Are we stepping on the ACF's toes?

[Heffey de Chefey]

I see a lot of folks with Certified Executive Chef and Certified Master Chef after their names and wonder if they are legitimately certified through the American Culinary Federation. If they’re not, isn't that disrespectful of those who worked hard and sacrificed much while earning that distinction?

 

[GB]

Those titles are based on post counts. It is a good humored on topic sort of way to see who is new to the site and who is not. No disrespect intended.

 

[Heffey de Chefey]

I would urg you to modify the lables now that you are aware that these two are inappropriate.

 

[GB]

I am not aware they are inappropriate. I think the labels are great actually. No one is claiming to be anything they are not. It is all in fun. Lighten up a little and enjoy life.

 

[Heffey de Chefey]

I guess it is only inappropriate to those of us who have earned it and understand what being in the brotherhood is all about. I’m sorry I demonstrated a contrary view and disturbed play time.

I will take your advice and ease up on the subject.

 

[Alix]

Heffey, I just sent you a PM.

We're sorry you feel our titles are inappropriate. We have several chefs who post here and have done so for years who see nothing inappropriate in the titles.

Hope you can change your perspective a bit and enjoy things here. This looks like a bit of a bumpy start. We didn't mean to offend you, and I'm sure you don't mean to offend anyone with your "play time" comments either.

Shall we all try to start over?

Welcome to DC Heffey, it sounds like you have a lot to offer. Hope you enjoy meeting new people here.

 

[GB]

There are others here who have earned the title and are not offended by it. I am not sure how many forums you frequent, but this is a pretty normal thing for forums to do. A sailing forum may distinguish post count by calling people who few posts a deckhand while calling people with 1,000 post Captain. A political forum may call people with 5 posts intern while calling other posters President or Emperor. A music forum may call someone with few posts Millie Vanilli while calling someone who lots of posts The Beatles. It is just a way to have fun while giving out some useful information.

Sarcasm is often times hard to read online without the benefit of voice and physical expression so I do not know if you were being sarcastic when you said you were sorry you demonstrated a contrary view and disturbed playtime. To me, it sounds like you are getting a little worked up over something that is trivial, but maybe I just read you wrong.

 

[mollyanne]

Hi there Heffey de Chefey...nice to meet you.

Said with tongue-in-cheek: I take it you don't believe people should dress up as someone else for Halloween? ...and were ticked off when you found out some average Joe was acting as Santa? ...and, all those actors and actresses in Hollywood ...Just teasin' you Heffey de Chefey

Actually, I somewhat agree with you to a point...for newbies it's very confusing indeed....especially for those drifting through and not staying around long enough to figure it out. When I first came I didn't think your thoughts but I did experience a temporary blow to my self-esteem with all the "certified chefs" around ...then i caught on. I find everyone to be quite humble and friendly. Stick around. I love your name!

I think there is an option in the UserCP to change your title to your own choice at some point.
I'll probably change mine to "Winner of The Milk Debate"...haha, Al

 

[JamesS]

I often wondered if that was likely to ruffle any feathers.

It might have been better to use the traditional French Brigade de Cuisine, which is a lot more generic instead.

 

[CharlieD]

You know it is actually so funny to me, because in all honesty I have never even paid attention to what I was called. I visit few other forums and they also call people names (I'm joking) and on cigar forum it was something really bad, but really funny.
have to check what I'm called on this forum, will do it after I post here.

 

[CharlieD]

Oh, my. I am pretty high up in ranking here, wonder if should start charging for any of my advises.

 

[GB]

I have never even paid attention to what I was called.

That is probably for the best Charlie

 

[Heffey de Chefey]

My feathers are not quite as ruffled as some of you may think. My point was more -why use the term certified? Use master Chef or Executive Chef to have the fun you are seeking and if you truly are certified, use that.

I will continue to watch with interest your continued comments and jabs toward me with a grain of salt. I can certainly take it.

It’s great that you created a fun, happy group here. If my suggestion erodes that atmosphere, by all means ignore it.

 

[GB]

I think the issue, at least for me, was that your very first post here was of a tone of "hey you guys are doing it wrong and don't deserve this title" instead of making an into post (as most people do, but it certainly is not required) and getting to know the people and the site first before pointing out what you don't like about it. Just my 2 cents. it was not your suggestion that eroded the atmosphere. It was that you did not take the time to get to know us or the site before telling us that we were acting inappropriately. It would be like if someone you had never met came into your home and before even saying hi told you that your color scheme was all wrong.

 

[mollyanne]

I think Heffey has acted quite gentlemanly really considering how it must seem to a newbie just entering in.....and offers food for thought. Is it possible to just drop the word "certified"?

James S has a good suggestion...I don't know what "French Brigade de Cuisine" is but sure SOUNDS good...anything sounds good with a french accent

I checked the userCP and there is no option to pick your own title. Does that priviledge come later after a certain number of posts? I think vbulletin does offer that in their software. Just a thought

 

[JamesS]

The Brigade de Cuisine is the hierarchy in a traditional French kitchen. I imagine the newbies might object to being called commis (pronounced commie) though.

 

[mollyanne]

I never thought there was anything that a french accent couldn't fix...but that would be one for sure

 

[ChefJune]

I recommend leaving things just as they are. This site has been operating successfully for quite a number of years (long before I found it), and it's not broken.

 

[GB]

There is no option turned on that lets people pick their own title. From time to time there are contests (I think there is one now to name Franks Kitchenaid) in which the winner can pick what they like. Normally though that is not something the member can change.

The problem with using the Brigade de Cuisine is that it is not very accessible to most people. If you think people get confused now when they see Senior Cook next to their name how do you think they would feel with Chef de partie next to their name?

When we created these titles we looked at a number of different options (some having nothing to do with food). We chose to stick with what we have because it was something everyone could relate to without having any knowledge of actual cooking or food. One thing to keep in mind is that this site is for novice as well as professional so we needed something everyone could understand, not just those who received a formal education in food.

 

[spork]

I didn't understand the designations at first... didn't like being automatically labeled, given a title without my consent; was baffled how some members were able to change theirs to their liking, intimidated by those who were deemed "certified", and thought of it as web-clutter since our post-counts are numerically identified. I was more interested in quality of discussion and information rather than quantity, an active and engaging social site that is both serious and playful. I'm not the biggest fan of the vBulletin platform, but gave DC a try...

Now, it doesn't bother me. Because I intend to win FrankZ's "Name my KitchenAid Contest" and I know that CharlieD is just one of DC's several "certifiable" cooking enthusiasts.