Plate to Palate | Yes, chef! A kitchen's top dog should be all spark and no spite

A friend recently posted a photo on Facebook of top chefs from some of the best restaurants in town attending an awards ceremony. "If all the chefs are here tonight, who's cooking at their restaurants," he asked.

Um, the same people who are cooking when the chefs are in the kitchen, I replied.

It's a misconception that top chefs cook when they're in a professional kitchen. Yes, they can, and sometimes do, jump into the fray - if one of the sections is having trouble, for instance - but they certainly do not do so all the time.

A chef is the "chief" (the literal translation of the word) of the kitchen, although the word is misused so often that people now refer to themselves as "home chefs", when they really should be calling themselves "cooks".

There are several levels of chefdom: a sous-chef is second-in-command while a chef de partie watches out for a particular section of the kitchen.

As with any other business, the executive/head chef leads everyone else. You wouldn't expect the chief executive of a bank to be typing up the minutes of a meeting; why would you assume an executive chef is sweating over the stove?