At San Francisco Cooking School we say often that we train cooks, not chefs. But, what’s the difference? In our How a Cook Becomes a Chef series, we ask some of our favorite chefs their thoughts on the matter.
Our culinary students recently had a workshop with Pastry Chef Lisa Donovan, formerly of Formerly of Husk in Nashville, and Chef/Owner of Buttermilk Road. Self-taught in the wonders of ethereal biscuits and flaky pie dough, Lisa’s journey into cooking is one she carved out of necessity through relentless learning and sheer will. She speaks about it beautifully here.
Lisa often says she took herself to school in her kitchen and the Nashville Public Library. Between demonstrations of fraisage and lessons on her famous buttermilk chess pie, the message to our students is loud and clear: curiosity, insane work ethic, more than a bit of gumption…these are all key ingredients of a promising cook. Here’s more from Lisa on the matter:
What Differentiates a Cook and a Chef?
“Most of the greatest chefs that I know and look up to call themselves cooks. At the beginning and end of each day, I think that we all strive to do one thing: take care of somebody. The term “cook”, to me, embraces the nurturing quality of this work. I want to provide. I want to fill a need. I do that best with food. Being a chef is a title for the thing I do, which is being a cook. Being a cook is a calling. It is my craft. Cooking is the thing that I would do with no expectation or need for accolades or fame or reward. I feel lucky to make a living out of this work. I feel no need to be called Chef but understand that it is a term of respect and, for that, I am also pretty humbled and grateful.”
Looking at the progress of your own career, at what point did you consider yourself a chef?
“I think that was an external gift, again, from my peers. They started calling me Chef long before I had the ability to look up realize that I had worked hard enough to potentially deserve that title. I still consider myself a student and am striving every day to be better and find the truest way of doing my work. The ability to travel and talk about food with other people is a pretty incredible gift. And, I suppose, when those conversations shifted from being solitary experiences in my head with the books of whom I considered the masters to actually having conversations with the masters themselves — I’ll admit that, perhaps then, I noticed a trajectory change in my career and started to understand the difference between simply needing/wanting to cook and being a chef.”
What can a young cook do to become a great chef?
“Worry about the work and not the title — doing this for money or fame should never be the goal. Focus on your skills. Teach yourself what you don’t know. Share the things you do know. Ask questions. Never stop learning.”
