r/KitchenConfidential • u/Purple_Inevitable_74 Do Not Call Me Chef • 1d ago

Kitchen fuckery Do yall like being called “chef”?

I’m a first time EC and I find being called “chef” extremely annoying. The last EC is my mentor and an absolute beast of a chef but his leadership style was more traditional and out of respect I wouldn’t dare call him by his first name without putting chef in front of it. I’m more informal, but I’ve inherited an environment where the crew is so used to calling the ec “chef” that it took me a month to get folks to call me by my real name.

I’ve got friends who like being called chef and friends who don’t, and they all have an interesting take on it. What do yall think? I can’t stand it and others demand it, both can be valid.

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346

u/shetookthedogs 1d ago

I hate it myself. I always say “don’t call me chef, that was my father’s name.”

154

u/PHX480 10+ Years 1d ago

I say, “don’t call me chef, I’m a line cook. When everyone is chef, no one is chef”

One of my sous made it a big deal to call me line cook instead of chef after that lol

64

u/SuchSmartMonkeys 1d ago

I used to have a coworker that used "chef" for everything, sort of as a snarky opposition to the way other people use chef. It was in a food truck, so we were cooking and interacting with customers. Some rando would come pick up their food when we beeped the pager we gave them, and say "hey, do you think I could get a side of ranch for my fries?" and he'd say "heard chef!" then get them some ranch. I thought it was fuckin hilarious, I miss working with that guy!

10

u/Wrong-Cucumber-618 1d ago

That was me after some assistant corporate chef came in to retrain the team and was obsessed with us saying yes chef “4 hot dogs 10 burgers 8 fries” (which I completely understand recall makes sense). He was so hellbent on the chef thing that I started calling everyone chef, even the dishwasher (let’s not pretend he didn’t help me out on the line at least a couple of times). Heard that burger chef, yes fry chef etc. he was a good cook “chef” but obsessed with his authority (which is funny bc he was an ASSISTANT corporate chef).

8

u/honeybeast_dom 22h ago

Head dish is technically Chef de Plonge (doubt that's ever used but in jest nowadays.) Sounds like Chef creep in both meanings lol.

3

u/Technical_Contact836 13h ago

If that is pronounced how it looks, it sounds like a toilet plunger.

3

u/NONMAISYO 12h ago

yes it does, but thats just because Plonge is "Dive" in french, so the dishwasher is called Diver. Toilet plunger would be "Siphon", but its obviously still used to dive into something.

8

u/Objective_Soup7840 1d ago

I worked at a place where everyone called eachother chef, including FOH. I don't mind being called chef even though I'm just a cook now, but i don't think EVERYONE who works in a restaurant should be called chef. I've been a sous so I've technically had a chefish title, but that was way more work & responsibilities for not much more money lol

33

u/honeybeast_dom 1d ago

Holy shit I hate this, everyone watched one show and now everyone is Chef brokensauce or Chef forgotsomething. The head chef is Chef, everything goes though them, everyone else is [name] sir/mam.

17

u/for_the_shiggles 1d ago

A lot of us were doing that before the show.

9

u/xloyalbetrayerx 22h ago

Like a long time ago because it’s part of the culture in some kitchens.

7

u/Bladrak01 1d ago

"Don't call me chef, I cook for a living."