Momofuku

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Image Source: Boston Globe Sunday Magazine

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ChefsOpinion :

Has there been any point made during this “discussion” ?
I love a good chef / cook in the kitchen and respect any gender if you are good at what you are doing. Our industry is not “male dominated” besides the fact that the majority of cooks and chefs ARE male. The vast majority of cooks / chefs are male because until fairly recently, our job required 14/16 hour workdays, 6 or seven days a week, you sweat like an animal, no time to eat, the pay sucked, after work you stink like a pig because of all the sweat, smoke, steam and stuff splattered all over you. Those are just a few of the negatives we had to deal with on a daily basis. Being a chef was never a dream profession, almost everybody became a cook apprentice because of practical reasons (maybe the family owned a restaurant, maybe there was nothing else in the region so the kid had to go somewhere with room and board provided, etc. Most woman were lucky enough to be able to avoid these circumstances. It seems everybody has forgotten the “good old times. These day’s, all workers, male or female, are protected by labor laws and (most of the time) by the good manners of their male colleagues. Don’t forget, MOST young cooks gave up their profession at an early stage back in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s because they could not handle it for a life time. It’s all in the numbers ladies and gentlemen – have the majority of professional chefs and cooks be female and THEY will dominate the business 🙂 Some of the greatest chefs were and are women but there are just not enough numbers ( yet? ) for you all to project anything else but a minority status, YOU need to change that !
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Life is Good ! Don’t waste it with crap !
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Excerpts from EATER
Wednesday, July 11, 2012, by Gabe Ulla

In recent years, chefs around the world have founded dedicated test kitchens as venues in which to create freely — without the pressures of a normal, working kitchen — and feed their restaurants new dishes, ideas, and techniques. Some of these projects delve into scientific, technological, and academic research (Momofuku, Mugaritz, Moto), while others stick to developing menus and working on food (Relae, ThinkFoodTank). For the most part, these are small kitchens that don’t serve diners or independently produce much or any profit.

The test kitchens of today owe much to Ferran Adrià, who would close his restaurant for half of the year, head to Barcelona, and work in a small space to develop an entirely new menu for the following season. It is, as NYU professor Anne McBride describes it, about “separating the creative process from the productive one.”

And with a good number of food labs or test kitchens popping up in the last three years, is this something many more restaurants will be adopting? According to McBride, the level of resources needed for these operations is simply too high for most chefs and restaurants.” However, she believes “that even without having defined test kitchens, the idea of allowing more space (physical and mental) to the creative process, will trickle down. I think that diners and the profession can only benefit from this push in creativity.”

Here are ten, but stay tuned for a new regular Eater feature highlighting these and more test kitchens around the globe.

Read and see all HERE
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