Description of the profession and its history
Cook
- This is a specialist whose duties include cooking. In addition to the cooking itself, the cook is responsible for preparing the products: checking them for freshness, washing them, cutting them, peeling them. The visual appeal of a dish is also the chef’s job. After all, not only taste is important in food, but also smell and appetizing appearance.
It is not surprising that the profession of a cook and the culinary art arose along with the first people on the planet. We can say for sure that with the development of statehood in both Ancient Egypt and Ancient China, the position of cook for military campaigns and for noble receptions already existed. In the first written monuments of Babylon, Egypt, China and the Arab East, along with descriptions of religious rituals and military campaigns, there are also records of individual culinary recipes.
Greece and Rome were famous for their feasts and culinary delights. Under the emperors Augustus and Tiberius (around 400 AD), the first culinary schools appeared in Rome. And the word “cooking” itself comes from the Latin “kitchen”.
| Do you want to cook fish according to an ancient Greek recipe? In a recipe from the 2nd century AD Greek encyclopedia Onomasticon by Julius Pollux, the fish was first mixed with cereals and rendered lard, cheese, yolks and brains, then it was wrapped in a fig leaf, boiled in goat broth and served in a vessel with boiling honey. This is a dish for connoisseurs of haute cuisine. |
It is believed that the culinary arts developed little in the Middle Ages, or at least little information is known about gourmet dishes.
The development of culinary skills is stimulated by the absence of wars and trade with overseas countries, that is, the availability of new exotic ingredients. We know about culinary achievements in medieval monasteries, where the monks needed to diversify their meager menu and feed the brethren, so the cooks came up with a variety of recipes from the same ingredients. These recipes have been preserved in monastery libraries. What profession is right for me?
TAKE THE PROFESSION TEST >> Since the 14th century, the culinary arts have risen in France, and since then national European cuisines have been competing with each other. Now it is difficult to single out any one city as the gastronomic capital of the world. Chefs from Asia, North and South America have also joined the culinary race. For example, now the largest number of restaurants with a Michelin star are in Tokyo, Japan.
| And, by the way, about Michelin. You've probably heard that the best restaurants are awarded Michelin Red Stars. It was invented in 1900 by the same engineer and industrialist who is best known for his tire production. Initially, the guide was a regular reference book for motorists, in which they could find out where to eat deliciously along the road, where to refuel or find parking. But over time, the publishers changed their policy and made it a kind of global ranking of public catering places. The rating assigns a star to an establishment with outstanding signature cuisine (and to the chef himself). The maximum 3 stars are extremely rare: in France, 616 restaurants have Michelin stars and only 27 of them are three stars. Moreover, this can be not only a gourmet restaurant, but also just a street eatery with a minimal bill and delicious food. |
Today, the proud title of three-star chefs is held by such famous restaurateurs as Paul Bocuse (France), Gordon Ramsay (Scotland), Jamie Oliver (Great Britain), Pierre Gagnaire (France), Joan Roca (Spain), Thomas Keller (USA) , Alain Ducasse (France), etc. Unfortunately, the Michelin guide has not yet come to Russia, but our chefs already have something to offer to its unnoticed critics.
Where to study
It is better to start the road to culinary mastery after 9th grade at a college or technical school
, because the most important thing for a future specialist is practice.
The best colleges in Moscow
, where they train chefs, confectioners and technologists, include: 1. Tsaritsyno College 2. Technological College No. 14 3. Service Industry College No. 3 4. Service Industry College No. 32 5. Food College No. 33
In 3 years 10 months in college you will learn:
✎
How to use technological equipment
✎
Which products can be considered fresh and which cannot
✎
How to prepare a dish and preserve the beneficial properties, taste and nutritional value of the product
✎
What is the difference between dishes of different cuisines (Russian, European, Asian, etc.) and how to prepare them
✎
How to “by eye” measure the required amount of bulk products, liquids or spices
✎
What sanitary standards must be followed in a catering establishment
To become a chef, you will need a higher education in the specialty 03/19/04 “Technology and organization of restaurant business.” After college or 11th grade you can enroll in:
• REU im. G.V. Plekhanov • MSUTU im. K.G. Razumovsky – Moscow State University of Technology and Management named after K.G. Razumovsky • Moscow branch of RMAT (Russian International Academy of Tourism) • MGUPP - Moscow State University of Food Production
Where should I go - COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY? >>
You can choose related specialties: 03/19/02 (Food products from plant materials), 03/19/03 (Food products of animal origin). To enroll after 11th grade, you will need to pass the Unified State Examination in mathematics, Russian language, chemistry and biology.
Cook's profession
(4,5,6 categories) can be mastered in courses. Don't confuse them with cooking courses for housewives. There are several such schools and courses in Moscow: “Higher School of Cooking Art”, “Institute of Cooking”, Chefshows by Novikov, “Moscow House of Restaurateur”.
But neither colleges, nor universities or special courses will give you a job at the Pushkin restaurant. To do this, you need to develop your individual culinary skills through books, internships, distance learning and working with the best chefs.
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Career opportunities
The profession of a cook is suitable for both men and women. True, there are very few women among famous chefs. The career ladder for a chef or pastry chef is as follows: 1. After college or technical school
You can get a job in a cafe or fast food restaurant.
You can be a cashier cook in a fast food restaurant, a sushi chef or a pizza maker, or make semi-finished products in companies that deliver food to your home. 2. With at least 1 year of work experience,
you can get a job as a trainee chef in a good-quality cafe or restaurant chain.
There they can entrust you with work in a cold shop or become an assistant cook. 3. The next step in your career
could be a hot shop or even a sous chef in a small restaurant.
4. The sous-chef
is the chef’s right hand.
He organizes work in the kitchen, trains staff, helps the chef monitor quality, takes part in ordering products, and sometimes in developing menus. 5. The highest level is chef.
Or even better, the chef of his own restaurant or even a chain of restaurants.
From mammoths to the present day...
The first cook in human history was a primitive hunter who accidentally fried a piece of his catch over a fire. The cavemen, having tasted the meat prepared in this way, began to constantly fry it over the fire. And quite soon, using the trial and error method, they found out that for some the mammoth turns out to be juicy and tasty, while for others it is completely inedible. Of course, they began to trust the cooking to the one who turned out tastier. In this way, or approximately in this way, the profession of a cook was born.
However, the first culinary professionals who made a living by cooking for others were Cretan cooks hired to cook for the king's soldiers around 2000 BC. e. Already in Ancient Rome, many rich and noble townspeople preferred to entrust food preparation to special people who knew how to cook, rather than to slaves. It was in Rome that the then famous gourmet and cook Apicius created the first cooking schools.
The rulers of Ancient Persia highly valued delicious food, and cooks who managed to surprise the eastern rulers with an unusual dish were generously rewarded. However, there were other traditions, for example, in Sparta, the art of cooking and the profession of a cook were treated with contempt, considering all this to be excesses.
The history of the chef profession has seen both periods of dizzying ups and stagnation. After a long period of stagnation, only at the end of the Middle Ages, during the time of great discoveries, when a variety of oriental herbs and spices began to penetrate into European countries, culinary art began to develop rapidly. Since then, there has been constant culinary rivalry between Italy and France. Not only professional cooks, but also pundits and even statesmen took part in the development of the art of cooking. Cardinals Mazarin and Richelieu created new dishes, and the great philosopher Michel Montaigne wrote an entire treatise, “The Science of Food.” Modern Italian restaurants still serve dishes invented by the great composer Rossini, and the French are proud of the contribution to national cuisine of Honore de Balzac and Alexandre Dumas the Father.
In the 19th century, most European countries created courses that taught culinary arts.
Popular directions and specializations
Cook
– the most common name for the profession.
But a restaurant kitchen can be compared to a clock mechanism, where each person, like a cog, performs its function. In the kitchen there is a chef (main cook), sous chef (second cook) and cooks responsible for certain types of dishes: • The cold shop cook
makes appetizers, salads and preparations.
• The hot shop cook
is responsible for all dishes that require heat treatment, that is, steaming, frying and boiling.
• A meat shop cook
cuts meat, poultry, and sometimes fish, and also makes semi-finished products.
• The baker
is responsible for the baked goods.
• The confectioner
creates cakes, pastries, chocolate, handmade sweets, ice cream, airy souffles, light mousses, delicate creams. Isn't it time to drink some tea?
On job sites you will also find such exotic titles as sushi chef, pizza chef, or pizza maker, or pizza maker. Guess what a layer baker or dough mixer does? They are all opposed by a universal cook, that is, a jack of all trades and all dishes.
If cooking turns into mass production of dishes (a bakery, for example), then the organization already requires a food production technologist or catering technologist. This is the same position as a chef in a restaurant. He purchases products, draws up technological maps, approves menus, calculates waste and loss standards, and distributes responsibilities between chefs.
In addition, chefs specialize in recipes from specific cuisines
: •
National cuisines
- cuisines of countries and continents (Russian, French, Mediterranean, Vietnamese, Pan-Asian, etc.).
• Vegetarian and vegan cuisines
do not use meat or animal products.
• Haute cuisine
(French Haute cuisine, Grande cuisine) - cuisine of luxury restaurants and hotels.
• Fusion - a mix
of different culinary traditions.
• Molecular gastronomy
is a mixture of cooking and chemistry. A molecular gastronomy chef divides foods into molecules and changes their properties. The result is mousse from Borodino bread or orange caviar.
Confectioner's profession. Educational games
In games, a preschooler learns to creatively use the knowledge about the profession that he has received.
Game "Fourth wheel"
Find the extra picture. Explain why it is superfluous (a picture that has nothing to do with the pastry chef’s profession will be superfluous in this game). How can you call everything that is shown in the pictures in one word? (food)
Card 1.
Card 2.
Card 3.
Guess game
This game can be played with a child 6-7 years old and older. This is how they play it. The presenter talks about himself on behalf of some product. For example, on behalf of the flour, he talks about how it was made, how it was packaged, how people will use it, what the confectioner will do with it. And the rest of the players guess which product the presenter spoke on behalf of. A very exciting game, but difficult for children. Children play it when they hear interesting and funny stories from adults. It's usually the dads who come up with the most interesting stories, not the moms!
Russian classification
She divides all cooks into four types:
- Cook-technologist who receives raw materials and controls their quality. His responsibilities also include calculating the required amount of food per serving and organizing the technological process of preparing the dish. He also comes up with and develops recipes for new dishes, draws up technological maps for them and instructions for those who will prepare them.
- The culinary chef cuts meat and fish, preparing them for cooking, cuts vegetables, kneads the dough and directly prepares the dishes, as well as checks their readiness and decorates them before serving.
- A pastry chef specializes in making desserts and confectionery. He fully executes the recipe, controlling taste and visual parameters, and also decorates sweet dishes before serving them.
- Being a chef is the pinnacle of a professional career. This is not only an expert culinary specialist, but also an excellent administrator. He is obliged to form the menu of the establishment, compose and order the necessary products and goods, control the quality and timing of their delivery, organize and improve the work of all other cooks, and monitor compliance with the cooking technology.
How do confectioners work? Journey to the confectionery shop
And now a funny cartoon about the work of confectioners awaits you. You will see how buns are baked in a real factory. You will also learn the story about one famous Russian confectioner and the one who invented raisin buns.
Preschoolers cannot get into a real confectionery shop, so the opportunity to find themselves in one thanks to a video is an opportunity that should not be missed! You must see all this with your own eyes!
The video and cartoon are so interesting and funny that I highly recommend everyone to watch it, even adults - you will learn a lot of new things and get a charge of optimism and a great mood! Enjoy watching!
What does a pastry chef bake, or what types of buns and pies are there?
Unbutton. What word does the name of the pie resemble? (For the word “unbutton, unfasten”) Such pies are called rasstegai because they have an open middle from which the filling peeks out. It's like the pie has come undone.
Saika. Oval shaped bun. There may be several of them “stuck” to each other.
Bagel. Look at the bagel. Why do you think people named this bun that? (similar in shape to a horn)
Bun. The name of the bun “bun” comes from the word “to flatten.” Do you remember how you flatten a ball of plasticine into a cake? This bun is flat as if it was flattened. So they call it a bun.
Network. And the braid is woven when it is cooked. Have you already guessed how it is woven? You can braid it like a braid, or you can twist the ends differently. You can try making a braided rope from plasticine. Try to invent your own way of weaving braids.
Cheesecake. What shape is the cheesecake? That's right, it's always round. Have you gone on a cheesecake slide down the hill in winter? Or have you seen others ride? How are a cheesecake for sliding downhill and a cheesecake - a bun?
Donut . Round fried sweet pie. Sometimes it is also called crumpet. Have you already guessed why? He's lush. plump.
