At what point does someone become a chef or cook?

>at what point does someone become a chef or cook?

>what point is someone categorized as being "able" to "cook"?

I've been cooking at home since I was 8 and I'm now 18 so that's 10 years of home cooking, I've never even properly read a cook book and yet my cooking skills seem to advance as time goes on simply by me just doing stuff; I never use measurements and I never use recipe's, I don't think about what I'm going to cook or eat I just take a look at what I have, pull out what I feel like eating, set it on the table and start making something, and most of the time I change what I'm doing a quarter or even half way in and make a completely different dish because I changed my mind, and it always turns out orgasmic

everyone I know really likes my food, calls me a chef and asks me things like "so what's on the menu?" and shit like that

so I wanna know, am I just a colossal faggot? someone who knows how to make my own food? am I an amateur cook? an amateur chef? a wannabe?

you sound like a poser to me

so wannabe and colossal faggot then

>be me
>literally cooking sense i was
>mom tells me im a good

*blushs* eehh idk. What do my cool internet friends think?

a chef is someone who plans and prepares all the food for a restaurant.

you are an amateur cook: someone who prepares food but is not paid to do it.

HAHA yeh this sounds like me, my god, I really am a colossal faggot aren't I?

I mean I always thought I wasn't actually a cook a chef or anything worthy of a title in the sense of gastronomy and I was just making whatever and if I actually asked my cool internet friends I'd be exposed as a colossal faggot

fuck guis

Being able to work with out a recipe and making more than simple shit (like pasta and eggs) but more advanced things like homemade pasta dough or velvet chicken with scalloped potatoes without box mixes and convenience products is how someone can say they can cook.

For a Chef you need to be in charge of people a manager in the kitchen (chef is French for Chief because that's what a chef is to the kitchen the leader)
Remember though the Chef should always be the best cook in the kitchen since as a Chef you never stop being a cook.

I'd like to know what experience you guys have with cooking, are you all chefs or in the restaurant / hospitality business and such or do you just cook stuff at home just because you like it like me or have you went full fucking academic and studied food science and gastronomy and all that? maybe just read a few recipe books?

hmm, sounds pretty right

so the verdict is here: is OP a colossal faggot or an amateur cook?

A cook is someone who can consistently handle the line. A chef manages the cooks and primarily comes up with the menu.

Six months of cooking on the line is about equivalent to your 10 years making mommy breakfast in bed. You're a wannabe.

OP is always a faggot
He can be an amateur cook as well

>Being able to work with out a recipe and making more than simple shit (like pasta and eggs)
I don't really make simple shit that often, also I have a strange relationship with eggs sometimes I hate it for months and other times I crave it like made etc.

I'd say I eat and cook kinda like a pregnant woman sometimes (no I don't soy lel)

>more advanced things like homemade pasta dough or velvet chicken with scalloped potatoes without box mixes and convenience products

yeah I had a phase where I was craving homemade asian / chinese handpulled noodles and started making huge batches of pasta dough without a recipe and making a bunch of different kinds of noodle dishes and soups also without a recipe, I made a good amount of italian angel hair and linguini dishes before too
>be in charge of people a manager in the kitchen

lol nope never done that don't think I want to do it
hmm I don't think I ever made mommy breakfast in bed because I only had a step mom for 2 years from 9-11

>You're a wannabe

yeah that's kinda what I thought
topkek

>When do you become a cook
The first time you cook something

>When do you become a chef
The first time someone pays for your cooking

You'll find both on here. I find that most of the long standing members of /ck? are amateur hobbyist cooks. They know there way around a kitchen, but are unpaid, or have some experience as a line cook in their youth.

Actual chefs who are paid to create menus and recipes for a restaurant are far fewer in here. At a professional level, chefs are too busy to be arsed with a place like this. They have to deal with procuring ingredients, training cooks, planning menus, and working with management to establish a good food cost to profit ratio. This is in addition to running the kitchen 2 meals a day. It's a demanding job, that takes the truly devoted 16 hours a day.

tl;dr This is a hobbyist's board with a ton of trolls who can't cook a thing, but love seeing our reaction to 50 McDs posts a day.

sobering perspective
topkekx2

went to culinary school and got a job in the food industry but not cooking. still cook at home.

> I worked a grill at a fast food place for a few years. I'm a Chef...

Chef is a profession. Paid cook is a menial labor position.

that's a fine meme you have there user

...don't mind if I do

for me, its the mcchicken

Given what you've said is true, you Definately "Can Cook." At the top quarter, if not top tenth, level
However, priding your adaptiveness as your top cooking trait, coupled with your lack of formal training, cuts you out of most cook/chef positions that aren't fast-food tier.
Most chefs worth the ingredients they're using should be able to do the same dish over dozens, if not hundreds, of customers throughout the day. In that regard, consistency trumps adaptability the vast majority of the time.
There are some cooking positions that might be good for what you do. Owning and operating your own food truck could be an cooking job you can do well, enough food trucks have gained cult popularity for that to happen to you.
If you want something more formal though, you will need to take up some culinary classes. If you do, however catering might be a great choice for ya.

Chef basically just means "chief" or "head of" so once you're placed in a supervisory role over other cooks you're a "Chef", Chef de Partie is basically the lead cook of a specific section of the kitchen.
In French speaking countries the term isn't exclusive to cooking either. Sergent Chef is a senior NCO in the French military, for example.

I like the double quarter pounder with a half a packet of ketchup extra inbetween the patties, the artificial chemicals and additivtes are just so fucking good man
I have issues and so I don't think I'd ever want to be in a position as absolutely soul-crushing emotionally and physically demanding as a proper chef at a restaurant

although I've never thought of a food truck and it doesn't sound that bad, actually sounds kinda profitable and chill, I might do catering tho... maybe....

culinary classes seem boring to me tho tbqh senpai

You'll need culinary classes, and either business classes or a partner who majored in business before a bank will even look at a prospectus for your loan. Assuming you aren't independently wealthy and buying a food truck and all required safety certifications with the chump change from your cushions.

Food trucks have a lot of licensing hoops to jump through in most states, plus you have the added cost of commercial vehicle maintenance combined with commercial kitchen maintenance.
Catering is probably the most chill form of food service, but there's no stress free form of it.

You CAN cook.
You're a "cook" when someone pays you to cook.
By definition, you're a "chef" when you run a kitchen and have "cooks" under you.
In reality, there's not really a threshold for when someone can call you a "chef".

Like, Julia Child never ran a restaurant but she's a chef.
On the contrary, Rachael Ray is not considered to be a chef.

You become a cook when you work in a professional kitchen. You become a chef when you are in charge of a professional kitchen.

nope I live in a 3rd world shithole
no such thing as licensing here, or well officially yeah but nobody cares laws aren't enforced

catering sounds really chill though and extremely realistic and viable
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

noun
noun: cook; plural noun: cooks

1.
a person who prepares and cooks food, especially as a job or in a specified way.

so "especially" but not necessarily

chef
ʃɛf/
noun
noun: chef; plural noun: chefs

1.
a professional cook, typically the chief cook in a restaurant or hotel

so, by definition anyone can really be a "cook" if you prepare or cook food, but not just anyone can be a "chef"
interesting take

My dad graduated Le cordon bleu in 2007 and works as the head chef, coordinator and planner for UC Riverside's campus catering and dinning room and gets about 95K/Y. Does that count?

No. UCR is a shithole

I used to be in your situation, very similar. Then I actually became a chef professionally. I resisted entering the field for fear it would kill my love for it, but it's only inspired me to go deeper and yeah, I gotta say you don't know what's possible until you're forced to learn unfamiliar things. The things you used to do will seem amateurish, your speed will increase in every aspect and you'll master facets you thought you had no interest in and make breakthroughs in areas you were thoroughly familiar in. I can't really explain well, but for example I used to be super autistic about roast potatoes, now I don't even have to try, they come out better in half the time and I can co-ordinate them better with other elements. What's more I don't even care about them anymore.

well first off if you're not getting paid your neither a cook or a chef and you're not a chef unless you're in charge of a kitchen
imo you are "able to cook" if you can follow a recipe without fucking it up and if you can recognize a bad recipe on sight (which kind of plays into the make it up as you go idea)

If all you do is magically ad lib without ever planning, then how do you choose what food to buy?

a majority of Veeky Forums is like the majority of the rest of the boards, 18-35 white males, living at home or alone, with very little cooking ability.

but they love to eat. not necessarily good food, but they love to eat it nonetheless.

i've been cooking professionally for the last ten or so years, and i would not call myself a chef.

A chef cooks for a living.

If you are in charge of a kitchen and getting paid you are a chef. Doesn't matter if it's a fast food restaurant.

Just think about those chefs on Kitchen Nightmare who say they never went to culinary school and have been making the same stuff for 20 years and insist it is great. That's you. If you do something long enough and get used to you'll start thinking you're doing good, especially if the few people around you (who are related to you) who also have no experience tell you that you are good at it. You need a very experienced person to make you realize that you have a lot to learn.

>I like cooking, I should start a restaurant!
This is a big part of why so many restaurants fail so quickly. Being a good home cook has jack shit to do with running a business.

STOP POSTING YOUR DOGSHIT REACTION IMAGE IN EVERY FUCKING THREAD YOUR CRINGY APE