over make it well worth not having a title. I love the honest foods and recipes in Good Food and yes I am a sucker for a good "cheffy" cookbook but Delias "how to cook" books and "complete cookery course" are by far the most frequenty used in my house as they are non designer and full of flavour- give us more honest cookery books & shows with store cupboard ingredients!!!!

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barrington lloyd walker

8 April 2008, 3:28PM
barrington lloyd walker

A chef male or female is essentially a cook; He or she works in a professional environment.His or her duties would include the day to day running of a section whether it be salad larder sauce starters mains or desserts.This includes an element of staff training. He'll/she'll have a working knowledege Haccp health hygeine and safety regulations.Senior chefs will be also involved in stock manage waste control, menu planning and profit margins on each dish. To cook domestically as we all know is completely different to doing it in a professional environment.

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barrington lloyd walker

8 April 2008, 3:35PM
barrington lloyd walker

My apologise for the above comment.I wrote it in response to the same authors article on what's the difference between a chef and a cook. My response somehow ended up on this page chefs v homecooks.

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barrington lloyd walker

8 April 2008, 5:01PM
barrington lloyd walker

Interesting article!!!I'm a chef who has worked in the London restaurant scene for 20 years.I have never worked in a brigade of chefs nor do i aspire to.....It's always been just me and 2 others including a kp.We do our own prep at 8am and get butterfly's minutes before the midday feeding frenzy when our doors open to 70 odd diners most wanting a three course meal in their 1 hour lunch break. It's definitely tougher cooking to order in often brutally hot fast paced professional kitchens where the timing and coordination of each of the dishes components has to be right and getting the quality and same level of consistency right for each differing palate reduces many a chef to tears or fits of anger.I can assure you i find easier and pleasurable cooking at home for my young family with glass of red and a DVD.There's just no contest.

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debbie

9 April 2008, 5:56PM
debbie

I love watching all foodie TV and reading foodie mags, however, its not very often I ever try to re-create a Gary Rhodes or Gordon Ramsay dish as they are too "cheffy" to re-create at home, although sometimes you can deviate from a recipe and re-create it to your taste. I nearly always choose a Nigella or Delia recipe because they easy to prepare at home and are for all us good home cooks. I do think the Gordons and Gary's should be careful, if we all start cooking chef food at home, we won't be going out and spending in their restaurants!!

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Rayne

22 April 2008, 4:07PM
Rayne

I received a Nigella Lawson cookbook for Christmas from my landlords. I love cooking so it was probably the best present they could have given! Looking through it though I was amazed at how many recipes I dismissed as too complicated, too wierd and many that I simply wouldn't like. I ended up earmarking maybe 2 or 3 pages in the whole of the book. How disappointing. In comparison, I bought a farmers market cookbook from my local market, and am steadily working my way through the recipes one by one. Each one is a simple, hearty home cooked family meal, easy to follow and delicious to eat. This being written by someone I've never heard of, and likely never will again!

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joe2091

12 June 2008, 8:20PM
joe2091

As long as these chefs or cooks do no-nonsense easy food to prepare, I'm happy.

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joe2091

16 August 2008, 11:59AM
joe2091

Cooks have love and passion for they food. Chefs have competitiveness and passion for showing their gastronomical "creations" with love.

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