Do you know who among the world’s professions are some of the people with the highest egoes, according to research made from time to time? It’s not neurosurgeons! Neither is it pilots flying jumbo jets! Neither are CEOs ranked the highest! It’s kitchen chefs. Of all professions that stand on that list, the work of chefs is the only mainstay at the top.
Especially recently, with movies, TV series and documentaries, we have exaggerated the concept of food and given a lot of meaning to what happens in the kitchen. As a result, kitchen chefs also received their share of this exaggeration.
For example, when you watch the film “The Menu,” you witness the most extreme point a chef can reach, but you can’t call it just a movie! In the movie, a celebrity chef promises customers an exclusive experience on an island. Those who come to the island are unaware that they will encounter a surprise that day. The chef is at the peak of making his art speak in the menu he creates for the day, killing every visitor one by one. However, the deaths are very artistic and with a wonderful plate presentation. As I said, it’s a movie. But one day, you wonder if something like this could happen to you at a chef’s restaurant during your meal.
The suicides of Michelin chefs and the experience of some food and beverage writers in restaurants prove that the ego of the masters of the kitchen can get out of control from time to time. Admit it, is there anyone among us who isn’t afraid to go to a chef’s restaurant and find the food less salty than it should be and ask about it to the chef?
The subject is interesting, so we asked the most pleasant and ego-free chefs we know – for example, Maksut Aşkar, the founding partner and chef of Neolokal, one of the only five Michelin stars given to five restaurants in Türkiye.
“I cannot say that it is surprising that the chef profession contains a high ego,” Aşkar says. “The kitchen is managed with a hierarchical discipline in most businesses, and the ingredients must be brought together to have the same appearance, standard, quality and taste every day. The rules created by the chefs who must protect this discipline, their stance and their efforts to be closest to perfection can make them seem egotistical even if they are not.”
Do chefs of restaurants that are particularly ambitious in the name of gastronomy start to see their work as art after a point? “Every meal is the result of a design in this type of restaurant. Art is a result of design, but not every design product is art. In order for a meal to be called art, it should contain originality, difference, innovation, surprise and a story. Of course, the chefs who make these designs can also see what they do as art, and on the one hand, this is open to discussion,” Aşkar clarifies.
“The food is above everything else,” Aşkar says. “The chef is responsible for presenting the food to those who experience it as (perfectly as possible). And the experience comes to the venue as a conscious choice of this experience with the expectation of food superiority. It should not be forgotten that the chef’s talents make this dish superior.”
One of the world-famous Nobu restaurants also has a branch in our country. So, we asked Nobu Corporate Chef Herve Courtot if chefs are egocentric.
“Chefdom is actually a profession in which you compete with yourself. It is correct to consider the effort to make a more delicious and different plate each time as an ego. It may not be. Let’s look at all the famous chefs, Chef Nobu or Gordon Ramsey. They’re talented; they’re smart; they work hard. They really put the business first,” Courtot says.
“But sometimes a person gets in a good place at a good time. An investor somewhere comes along and they like your face, your personality, your food, and they invest. That’s the luck part. Not every chef can be famous, but they can be a good chef. It takes honesty and hard work.”
Courtot brings a different perspective to the artistic dimension of the work. “Seeing your work as art is actually an indication of how much you value it. Because no chef will ever take out a plate without flavor just for the sake of being art. Art becomes a part of our work after a point, anyway. Because there is no food without a chef and no customers without food.”
