[Sca-cooks] Chef::: was ::: good brands of vinegar

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Heleen Greenwald:
>Now 2 questions:
>1) a Sous-chef runs the daily workings of a commercial kitchen , 
>yes? While 'the CHEF' makes the menus and tells the staff how to 
>prepare a dish... am I right in thinking this?

It varies. "Sous" just means "under" in French, so the sous-chef is 
the assistant chef. In some cases the restaurant can have a working 
chef, who actually cooks (often the chef runs the saute station, 
which is generally the most demanding position in the kitchen), and 
the sous-chef will go between the saute station when the chef is on 
the phone, out in the dining room, doing paperwork, etc. In large 
restaurants there may be an executive chef, who is more of a 
manager, doing menu design, staff instruction, buying, heading up 
inventory, officially signing off on the various hygienic standards, 
and, of course, the ever-popular invasion of people's work stations 
to play and experiment, using their mise-en-place for things that 
will never be served ;-).

The last kitchen job I worked, I was the sous-chef assisting a chef 
who did cook, but whose title was executive chef, and I was mostly in 
charge of the buffet in an executive dining room whose purpose was to 
offer upper-level executives and their guests a viable alternative to 
the plethora of local four-and-five-star restaurants which didn't 
constitute an entertainment tax deduction. Most of our clientele ate 
from the buffet, which was about 40 dishes, both hot and cold, with 
about ten permanent dishes and the rest a menu that changed every 
week. I had an assistant, and every so often I had to run out to the 
main part of the kitchen and run the saute station.

>2) Did you ever see the Brit com  *CHEF*? Starring Lennie Henry as 
>the domineering chef.  Very funny Brit-com....well, anyway..... When 
>a patron's order comes into the kitchen on a piece of paper, he 
>(the chef character) says
>"samash" - at least that is what I am hearing.... Then the person 
>who is going to prepare the dish, shouts out " yes chef"...  I have 
>always wondered what 'samash' means.

I assume it's a French term, but what it means, or even what it is or 
how it's spelled, I couldn't say. I'll have to go back and watch some 
episodes of "Chef!" and see if I hear this; I don't remember hearing 
it in those, or in any kitchen I worked in.

Adamantius


-- 
  "Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
	-- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry 
Holt, 07/29/04