foodha for thought – menuism blog

So it’s Friday night and you’re with a group of friends, who knowing you are a foodie-know-it-all, asks you what the difference is between a Commis Chef and Chef de Cuisine. Eeek! No worries.

Let them know that you’d rather enjoy your dessert and coffee for now and that you’ll get back to them later. Then run on home and copy and paste the following in an email.

See, you really are a foodie-know-it-all. Just don’t tell them you got a little help from the Menuism blog!

The Scoop on a Restaurant’s Kitchen Hiearchy or Dang, unless you go to Culinary School, you better be prepared for hands as dry as the Sahara!

Chef de Cuisine – A Chef de Cuisine is the one with the culinary vision and point of view, who conceptualizes the dishes and whose personality is reflected through all aspects of their restaurant. The Chef de Cuisine is usually the one who represents the restaurant through all kinds of media, print or television. Sometimes, they may have time to cook a meal or two.

Executive Chef - Executive Chefs run the whole kitchen when the head honcho isn’t there and are often employed when a chef has more than one restaurant. Duties include hiring and firing the staff, determining costs, revamping the menu, taking care of all administrative tasks, interacting with the dining room managers, and generally overseeing the well-being of the restaurant. In smaller restaurants, the Chef de Cuisine sees to all this, and an executive chef would be redundant.

Sous Chef – The Sous Chef is always in the kitchen. Their day involves coming up with ideas for the daily specials, handling inventory, overseeing the staff and depending on the size of the kitchen, they may also serve as the Expediter. Basically, they do all the hands-on work. Sous Chef will either move on to open their own restaurants, becoming Chefs de Cuisine or prefer to say where they are, uninterested in the limelight of chef stardom.

Expediter – For larger kitchens, there may be need for an Expediter. Their function is to serve as the liaison between the customers in the dining room and the line cooks. They ensure that the food gets to the wait staff in a timely fashion, so that everyone sitting at a particular table is served at the same time. Coordination and timing are important aspects of this job

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).

Chef de Partie – The Chefs de Partie (or Line Cooks) are the people who actually cook your food. They’ll man different stations either based on cooking technique (saute, grill, etc.), or by type of food (fish, meat, etc.). When the expeditor puts in an order, the Chef de Partie jumps to prepare it. Most Chefs de Partie work up through the line (working every position), before being promoted to Sous Chef.

Chef de Garde Manger – The Chef de Garde Manger handles the cold station and plates all the dishes that do not require heating, such as salads, terrines, and sometimes desserts, if there is no assigned pastry person on the line.

Commis Chef – A Commis Chef is an apprentice in larger kitchens that works under a Chef de Partie in order to learn the station’s responsibilities and operation. Commis Chefs are recent culinary school graduates. Ideally, over time, a Commis will spend a certain period in each section of the Kitchen to learn the basics. Unaided, a Commis will also very often work on the Vegetable section of a kitchen.

Kitchen Assistant - Kitchen assistants assist with basic tasks, but have had no formal training in cooking. Tasks could include peeling potatoes or washing salad. Smaller kitchens more commonly have kitchen assistants who would be assigned a wide variety of tasks (such as washing up) in order to keep costs down

Esculerie – The escuelerie or dishwasher, (from 15th century French) is the keeper of dishes, having charge of dishes and keeping the kitchen clean.

One last tidbit of information. In more traditional restaurants, the height of the chef hat determines the importance the wearer; therefore, at first glance when entering a restaurant kitchen, the wearer of the tallest chef hat is either the Executive Chef or Chef de Cusine. To find out more about the history of the Chef’s Hat, click here!

By Abby C. Abanes
Menuism Community Manager

Picture Attribution Goes to Simon Grossi