LCFL #013// Don't Call Me Chef

Are title and name
synonymous?

"Don't you realize you can't treat people like this?"
"This is the way kitchens work. The chef says go and people go."
"The chef can't fuck people all day and expect them to still go with any real loyalty."
"Then they'll lose the privilege of my god damned kitchen."
"That's backwards!"
"What are you talking about?! That's how fucking kitchens run! That's how it works! Don't you know anything? I mean, haven't you been in a kitchen before?!"
"I've been cooking for fifteen fucking years, 'Fred'."
"That's it. You're done. You don't call me 'Fred'. You're done. Go clean out your locker."
And with that another job was lost.
A good one, too.
Steady spot in a kitchen that was really becoming something. The chef had some real stripes - I think he soused for Bolud or Ripert or one of those NYC cats. His cuisine was exciting and he had just gotten clearance to rebuild the kitchen into a culinarian's wet dream, complete with sous vide station. I was the rounds man in a very solid situation.
Problem was I just can never keep my mouth shut.
Chefs have a tendency - myself included - to have blinders on during service. We forget regularly that the tortellini for five isn't the only thing in the world going wrong. We yell. Sometimes some of us allow it to get personal. I have seen some temper tantrums. Saw a guy get dressed down - the chef's finger all a-wagglin' in dude's face, spittle flying from the enraged leader's lips as he belittled and insulted away - all because he asked if he was going to be able to leave at his scheduled time or if he needed to call the sitter. No repercussions for the chef. The line cook was taken off the schedule. I saw a guy stand in the corner of the walk in freezer for half an hour - his punched out break time - over burning a tray of croutons. I saw a female chef refer to her saucier as a pussy after the towel in his hand caught fire and he scorched his hand good and asked if he cold step off the line. I'm still amazed he asked and then said, "Thank you, Chef," as he walked off line - even, "Yes, Chef," when she yelled at him to hurry up.
Usually, the promotion to sous chef is where this starts to break down. Once a chef accepts you as a sous then he is admitting by default that you might be pretty good. That's usually when, at least in the quiet moments, that one can address the chef by his given name. Anytime the chef is upset, whether at you or someone else, it'll be right back to Chef though.
So when I had earned a few stripes myself, had worked for a few Michelin stars, cheffed a few kitchens and created a few winning dishes, I felt I had earned the title. I thought my chef recognized me as possibly his intellectual equal and as a human being with emotions. I thought that maybe - just maybe - I had earned the right to address my chef by his christian name in a moment of honesty and an attempt at human connection. One chef to another.
Nope.
You see, there is a history of the title 'chef' being held in such high regards as 'doctor' or 'admiral' or 'officer.' A job title that connotes a high level of expertise and therefore a prefix added to your name. Most prefer to simply be called 'Chef,' bypassing any need for such a plebeian thing like a name. Everyone is a Vinnie or Debbie. Only the greats get called chef, right?
Wrong.

Don't call me chef.

For years, I lived above the worst diner in the city of Buffalo and the douche bag who owned the joint and ran the kitchen had a licence plate frame that simply said, 'Chef.' Chef, huh? From slinging hash at a filthy place in North Buff?! That's dubious. I don't wanna be lumped in with him. Not to sound like a pompous ass myself but I have achieved a little more than that and want to be regarded differently - I feel I am, but the title brings all that right back.
I also do not want to be included in the numbers of chefs like Fred who insist - on point of sight - to be referred to anyone within the industry as Chef. Respect is not something to demand but to earn. If someone - after eating your food, seeing your sanitation practices, watching you butcher meat and monger fish, listening to you wax poetic about the season properties of various herbs, and outdrink the entire front of the house - wants to bestow the title on you, then so be it.
They can feel free to call you Chef. You earned that shit. It would be an honorific.
I believe that to be the original intent.
Instead of trying to redefine the word to be used as a title, I just say give it up. Let it go. I like how Thomas Keller uses the term in his kitchen: everyone calls everyone chef. If you're in the kitchen in the finest establishment in the world then you are obviously chef caliber. Even down to the lowliest prep kid - do they even have that at the laundry? I know they have prep, but lowly? Keller has taken it back and removed the pomposity from the term and the title.
So, since my run in with 'Fred' I have decided to take my own stance: Don't call me chef. I try not to be too obnoxious about it, I don't correct people until we have a regular relationship or whatever. I just invite those around me to call me by my name, please. My name is Pawl. I like it. It is an odd spelling I know, but it is what it is. I can also use it as a way of filtering phone calls between those I do and do not do business with already.
"This is Pawl."
"Hello, Chef, how are you today?"
"Oh, me? I'm not THE chef. He'll call you."
Click.

Pawl