# A Chef's Chatroom?



## chefmikesworld (Nov 17, 2002)

Is there really a place where chef's can talk about food and passion that isn't invaded by idiots???????

Cheffy


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## andrew563 (Oct 12, 2005)

I would absolutely love to find that place. I haven't found one yet. everytime I think I do, its a bunch of people swapping meatloaf recipes and talking about their latest dining experience at McDonalds.

Hey, how about one here?


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## panini (Jul 28, 2001)

Not Me. I like it right here.
Savory Chefs will turn something like that into a support group with a passion for food.
Sweet Chefs will be talking in a foriegn language and the Savory Chefs will label them "idiots"


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

I guess it's all how you define "Chef" and how you define "idiot". 
This being N. America, anyone who wears a poofy white hat is a "Chef"; a free title for the taking, no qualifications or criteria involved. O.T.H. you may get a brain surgeon or rocket scientist who likes to fool around in his/her own kitchen at home and is genuinely curious about why food behaves the way it does, and wants to learn more about. I'd rather have a non-professional to talk to than someone wearing a white hat and big ego who does nothing but drop frozen breaded zuchinni sticks in a fryer, but calls himself "Chef", or in this case, a "Drop-chef"....


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## chefmikesworld (Nov 17, 2002)

Jeez...guess I should choose my words better...sorry about that...

Here is what I meant to say---I do not go into a food chat to discuss the World Series or someone's sex life, I am there to talk about my art and passion, I did not mean that non-chef's are idiots, that is far from what I meant

Sorry if my thought process wasn't congruent with my written word...my fault, sorry

(but I do agree with Food Pump tho'---I had a cook ask me if Kikkomen was one of the mother sauces...LOL)

Cheffy


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## markv (May 16, 2003)

Jim?

Mark


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## kuan (Jun 11, 2001)

Think of this forum as an open kitchen.


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## jim berman (Oct 28, 1999)

I find chat rooms a valuable resource, however they can be rather time consuming, especially when the focus goes 'off topic.' I have never felt a shortage of insight in this forum, however. I have always received feedback/input in a timely manner... so it is almost like a chat minus the fussy-ness, in my opinion.
Chef mike... no problem. Often time the typed word does not carry the intent of the spoken word. We gotcha!


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## chefmikesworld (Nov 17, 2002)

I tend to agree with you Jim-Chef Talk rocks..I love it here....

Being a writing chef, I surf all over the place trying to find a slew of ideas/inspiration to write about and this is one of, if not my favorite place to hang out..

On my website, I have hosted some really cool chats that panned out the riffraff and we got down to the nittygritty and talked about passion and food, which is why I am in the business (or why I continue to be in the business) and I love to talk food, methods, garde manger blah, blah, blah...it is beyond networking is it about plugging someone's mind for ideas/inspirations. But like Kuan and Jim said, we can get the same thing here and I for one, have gotten the same thing here...

Thanks for the input,
Cheffy


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## nicko (Oct 5, 2001)

ChefTalk has had chat rooms in the past an unless they are monitored you should not partake they are quite simply one of the more dangerous places to meet people on the net. Even if you particpate in a chatroom that is monitored you still need to exercise caution about who you talk with. The advantage of a forum is that you can read a person's posts and get to know them on some level before you decide to share information about who you are.

I personally (sorry to offend if I do) think chat rooms are a waste of resources as they take up a tremendous amount of bandwith. Chat room have also gone down in popularity I believe due to the fact that so many young women have been stalked via them. 

Lastly, quality discussions last in a forum, idiots do not.


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

Don't want to be misunderstood, I think this site is pretty good. Oh, and by the way Ketchup is a mother sauce too, 'cause you can make cocktail sauce, salad dressings and cream of tomato soup with it too....


No, really, I've been (and still am) living in a cave for the past 8 years now, ever since I opened up my catering biz. No one really to talk to. The 100 hr weeks for the last couple of years hav pretty much "taken care of" any social contact I had. Can't go out for a few beers after work, 'cause there's no one to go with, other than the sales reps, (bad idea) my staff (even worse idea) or my clients, (the worst) and the family sure doesn't want to hear about cooking when I make it through the doors. So sites like this give me a chance to do some talking.


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## chefmikesworld (Nov 17, 2002)

Point taken Nicko....and I totally agree...we have had the chatroom for a while but rarely use it, which was my point in the email...

FoodJump...I am in the same situation...
Live my life on the road and find that not a lot of people share my passion, and the people that do have some sort of passion are either on some kind of mind altering experience that makes them "romance" their profession or otherwise which is why I like to talk food, real time, real people...

Granted this website rocks, I love it here and I do get timely response on anything that I post, some good, some bad, but never in bad taste or in an offensive manner...

Kudos Nicko...you done good...

If anyone ever wants to shoot the bull about food with me you can contact me IM through here and I can give you times of when I can be available to shoot the bull about our passion through AIM or Yahoo...

Chef Mike


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## gus20 (Jul 26, 2002)

Hello, i have always tryed to find a chatroom in english but i didnt find it. BUt i found one in spanish, in this web : www.afuegolento.com , its a webpage with forums like this, chat, imformation but in spanish.
I know it wont help u much, but i can say I have known excellent people in a chat... friends for years and excellent pieces of advice, specially cuz the same people is who usually enter to the chatroom.

regards

Gus


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## nicko (Oct 5, 2001)

I was recently reading an article on the Microsoft Small buisness site:

*9 things not to have on your Web site

*The number 8 items is:

*Unsupervised chat boards.* "If you want a chat area, plan on using a moderator who approves every submission beforehand. This avoids spam, off-color comments, potential security breaches, and other headaches."

http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusine..._web_site.mspx


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## panini (Jul 28, 2001)

FoodJump...I am in the same situation...
Live my life on the road and find that not a lot of people share my passion, and the people that do have some sort of passion are either on some kind of mind altering experience that makes them "romance" their profession or otherwise which is why I like to talk food, real time, real people...

OK, now I'm curious,
What is the difference between passion and romance? This business is mind altering on any level.
I have never really found someone ( other then my wife ) who shares the same exact passion/romance for our profession. I would have nothing in common with a person who views food the same way I do. I have found that you have to eliminate the passions of other chefs to talk food. It really comes down to style.
I too am in the same boat. Working in a cave. I make it a point to go out and seek food talk from all sorts of people, in the industry, friends, even customers. I feel, once you seperate yourself, you build walls that eventually trickle down to your customers.
I want to talk about my all around health with the Family Doctor, not a specialist.
\Just my 2 cents.


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

Romance is romance, you're infatuated with someone/something because, well, just because. 

Passion is different, it's an obsession, you methodically learn everything about your passion, everything related to cooking: History, ingredients, techniques, tools, procedures, little tid-bits like how Worcestershire sauce, which is an Indian condiment, came to be made in England, why the Spanish had a stranglehold on Vanilla for almost 3oo years, why adding redwine to braised red cababage at the right time will stop it from becoming a phsychedilac purple, the extreme simplicity and rare find of someone who can saute properly... 

You will find people who share our passion, but they are rare finds, and half of the fun is finding these people, kinda like that old saying: The secret is not what is in the box, the secret is opening the box. 
My Chiropracter is one such person, must have seen him at least a dozen times, and he just assumed I was a plain old cook, because that's what was written on my chart. It was only after he probed about an old injury I sustained years ago at a 5 star Hotel in Zürich, that he became interested. He put up a barrge of probing questions to see how passionate I was about food before admitting he was too. Seems he grew up with tuna cassarole and as a treat, semi-thawed chicken tossed in a pan with Cream of mushroom soup and shoved into an oven. Worked as a waiter at a high-end place to get through University and that's when he caught the bug. Interesting guy...


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## panini (Jul 28, 2001)

Oh OK.
I guess mine is romance. Don't know why, just because. I'm in love with what I do. I have also methodically learned everything about what I do and learn more every day. I guess I'm just not obsessed.


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## chefmikesworld (Nov 17, 2002)

I thought you would get a kick out of this.....an article instigated by an old protege of mine....

The Chef’s Office
Romanticizing the Kitchen
August 2005


Chef Mike,

First, I want to say that I thoroughly enjoy the Chef’s Office newsletters; I use them as a motivation for some of my more serious cooks and post them on the bulletin board at work. I take it even more personally because I have worked along side of your crazy butt for longer than either one of us care to remember. Ha ha.

I do have one comment though, although your articles are definitely thought provoking and sometimes downright heehaaaa motivating, I also feel that sometimes the articles romanticize the kitchen. Knowing you and the passion that you possess has been one of my coolest experiences as a cook and chef, but let’s think about this for a moment.

1.Sometimes the culinary battlefield is anything but pretty.
2.Tempers flare, no matter how much Zen you are bringing to light.
3.The list of dream kitchens and the perfect culinary experience are few and far between.

As professionals, we are always seeking ways of making our worlds better by creating systems and analyzing everything that we and our staff do. Of course, those of us that are serious would love to work in a world of Thomas Keller’s, Adrian Ferran’s and Gordon Ramsey’s but unfortunately this is the difference between fantasy and reality. Me? I got stuck with you and Chef Roy…ha ha

Although you have given me things to think about, have had me constantly second guessing and always re-thinking my preparations and executions, our world may have been a lot of fun, educational and motivating, but it was anything but pretty. 

I could analyze this whole synopsis but it comes down to quite a few issues and we can break down any of these issues and come up with a thousand reasons why our world is less than perfect. Not only in the kitchen we first met, but in almost every kitchen since the beginning of time.

Key notes to figure are organization, communication, dedication and loyalty to all phases of who we are as chefs, cooks and managers. I could not tell you how many times I use your JJ DID TIE BUCKLE acronym; it is an effective management tool that when I analyze an event or mishap, I always find myself reflecting on the acronym. I laugh with my staff and tell them that you are “haunting me” ha-ha

Well, that is my two cents. Hope my words find you well and bouncing off the walls.

Miss and Love you,
Chef Ellen Young, CCC


Thus the words of an old “I’m cooking to get out of college” protégé of the CheffyBoy… and the instigator of the next thought out of the Chef’s Office…Thanks Chef…

First, to explain the JJDIDTIEBUCKLE acronym, (an acronym from my Marine Corps days)

Justice, Judgment, Decisiveness, Integrity, Dependability, Tact, Intuition, Earnest, Bearing, Understanding, Courage, Knowledge, Loyalty and Endurance

Man, JJ had one heck of a tie to buckle…

I used to say that if as a successful manager, of this or any other profession, you possess all of these traits; you will become a successful student, teacher, mentor, friend… I am moved that “CheffyBoy” lesson was well learned and is still being applied twenty years after the fact. That’s awesome.

Now back to this Romanticism stuff…

Romanticism: To treat in an idealized or heroic manner. (Merriam-Webster 2004)

I read an article the other day in I think Sante Magazine that made a cool point. The general idea of the article was that there are three types of chef’s…those of us that do it for food…. Those of us that do it for money… And those of us that do it for the food and the money…I thought that was an interesting thought, because I think that we sometimes desire, crave or imagine ourselves to be in one of the other two categories we are in.

Idealized or heroic manner…

If our real passion is in our food, granted this is a culinary world, and often it becomes a battlefield of wits, tempers, haves and have-nots, can and can not’s success is all that matters. Although we may have the opportunity to “share that love”, and at times “lose the love” in midst of getting my butt kicked on Saturday evening cleaning salmon on sauté because enough wasn’t prepped instead of expediting like I should be…yeah, then it’s not pretty. But these things I understand. Do I condone them or wear a happy face? Probably not. Failure is not an option, and near failure is a stressful situation no matter what color you paint it. Our passion should insure that failure is never a question, and it is never an option. If we figure out the systems and abide by them in order to ascertain our success then little else matters. Focus on your art by mastering your craft!!!! 

Do I romanticize my craft? Definitely. I may not love jobs that I may find myself in, (although there have been quite a few that I actually loved), I will always love food and love the fact that I am somewhat good at expressing my craft.

Webster’s had a good definition of romanticism. “…in art and literature, imaginative and free from classic rule…” Welcome to the world of the CheffyBoy…

Why not romanticize something or someone you love?

Peace, Hugs and Cookies,
Cheffy


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## paul (Nov 4, 2005)

The best McDonald's I've ever been to was in a suburb of Milwaukee.
I could have sworn they fried their french fries in horse fat.


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## chall1985 (Nov 8, 2015)

yes there is


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