Cooks hierarchy
- Thread starter Lefty7887
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
oops, I just found an answer.
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The Chef's Ladder
Chef de Cuisine
This is the apex, the chef whose initials are etched into the silver flatware, and embroidered onto the washroom towels. This chef has the vision, conceives the dishes, imbues the whole restaurant with his/her personality. This would be the person who appears on television. Sometimes, if need be, chefs de cuisine even cook.
Executive Chef
This is a nebulous title, as only the biggest, most famous chefs de cuisine follow themselves with executive chefs. Executive chefs run the whole kitchen when the big boss isn't around and are often employed when a chef has more than one restaurant. They hire and fire the staff, determine costs, revamp the menu, take care of all administrative tasks, interact with the dining room managers, and generally oversee the well-being of the restaurant. In smaller, less flamboyant restaurants, the Chef de Cuisine sees to all this, and an executive chef would be redundant.
Sous-Chef
Next under the Chef de Cuisine or Executive Chef, depending on the restaurant, this chef is always in the kitchen. He/she comes up with the daily specials, takes inventory, watches over the staff, expedites (see Expediter, below), and basically does all the hands-on work. There are sous-chefs of two ilks: those who will soon move on to open their own restaurants, becoming Chefs de Cuisine, and those who will remain as they are, preferring the rhythmic rigors of the kitchen to the bright lights of chef stardom.
Expediter
Generally the sous-chef, the expediter serves as the liaison between the customers in the dining room and the line cooks. He/she makes sure that the food gets to the wait staff in a timely fashion, so that everyone sitting at a particular table is served simultaneously. This job is all about coordination and timing.
Pastry Chef
The pastry chef is like the sous-chef, but reigns over the pastry section, which is usually tucked far away from the heat and bustle of the main kitchen (to protect delicate soufflés, fragile spun sugar, and temperamental chocolates). The pastry section has always been assigned less status than the main kitchen -- possibly because pastry was a traditionally female province (if there were any women in the kitchen at all, you might find them in the pastry section). Fortunately, this is changing.
Line Cooks
The line cooks are the people who actually cook your food. They are divided up, either by cooking technique (saute, grill, etc.), or by type of food (fish, meat, etc.). When the expeditor shouts out an order (they always shout), the line cooks jump to prepare it. Most cooks work up through the line (working every position), before being promoted to sous-chef.
Chef de garde-manger
The person in the garde manger section -- also known as the cold station -- plates all the dishes that do not require heat, such as salads, terrines, and sometimes desserts, if there is no assigned pastry person on the line.
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The Chef's Ladder
Chef de Cuisine
This is the apex, the chef whose initials are etched into the silver flatware, and embroidered onto the washroom towels. This chef has the vision, conceives the dishes, imbues the whole restaurant with his/her personality. This would be the person who appears on television. Sometimes, if need be, chefs de cuisine even cook.
Executive Chef
This is a nebulous title, as only the biggest, most famous chefs de cuisine follow themselves with executive chefs. Executive chefs run the whole kitchen when the big boss isn't around and are often employed when a chef has more than one restaurant. They hire and fire the staff, determine costs, revamp the menu, take care of all administrative tasks, interact with the dining room managers, and generally oversee the well-being of the restaurant. In smaller, less flamboyant restaurants, the Chef de Cuisine sees to all this, and an executive chef would be redundant.
Sous-Chef
Next under the Chef de Cuisine or Executive Chef, depending on the restaurant, this chef is always in the kitchen. He/she comes up with the daily specials, takes inventory, watches over the staff, expedites (see Expediter, below), and basically does all the hands-on work. There are sous-chefs of two ilks: those who will soon move on to open their own restaurants, becoming Chefs de Cuisine, and those who will remain as they are, preferring the rhythmic rigors of the kitchen to the bright lights of chef stardom.
Expediter
Generally the sous-chef, the expediter serves as the liaison between the customers in the dining room and the line cooks. He/she makes sure that the food gets to the wait staff in a timely fashion, so that everyone sitting at a particular table is served simultaneously. This job is all about coordination and timing.
Pastry Chef
The pastry chef is like the sous-chef, but reigns over the pastry section, which is usually tucked far away from the heat and bustle of the main kitchen (to protect delicate soufflés, fragile spun sugar, and temperamental chocolates). The pastry section has always been assigned less status than the main kitchen -- possibly because pastry was a traditionally female province (if there were any women in the kitchen at all, you might find them in the pastry section). Fortunately, this is changing.
Line Cooks
The line cooks are the people who actually cook your food. They are divided up, either by cooking technique (saute, grill, etc.), or by type of food (fish, meat, etc.). When the expeditor shouts out an order (they always shout), the line cooks jump to prepare it. Most cooks work up through the line (working every position), before being promoted to sous-chef.
Chef de garde-manger
The person in the garde manger section -- also known as the cold station -- plates all the dishes that do not require heat, such as salads, terrines, and sometimes desserts, if there is no assigned pastry person on the line.
GhettoRacingKid
Sous Chef
this isnt true for every kitchen but that is the clasical structure. even though the pastry chef is usually a different area and has a hiearchy of its own,
Nato
Assistant Cook
Oh that's very cool to know. I do have a question about this hierarchy though as well...let's say that I wanted to be a sous chef but I didn't have any training/schooling, if I were hired as a dishwasher, how exactly would I work my way up to sous chef? Would they teach me tips and tricks as I work there or what?
PieSusan
Washing Up
PS Everyone is jealous of the pastry chef because they are the ones who usually have air conditioning and the rest of the kitchen gets brutally hot at times.
In our kitchen, if you plan the meal and make the whole thing you are exempt from dishes. If you use help then you help with the cleanup. That way we keep everyone interested in the meal planning process and keep the talk about food going. We really try very hard at our menu planning just to make sure we are all working together. 
Nato
Assistant Cook
VeraBlue
Executive Chef
I started out at the cold prep station. From there I moved to soups and sides. From there I became the sous chef. From there I became chef manager. From there I became executive chef. I'm currently a director/executive chef with my hands still on the cutlery.
VeraBlue
Executive Chef
Absolutely. You need to express a desire to learn, a capability to learn and free up enough of your time to make yourself available during your shift, without shirking the responsibilities you were hired for.
As a case in point, I've got three days of huge catering events at my job. I'm down a lead cook and while I could hop in to do the position myself, I have other responsibilities. One of my grill cooks spent the day today baking cakes, cooking a few sauces and cooking pasta al dente; all things he's never done before but handled successfully because he wanted to learn and I had the inclination to teach him.
Nato
Assistant Cook
Oh awesome, thanks VeraBlue, I think I may actually start looking for an official job with cooking now...much much better than graphics will ever be, lol, imho. But that's just me!
chefnaterock
Cook
The answer to the question you posted is officially known as the brigade system. Not all restaurants have the same stations, and the setup you described is one way the brigade system can operate. Depending on the size of the operation, there can be 18+ titled chefs, all with a different function. Everything from a fromagier (cheese chef) to poissonier (fish chef) to chef de vins (AKA sommelier) and chef de sale (head waiter). Most small to mid-sized American operations have an Executive Chef, Sous Chef (sous from French for under), Kitchen Manager, and Several Chefs de partie (station chefs).
As far as Chef du Cuisine, he or she is almost always the Executive Chef because he or she executes the overall macro-management of the food service within a restaurant (menu development, concept plan, etc.), and is often times also the General Manager of the business and/or owner.
As far as Chef du Cuisine, he or she is almost always the Executive Chef because he or she executes the overall macro-management of the food service within a restaurant (menu development, concept plan, etc.), and is often times also the General Manager of the business and/or owner.
chefnaterock
Cook
Just to touch on what Vera said, she is absolutely right. There are so many oppertunities to move up quickly in a kitchen, it just depends on your willingness to work hard, learn and stay late. The only thing you should keep in mind is that you need to be willing to work hard, because no chef in their right mind is going to work harder on you than you are willing to work on yourself. If you show initiative, your higher-ups will usually jump at the oppertunity to build you up. If you slack, you will be ignored until you go away.
