National Day for Personal Chef

Cyjichan
6 min readJul 16, 2024

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These are people that are always ready to revive your day by making those warm homemade meals. The personal chefs are being celebrated during the National Day for Personal Chef on 16th of July. This day is celebrated to honor to the relentless efforts and hard of personal chefs which may range from standing long hours daily to go shopping for ingredients that will take care of your special cravings or dietary margins.

HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL DAY FOR PERSONAL CHEFS

The National Day for Personal Chef was made by the USPCA or US Personal Chef Association. In the recent years, there had been an increasing demand for the personal chefs and, in this regard, the association was built. The USPCA is identified to be an ultimate place for researching and hiring the ideal personal chef. Some of the personal chefs have sign up themselves to become members of this USPCA. The association provides people with assistance also to establish and expand their personal chef businesses. The USPCA membership may offer educational conferences, partnerships, insurance coverage, and numerous other benefits. The personal chef is usually the answer for the people with busy and hectic schedules that will prevent them from consuming home-cooked, fresh, meals. Previously, hiring the personal chefs was being considered exclusively preserved for the elite. But, with the enhancing economic conditions of the many households, lots of people are capable of hire the professionals for the dietary needs.

The personal chef’s job isn’t just to cook their client’s foods. They have to begin through learning about their eating habits, and any dietary allergies/restrictions and preferences of the clients. The personal chef may offer clients ideas through illustrating them the personal menu cards. The moment that the meals are chosen, the clients will decide on the timings and the days they would like the meals to be prepared. Depending on the situation of the client, the personal chef will be able to also help them to gain the right ingredients. During the ancient times, aristocrats and the royals are hiring a group of chefs. Through the years, not much has changed as the wealthy people keep on hiring people who refer themselves as a private chef. The private chefs solely cook for a household or a client. Usually, private chefs stayed in the same home as their employers. In contrast, the personal chefs worked for many people for a fixed time. The personal chefs are the people who also graduated from the culinary schools, and are employed in the culinary departments, or those normal people that have the special interest in foods.

TIMELINE FOR THE NATIONAL DAY OF PERSONAL CHEFS

1700–1800 — Personal Chef of Napoleon. While Napoleon Bonaparte has been popular for his conquests, he’s famous also for his pickiness if it deals with food, and it’s his personal chef’s discovery of chicken Marengo which ended up satisfying Bonaparte taste sprout.

21st Century — The Rise of Personal Chefs. The improving economic situations of lots of American households saw the improvement in people hiring their personal chefs for food needs.

Early 2000 — The Soaring Career for Personal Chefs. Giada De Laurentiis, one of the popular Italian celebrity chefs, begins her career as one of the personal chef before finally hitting it big to the Food Network with some other platforms as well.

2017 — The Registered Personal Chefs. About 10,000 personal chefs had been registered in America, an important increase when compared to the simple 5,000 registrations sometime in a few years back then.

TYPES OF CHEFS BASE ON THEIR KITCHEN RANKS

1. Executive Chef — Also known as Maître Chef de Cuisine had been considered as the most elder chef role and normally reserved for the bigger chef brigades where those executive chefs will also supervise all of the other chefs, make menus, order stock stuffs and maintain the kitchen budget and the food. In restaurants and small hotels, the executive chef is normally accountable for the cooking too.

2. Sous-chef — The second chef in command of the kitchen, ranking straight below a head chef. In bigger kitchens, the sous-chefs usually manage members of a kitchen on behalf to their head chef, who’s usually preoccupied of some other errands.

3. Chef de partie — Also called the line cook or station chef. He is the chef being in charge of the specific area of invention in the restaurant. In bigger kitchens, every chef de partie will have several assistants or cooks.

4. Expediter — This kitchen expert is not technically the chef. But, expediters play an important role as they’re in charge of a final stop before a plate reached a customer. They’re the ones who will check each dish the moment it is done to make sure they are right! — and then a server will grab the right item.

KINDS OF STATION CHEFS

Below are the titles to the in charge chefs of different stations in a kitchen brigade system:

1. CHEF (PATISSIER) — Like the name suggests, a pastry chef specialized in everything linked to the desserts. This includes pies, cookies, breads, pastries, and cakes. Their daily duty usually involved preparing batters and dough, baking, and adding the artistic decorations to a pastry.

2. SAUCE CHEF (SAUCIER) — The sauciers are the one in charge of doing the salad dressings, gravy, soups, pasta sauce, and stews. Since these are really important in the high-quality dining, the sauciers must also closely deal with the executive chefs and the sous to make the finest sauces for every station.

3. FISH CHEF (POISSONIER) — A fish chef concentrates on everything that is fish-related. In larger restaurants, they focused on the fish dishes, including soups, appetizers, and entrees. However, in smaller restaurants, they may be asked to arrange for soups, sauces, stocks, and other accompaniments. The fish chefs are eventually the one accountable for choosing and acquiring the quality seafood for the menu items.

4. VEGETABLE CHEF (ENTREMETIER) — An Entremetier prepares the vegetable dishes, which will include the sides and the mains. At times, they can also make the toppings or sources for the menu items, and also with the egg and soup dishes.

5. FRY CHEF (FRITURIER) — A friturier station is a home for fry chefs. This station chef is accountable for all the fried foods. They are running the fryers to cook vegetables, meats, and sometimes cheese. And with this, their everyday tasks normally include freezing, breading, and battering foods before frying, and also monitoring the cooking times.

6. ROAST CHEF (ROTISSEUR) — The braised and the roasted meats and veggies fall under a roast chef’s responsibilities. The main tasks include preparation for roasting, monitoring food, braising meat, throughout their cooking, then the making of the sauce that go with the dishes.

7. GRILL CHEF (GRILLARDIN) — A grill chef is the station chef that is accountable for the preparation of chicken, steaks, and some other grilled food stuffs. The same with the roast chef, the grillardins typically have small to no managerial tasks. But, since in-depth facts of meat cuts and types are vital to their specialty, they’re sometimes anticipated to work closely to a butcher chef.

8. BUTCHER CHEF (BOUCHER) — A butcher chef is accountable for every raw meat-related treats. They split, carve, debone, and trim the whole cuts of meats coming to a restaurant, preparing them just before they will go to the many different kitchen sections.

9. PANTRY CHEF (A GARDE MANGER) — While a title makes the sound like just a minor role the pantry chefs occupies an important role in a kitchen. They deal with the cold storage and the refrigerator stocks areas, ensure that every ingredient is fresh and they monitor supply levels.

10. SWING CHEF (A CHEF DE TOURANT) — A swing chef filled in when a station needs assistance during peak hours and even when the chef is absent. In this regard, they’re familiar with each kitchen area and are just ready to jump to any role in a moment’s notice.

11. COMMIS CHEF — A commis chefs is the entry-level chef who had normally finished culinary school. The commis chef shadows some other chef to discover more about how to help prepare meals, keep the work areas clean and how a professional kitchen works. They are also known as the junior chefs.

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