CHEF, in French, a chief or head person ; in English-speaking usage, the head-cook in a club or large private establishment, or the head of the kitchen department in a large hotel or commercial catering organization. In general a chef is responsible for the conduct and operation of the food preparation in a large kitchen. He directs the staff of cooks, bakers and others required to pre pare food for serving. He plans meals, prepares menus and sees that sanitary practices are observed. If a chef-steward, he may be given complete control of kitchen, pantries and ice-boxes in cluding all purchasing, and be expected to figure prices. If only a supervising chef, he is only responsible for the preparation of the food supplied to him from the stores department on requisi tion. He is usually expected to devise new recipes for preparing foods and more attractive ways for arranging them for service.
Every establishment preparing food on a large scale usually has a chef in charge of cooking operations. The constant growth of the hotel business and the commercial preparation of foods gives employment each year to a still larger number of chefs, though the requirements tend to become greater due to the de mand for men having a more thorough knowledge of nutrition and food chemistry. For the most part, chefs are a product of an apprentice system. Young men start as assistant vegetable man, or even lower in the culinary scale, pass through a long line of specialized cooking positions such as vegetable cook, fry cook, roast cook (rossetier), roundsman, at times as baker or butcher, pastry man, cold meat chef (garde manger), until finally they be come chefs, a process requiring from 4 to 8 years and frequent changes of employment. Schools for chefs and cooks are practically non-existent in the U.S.A., though not unknown in Great Britain. The leading chefs in English-speaking countries have usually served an apprenticeship in central Europe or in France, whence they depart after completing their service. In some commercial establishments trained chemists and graduates from university schools of home economics often serve as chefs, though usually under a different title.