ABPL90134 Planning Theory and History: The History Chef

A chef refers to a skilled or trained cook who is known to be proficient in almost all aspects of food preparation. Chef is known to mostly focus on a certain cuisine. The word chef was derived from the France term chef de cuisine which means the director of a kitchen or the kitchen chief. Initially, the term chef was known as chief meaning a leader. In the 1800s, about 5 centuries after the first mentioning of the name, a chef was given a more specific meaning. With the French word chef itself meant the head. The 1934 unabridged edition contained more chef related words beside chef de cuisine. Such include maître d’hôtel which means a headwaiter.

The culinary history does not provide a specific date for the first chef’s food service. However, the genesis of food service provides the history of chef to the ancient times. Street as well as public cooks were available in the Ancient Rome. Medieval travelers would dine at taverns, inns and hostelries (Payne & Theis, 2001). This traces back the history of chefs to many centuries ago. The latest edition of Larousse Gastronomque traces the first cafes to have existed in 1550. Such places as the “cafes” must have had chefs running them an evidence that chefs must have been there a number of centuries ago. A good number of publications states Marie-Antoine Careme to be the first renowned chef in history. Marie-Antoine who was born in 1784 owned a bakery in Paris and served as a chef in it (Jankowski, 2017).

In India, the culinary art of cooking has been known to be great since the 18^th century. Down the years, the country has produced renowned chefs such as Nelson Wang and Atul Kochhar who is known to be the first chef to receive a Michelin star for his prowess in the kitchen.

References

Jankowski, N. (2017). How a destitute, abandoned Parisian boy became the first celebrity chef. thesalt.

Payne, J., & Theis, M. (2001). West and Wood's introduction to foodservice. Prentice -Hall: Upper Saddle River NJ.