The purpose of chefs.
We all need cooks in our lives. Cooks cook, feed, and nourish people. We need food to survive, and we need someone to prepare the food to make it edible and ideally somewhat enjoyable. There is no need to get any qualifications or prove yourself to be a cook. All you need is the intention to feed someone, be that yourself alone, family, friends, or wider communities.
Chefs, however, are different.
Per definition, chefs are non-essential. A chef is generally someone who trained professionally, who works in restaurants, hotels, or for a particular institution or family, and who prepares and serves food in exchange for money. Chefs don’t really save lives or help people in need, nor are they necessarily the key to keeping society alive.
So what really is the point of chefs? Who needs someone with an unnecessarily large collection of sharp knives to prepare a dish that may be verging on the edge of being overpriced, thus making it less accessible to society? What is the point of a person who supposedly knows exactly how to make certain dishes and berates you when you cook them differently? Or someone who spends several hours and plenty of money and ingredients to test and perfect a single dish that may or may not end up as an appetiser on a menu for a week?
Realistically, there isn’t much of a point in chefs, despite the pride they – and that includes me – take in their profession. Although cooking is the main part of our profession, we cannot claim to be an integral part of keeping our communities fed and alive. I don’t mean to say that we don’t create any positive impact – we contribute to memorable experiences, take customers on a trip down memory lane or open up new worlds, or simply create and serve delicious dishes. We may help ease someone’s day by cooking their lunch for them, allowing them to use the time and energy gained from not standing in the kitchen to do something more valuable to them. We can help bring people together to chat and eat nice food. However, these experiences are not open to everyone. Many people only visit restaurants on special occasions, and most people likely cannot afford to eat out in restaurants regularly.
As chefs, therefore, we must be aware of the privilege inherently connected to our profession. We largely rely on customers who have a disposable income to keep us employed and paid. The ones we do feed are therefore not really those who need it most, and the positive impact of our work is largely limited to the comforts of the middle class.
Naturally, not every profession can make a fundamental difference in the same way that social workers, doctors, or teachers can. But it can be helpful to occasionally consider what we can do in our daily work which can help bring about change or support to those who need it. Some restaurants have started to recognise this and make a point of supporting charities with some of their profits or adding an optional tip on people’s bills for donations. If we are already catering for people with disposable income, we may as well let them know that this disposable income could also be directed elsewhere.
Really, there are plenty of things to consider to make a wider and more positive impact: We can consider the ingredients and suppliers used for our dishes and adapt them to support local, independent businesses, and aim for more sustainable and environmentally friendly sourcing. We may organise fundraising events and raise awareness about particular issues with customers. We can join forces with community kitchens and charities and cook for people and families who need it most. Or we may host events for particular communities to create welcoming spaces and bring people together over food.
Most of us started as cooks, and sometimes it can be helpful to return to that original intention of wanting to make food for ourselves and the communities around us. The ability to bring people together and cook delicious food is in itself integral to society, and something chefs can achieve if they so choose. Questioning the purpose of what we do is the first step to making a wider impact with our work, no matter how small, and therefore something we should all be thinking about when we can.