Chapter 4 – Kitchen Essentials 1 –
Professionalism and Understanding
Standard Recipes
Part One - Professionalism
What Does It Mean To Be a Culinary
Professional?
• To be professional is to be courteous, honest, and
responsible in your dealings with customers and
coworkers.
• A culinarian is one who has studied and continues to
study the art of cooking. The attributes of a culinary
professional include:
▫ Knowledge: A professional culinary program provides the culinary student
with a basic knowledge of foods, food styles, and the methods used to
prepare foods.
▫ Skill: Culinary schooling alone cannot make a culinary professional. Practice
and hands-on experience provide the skills necessary to produce quality
foods or organize, train, motivate, and supervise a staff.
▫ Flavor, aroma, taste: Culinary professionals must produce foods that taste
great, or the customer will not return.
▫ Judgment: Culinary professionals must use discretion and appropriate
behavior with coworkers, supervisors, and employees.
Attributes of a culinary
professional - Knowledge
• Have to identify, purchase, utilize, and prepare a
variety of foods
• Are required to train and supervise a safe,
skilled, efficient staff
• To do this successfully, culinarians need to
understand and apply certain scientific and
business principles
• Can join professional organizations such as the
NRA – National Restaurant Association
Attributes of a culinary
professional - Skill
• Need schooling, practice, and hands-on
experience
• Experience comes with time
• Most graduates start in entry-level positions
Attributes of a culinary
professional – Flavor, Aroma, Taste
• Must produce food that tastes great, or the
customer will not return
• Professional chefs are judged on the ability to
produce the finest flavors
• Flavor = refers to all the sensations produced
by whatever ins in the mouth, but mostly the
food’s aroma and taste
• Aroma = how something smells
• Taste = our ability to identify substances like
foods, minerals, and poisons
Taste – in detail
• 4 main tastes – sweet, salty, bitter, sour
• New one you may not have heard of is the 5th
taste sensation
▫ Umami = savory (think of things that have no
sweetness, like meat or mushrooms)
Attributes of a culinary
professional – Judgment
• Must use discretion and appropriate behavior
with coworkers, supervisors, and employees
• Use sound judgment when ordering, developing
menus, etc.
• Good judgment comes only with experience
Attributes of a culinary
professional –Dedication
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Becoming a culinarian is hard work
Long hours
Hectic pace
Physically and mentally taxing
Attributes of a culinary
professional –Pride
• Pride: It is important to have a sense of pride about a job well
done. Pride extends to personal appearance and behavior in and
around the kitchen.
• Uniform consists of closed-toed shoes that are non-slip; trousers
(black and white checked, or plain black); clean, pressed, white
double-breasted chef’s coat; clean, ironed apron; clean
neckerchief, usually knotted; hat (called a toque)
• Show pride by keeping yourself neat and clean!
Attributes of a culinary
professional – Respect
• Respect = having consideration for others
• Respect yourself first
• Respect others’ privacy, physical space and
belongings, and different viewpoints
• Golden rule
• In a professional kitchen, this is threefold
▫ Respect ingredients
▫ Respect guests
▫ Respect coworkers
Attributes of a culinary
professional – Personal Responsibility
• A person is responsible for the choices he or she
makes
• Accept responsibility and stay in control of
yourself and your emotions
• Don’t make excuses
• Learn from mistakes
• Ask for help when you need it
• Be punctual
• Take initiative
Workstations
• A workstation is a work area in the kitchen dedicated to a
particular task.
• Workstations using the same or similar equipment for related tasks
are grouped together into a work section.
• Good kitchen design maximizes the flow of goods and staff from one
area to the next and within each area itself.
• A kitchen-brigade system is a method for staffing a kitchen so
that each worker is assigned a set of specific tasks.
• A dining-room brigade is led by the dining room manager
(maître d) who generally trains all service personnel, oversees wine
selections, works with the chef to develop the menu, organizes the
seating chart, and seats the guests.
The kitchen brigade system
• Chef de Cuisine / Executive chef
▫ Highest level possible. Usually with diploma or
certificate, often more time spent doing
organization and paperwork than actually
cooking. Coordinates all kitchen functions
• Sous Chef
▫ Second in Command. Responsible for the physical
operation of the kitchen, including supervision as
well as preparation.
The kitchen brigade system, cont.
• Chefs de Parti
• Saucier: fish, sautéed dishes, stews, hot hors d'ouevres, hot entrees and sauces.
Commands after the sous chef.
• Rotissieur: Prepares items roasted in the oven and on the spit. Works under the
Saucier.
• Friturier: fry cook - responsible for deep fried foods. Works under the Saucier.
• Grillardin: responsible for grilled foods. Works under the Saucier.
• Garde Manger: Processes raw meat, cold dishes, forcemeat, pies, galantines and cold
hors d'ouevres. Next in line after the saucier for command.
• Charcutier, and Butcher: work under the Garde Manger
• Entremetier: Vegetable cook, responsible for soups (sometimes saucier does this),
vegetables, pasta, and foods made of flour, eggs and cheese..
• Potager: soup cook, originally was under the supervision of the Entremetier
• Patissier: Pastry chef: all basic desserts, hot desserts, cold desserts, frozen desserts
and hot and cold pastries.
• Boulanger and Glacier: work under the Patissier
• Other cooking stations are Tournant (swing cook), de Garde (duty chef), de Nuit
(night chef), Banquet chef, etc.
• Commis: assistants to the chefs de partie. Usually journeyman cooks.
• Apprentices: training in each of the parties in turn to learn the entire kitchen.
The dining room brigade system
• The maître d’hôtel, known in American service as the dining room
manager, is the person who holds the most responsibility for the front-ofthe-house operation. The maître d’hôtel trains all service personnel,
oversees wine selection, works with the chef to determine the menu, and
organizes seating throughout service.
• The wine steward (chef de vin or sommelier) is responsible for all
aspects of restaurant wine service, including purchasing wines, preparing a
wine list, assisting guests in wine selection, and serving wine properly
• The head waiter (chef de salle) is generally in charge of the service for
an entire dining room. Very often this position is combined with the
position of either captain or maître d’hôtel.
• The captain (chef d’étage) deals most directly with the guests once they
are seated. The captain explains the menu, answers any questions, and
takes the order.
• The front waiter (chef de rang) ensures that the table is properly set for
each course, that the food is properly delivered to the table, and that the
needs of the guests are promptly and courteously met.
• The back waiter or busboy (demi-chef de rang or commis de rang)
is generally the first position assigned to new dining room workers. This
person clears plates between courses, fills water glasses and bread baskets,
and assists the front waiter and/or captain as needed.
Section 4.1 Summary
• Professionalism means being courteous, honest, and
responsible in one’s dealings with customers and
coworkers. It also indicates that a person is maintaining
standards for his or her work and behavior.
• Professional culinarians have knowledge, skill, taste,
judgment, dedication, pride, respect, and a sense of
personal responsibility.
• A kitchen brigade is a system of staffing a kitchen so that
each worker is assigned a set of specific tasks.
• A traditional dining-room brigade is led by the dining
room manager (maître d’) who generally trains all service
personnel, oversees wine selections, works with the chef
to develop the menu, organizes the seating chart, and
seats the guests.