The Entremetier
The Life of a Veg Chef
I remember calling myself an entremetier, it was that or veg chef and the French version won hands down. In the chef world admitting you are a veg chef is like telling your girlfriend you have syphallis; you want to hide it but the truth always comes out. When you’re young titles mean everything, start as a commis, then first commis followed by demi chef, chef de partie, senior chef de partie, junior sous chef, (draw breath) sous chef, senior sous chef and finally Head Chef/Executive Chef. The higher up you go the less they mean, a false sense of power and responsibility turns into real power and responsibility which quickly manifests itself into a real pain in the a**e.
For most young chefs doing time on the veg section is like doing time in a young offenders institution. You are banged up in a confined space for hours at a time with no fresh air, little food and your spirit routinely broken by wardens wearing big white hats. You look at the other inmates and they’ve got it easy. They’re doing ‘fancy’ stuff, you’re soaked through with sweat and dirty potato water and there’s still a bag of carrots to do.
Downwind I can spot a veg chef from fifty paces, they’re the ones who smell of chip fat and onion peelings, they’re young, skinny, spotty and hunchbacked from carrying spuds by the sack load, bent double over a low sink whilst cursing the sous chef for having to peel a rope of garlic because he knows you’re going to the pub later to meet a girl you’ve fancied for months.
The veg cook absorbs the jobs others hate with a glowing naivety, ‘Chef says he’s going to let me cook staff dinner’ ‘Chef lets me put all the veg away in the fridge when it arrives’, etc etc. This is the section were the young cook performs mistakes of heroic proportions and I’ve seen a few. I recall with fondness the Bavarian dinner for 250 when the veg chef didn’t put any vinegar or red wine in the red cabbage and cooked the lot to a daytona blue whilst the Chef turned a Ferrari red.
The veg section gets a bad deal in the kitchen, young chefs don’t appreciate the significance of serving well prepared vegetables, food is food I always tell them but it usually falls on deaf, young and overly ambitious ears. I was that young, spotty veg chef with two eyes on the sauce section, cooking the main courses was the ultimate in street credibility even if I was bloody awful at it. To my credit I did give it my all on that section, I made it my own and wanted to raise the bar so that others could see that it was just as good a section as any other. Obviously the minute the Chef told me I could go on the sauce section I dropped it like a hot brick.
On the odd occasion, when work load permits I like to go over to the veg section and help out. It allows me to switch off for a short while and I often recall younger days as a terrified commis praying the Chef would be in a good mood upon his return and making sure I got the gammon and egg right for staff dinner.
Last night, ten minutes into the start of service I lost my temper with some of my chefs, those closest to me got it, those out of the immediate firing line didn’t. Out of the corner of my eye I saw my most junior chef trying desperately to look as busy as possible and in an instant I thought about a recent blog post recalling my earliest days in a kitchen and how I dreaded the Chef losing his temper. That pulled me back in and I couldn’t help but smile.
Henceforth, whenever I pull myself back from the brink of mutually assured kitchen destruction it shall be known as the ‘Gammon and Egg Moment’, when I don’t it will be known as ‘bloody unlucky’!
Miles,
Something tells me that the Milk Frother falls below the entremetier and kicking the dog … I may re-think my career in the kitchen! Mind you as a blameless ‘Frother’ and a gammon and egg expert, it could be just the break I need… my requirements are as follows:-
Hours of work: mid afternoonish, I’m not at my best in the mornings, oh and possibly the odd hour on Saturday.
Wages: quite high I suspect and enough to keep me in exclusive cosmetics and the latest trend in linen baggy kitchen trousers ‘like what they wear on the telly!’
Air conditioning and hair conditioning: yes
When things get ‘quiet’ I’ll double up on the Snipe preparation section. Now you can’t say fairer than that, mull it over and we’ll talk pensions
Cid
p.s. a great article Miles and very informative, I’d never been sure of the hierarchy and all the french terms.
October 13, 2007 @ 12:25 pm
Miles,
I don’t think I could hack it! Thank you for your wonderful insight stories. I hope that the tips left in the restaurants filter also through to kitchen staff. They seem to need all the encouragement that they can get.
October 13, 2007 @ 3:55 pm
Cid,
re job application, don’t call us…!
The idea behind these posts is to give an idea of what it is really like in hotel and restaurant kitchens without the gloss of ghost writers and publishers.
Miles
October 13, 2007 @ 4:58 pm
Christine,
I personally don’t get tips but the kitchen get a share which is taxed. Another incentive brought in by the labour government, the party of the people.
Miles
October 13, 2007 @ 5:00 pm
It all sounds like hard work to me
shudder …
Rod
October 13, 2007 @ 7:09 pm
very good post. i really see the passion for cooking here. i’m a struggling cook & very eager to hone my skills. very inspirational & give others insight in the kitchen field.
April 12, 2008 @ 2:41 pm
Ronald,
Thankyou for your comment, I think cooking and chefs have become so popular now that it is important for people and especially young ones considering a career in catering to understand what it is really like.
Thankyou for visiting the site and taking the time to comment.
Miles
April 12, 2008 @ 3:20 pm
hey
Unfortunately I am currently a dreaded veg chef, or entremetier as I also prefer to call myself. And I totally agree with everything you said. I could use some help… I’m bored I want some new ideas for my veg. If i blanch off one more asparagus and finish it with some sous vide carrots finish with reduced white and butter I’m going to freak. Any ideas? I’ve looked and there doesn’t seem to be alot of resources on the subject. Who cares about veg?
thanks.
SImeon
July 17, 2009 @ 5:19 pm
Simeon,
Welcome to the site and thanks for your comment. I really believe that cooking vegetables should be given more credence than it gets, it is so fundamentally important.
When I was an entremetier I concentrated on cooking the vegetables precisely to maximize their flavour and appearance. It really depends on wether the vegetables you are cooking are served as a side dish for a number of different main courses or individually paired with different meats and/or fish.
Drop the wine and butter and go for lighter choices such as olive oils and vinaigrettes which are perfect for crisp green vegetables. Try tapenades, salsa verdes, Asian soy based dressings, different herbs etc. There are plenty of options but keep it simple and let the quality of the product do the talking.
Miles
July 17, 2009 @ 10:40 pm
Hey,
I’m doing a catering assignment, where I’ve been assigned to be a vegetable chef.
I’m finding a tad bit hard that I can’t find much information on this kitchen position, so I thought that I should ask you them:
What are some of the expected duties of being a vegetable chef?
Is there any education/experience requirements?
Is there any advancement opportunities?
What personal attributes necessary to be successful in this position?
Thanks,
May 6, 2011 @ 3:34 am
Kaitlyn,
Welcome to the site. Usually a vegetable chef is a junior ranking chef in a kitchen with seperate sections for meat, fish, desserts etc. He/she would be working towards the national cookery diploma so in general terms it would tend to be their first or second position after leaving school so experience isn’t that important.
What chefs like myself look for in a junior chef is someone who is hard working and willing to undertake less glamorous aspects of the job such as vegetable preperation. Some young chefs tend to have a poor attitude towards these sorts of tasks but they are an essential part of any working kitchen,
Advancement opportunities are down to the individual’s efforts, the more they apply themselves in the begining the quicker they can progress. It’s easy to underestimate the job of vegetable chef but their work has a direct effect on the overall quality of the dining experience, there’s little point having an amazing fish dish if the corresponding vegetables are poorly cooked.
Good luck with your assignment.
Kind regards
Miles
May 6, 2011 @ 8:53 am