Chef Rules OK!

If you root around amongst those irksome fridge magnets you find in any suburban kitchen you'll inevitably come up with some silly mantra along the lines of "This kitchen is closed - I'm sick of cooking" or Mom's Kitchen Rules. If you go into the average commercial kitchen you don't have to root around - they won't have fridge magnets of course,but prominently displayed,usually outside the Chef's Office or on his door, you'll find something along the lines of "Rules of the Kitchen". Rule No 1 - Chef is always right. Rule No 2 - Refer to rule No 1.This is not a joke! Chef's don't laugh at themselves otherwise why on earth would they wear such ridiculous tall hats? They are deadly serious and it all started I suppose with that little fellow from Nice, Auguste Escoffier, who more than anyone is responsible for the hierarchy in today's commercial kitchen and perhaps judging from his own diminutive stature was the one who really pushed for the tall hats. Kitchens are organised on a brigade system and there are numerous examples with army overtones, battles won and lost and camp followers - that's camp followers not camp.....followers. The problem with this "Chef rules OK!" mentality is that every so often it produces an idiot like Gordon Ramsay who fervently believes in Rule No 1 and the whole scene can have an adverse effect on creativity by stifling it totally in young chefs. That's why His Gordoness may "make for good television" but very few professional chefs take him too seriously despite his Michelin stars and undisputed cooking skills.

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