Ode to the Catering Chef

When I tell people I work as a chef, they constantly ask me what restaurant I work in or own. To a tee they always sound disappointed when I admit that I do not work in a restaurant. Its as if you are only valid as a chef if you are attached to one of those darn restaurants.

The truth is that if I were to calculate the statistics, it would probably turn out that something like sixty percent of the chefs in this country do not work in restaurants at all. Although most of them have most assuredly paid their dues by training in one kitchen or another. I suppose it wouldn't be a big deal to even mention, except that I get asked this question so often it has begun to irritate me that people seem so disappointed.

There are many facets of working in the food industry. From research and development in manufacturing plants, to teaching in cooking schools. Teaching is cooking schools, working in cafeterias, or any number of commissary type operations. Then there are the chef consultants, who develop foods for fast food chains and so forth. The list goes on.

The chefs I believe get the rawest deal all when it comes to respect, are the catering chefs. The worst part about this situation, is that bar none, some of the most talented and hardest working men and women I have ever had the pleasure to collaborate with, make their living orchestrating events.

I spent many years working as a catering chef in Hollywood California. Catering to the elite of the entertainment industry. I have orchestrated events from the Academy Awards Governors Ball, to small intimate dinners for actors, I am not allowed to mention. The time I spent doing this kind of work, were by far the most difficult years of my working life. While at the same time, they were the most creative and exciting experiences I could have ever imagined. I ran the kitchen for one company in Los Angeles that did over thirty million dollars a year in sales. The challenge of organizing sometimes as many as thirty high end parties a week, was enormous in scope. Every little detail from the perfect amount of meat to trash bags and crazy glue for nasty cuts, had to be thought of.

Just consider what it might be like to open twelve restaurants a day, then turn around and do the same thing all over the next day, with a completely different theme and menu. Imagine that the clientele you are catering to, is not only paying top dollar for the event, but because they happen to be a movie star, or producer, even the smallest flaw during the evening will not only get noticed, it could cost you thousands of dollars to rectify. The best catering chefs I have known, not only have to be veritable masters at global cuisine, but they have to be logistical geniuses and posses impeccable leadership skills. In Los Angeles, the level of cuisine presented at these parties not only has to be of the same quality of the best restaurants in the country, but it has to be executed perfectly the first time. These parties last for one night and the pressure for perfection is enormous. Not to mention that your staff counts on you to lead them with confidence and skill, or the whole shebang might fall apart.

Believe me, I have a great amount of respect for restaurant chefs who themselves slave away night after night. But I also think someone needs to focus on the catering dudes and dudettes, for a change. Often they are the most talented and focused professionals in the food business and someone ought to acknowledge this talent and skill for a change. I am extremely tired of watching ridiculous food shows, featuring young kids whose skill levels and ability to handle pressure would get them fired in one night at a top catering operation.

I have been married three times (I guess I'm not the easiest guy to live with, but I mean well). Each one of my wife's thought they might like to work with me once in awhile. To them it seemed like such a glamorous job to work a party. After only a few experiences, all three of these wonderful woman assured me that they would never set foot in a catering kitchen again. They said they had never worked so hard in their lives.

In fact that's the worst part about the whole thing. Not only do you have to cook the food, but you have to load it along with all the equipment onto trucks, clean the whole mess up after the event, and then schlep the mess back to the kitchen at the end of the night. The only person I know in my family who seems to have the stamina to handle this kind of work, is my daughter Morgan, who is a young budding chef herself. In a way I feel sorry for her, because she has the bug and she is in for a long hard ride.

I am almost fifty now and I still do quite a few events in the wine country of Northern California. I have to admit that even for someone who has been doing it as long as I have, the work is beginning to get the best of me. Sometimes when I get home, my legs throb so badly it might take me all night to fall asleep.

So the next time you ask a chef where he or she works, and if shyly admit to being a caterer. Instead of giving them a look of disdain, for not working in some high end restaurant. Take a moment to shake their hand and tell them how amazing they are for the work they do. Better yet, invite them to a party that they won't have to work at for a change. I'm telling you from experience, that kind of compassion and generosity work make their whole year.

Hell, restaurants chefs get treated like rocks stars, and many of them wouldn't last one day at a catering event. So lets at least give these guys and gals a little well deserved respect having the courage, talent and stamina to tackle one of the toughest professions on the planet.