The New Chef

Iliana Regan of Elizabeth in Chicago

Who are the new chefs?  Who are the young and unaffected, the serious risers in the culinary world?  A lot of them are not what you think and that is a good thing. I have recently been reading and watching a lot of shows and articles about this new generation and there is something that is not really spoken about; these ain't my momma's chefs.

Tattoos, piercings, colored hair....There has been a subtle change in the industry since my mother's time on the line. Chefs with tattoos, piercings and colored hair used to be reserved for other parts of the world or strictly for the back of the house.  Now, there is a mounting change in the way our chefs look. We are the new rock stars.  We are building new menus and trying new things.

I would suppose that the major new thing that has come from this is that we are seeing our chefs as people.  When I see a reality show, the competition aspects of the show embrace the skill of the contestant.  They are sent often on (sometimes literal) wild goose chases and are placed hard at work in the kitchen moments later.  I am surprised actually how little time is actually spent showing them cooking.

These shows are often filled with what are called "bumpers".  The bumper is supposed to be an interruption in the action that tells a little back story about the contestant.  These segments talk about where they are from, their home life, and things like what possessed them to come on national television and risk so much.  Fading is the notion that we are all a bunch of automatons standing behind a line waiting to hunch over a plate and put your food perfectly and artfully on a plate.

The new chef is full of hopes and dreams and are often that becomes a large part of the food that they make and so finding yourself at a restaurant that serves signature food, the best part could be the chef that made the dish.

The act of cooking professionally is not so much always about just a way to pay the bills.  At a certain point for most it becomes an active extension of the person themselves, their interests and their art.  There are a lot of days when you are likely to find Chef Regan engaging in one of her other passions, foraging in the wild for the things that she actually puts on the plate.



The interesting thing is where we are going in the culinary world.  99Knives is going to look at how much easier it is becoming a chef and for people to follow their culinary dreams with pop-ups, and food trucks and dining styles that cross geographic boundaries.  The landscape is changing and opening up and in the coming years, it will be a site to behold.

Carol Jordan can be reached at 9of9productions@gmail.com or @9t9knives on twitter and 99Knives on Facebook.