Dessert First? Chef versus Chef

7/30/2019 Dessert First? Chef versus Chef

1/13

A fictional story depicting real issues withinthe culinary world

Samantha PeasleyRebecca McCarthyENGL&102December 1st 2012


2/13

My story may not be one made of heroic savors, slain dragons and damsels in distress but it is

instead a story of chocolate mousse, raspberry bavarians, and the perfect crme brule. Dessert can make or

break consumers dining experience, yet pastry and dessert chefs fall beneath the shadow of their restaurants

culinary chef. Head chef is not just a title, but a responsibility and a creative outlet given without thought to the

culinary chefs. Dessert is meant to liven and excite taste buds while remaining cohesive with an entire three

course meal, if pastry chefs are beneath the culinary chef than they are being restrained within a set palette.

Appointing the culinary chef as the head of the kitchen limits creativity, originality, and production of pastry

chefs because of the limits imposed to have a unified menu.

Through a fictional restaurant (Daisy) and using two fictional chefs, Chef Howard of the culinary

side and Chef Numan representing pastry and dessert, my story will further examine this chef verus chef battle.

Before we begin our

story


3/13

Daisy is a rather well known restaurant in the downtown Seattle area. Open since 1945, what started out as a small

coffee house has now grown into a large restaurant capable of serving up to six hundred customers within its dining room and

two hundred more in its rooftop villa. With only half of its tables available for reservations and the other half open to walk ins

Open since 1945

Daisy is a place were celebrities and civilians

alike are welcome . Its menu contains high end

items for reasonable prices, giving Seattleites

and visitors the chance to enjoy a fresh lobster

or celebrate any occasion with delicious hand

made chocolate truffles on any day of the week.

Given its unique set up, gourmet

menu, and pricing Daisy is not only well

known within the public but it is also well

known and praised in the culinary and pastry

world. With copy restaurants already in LA and

New York several other investors have

submitted plans for other locations around the

United States with building dates starting as

soon as 2013 (See map on next page)! 1


4/13

Current Daisy locations Daisy locations opening as soon as 2013


5/13

With the original Daisy located in Seattle still being the most well known its head chef, Chef Howard, has control

over the entire chains menu each and every night. Howard has been working for Daisy for over fifteen years! Starting out as a

dish pit worker in the LA restaurant he was able to work his way up the chain of command and has now been a head chef for

nearly eight years, two in LA and coming up on six in Seattle. No longer washing dishes not only is Chef Howard in charge of

menu selection he is also in charge of "selecting and managing the best workers for a job, scheduling, vacations and much more

for the Seattle restaurant while also being involved in the training of both culinary and pastry chefs for other locations (My Next

Move).

Being as Chef Howard is not a pastry chef Seattle Daisys pastry chef, Chef Numan, finds the last bit as well as

other aspects of their relationship very disturbing. Chef Numan has also been working for Daisy for many years, nearing twenty

as he took over his fathers, grandfathers and great grandfathers position. With schooling, training from his family, an internship

in Europe under a skilled baker and his experience growing up in and around Daisy Chef Numan is a well respected employee.

But with respect does not come responsibility or freedom, two things that Chef Numan believes he and other pastry chefs like

him deserve. He may have similar duties, "monitoring/assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations,

but having to report to Chef Howard is degrading to himself and his craft (O-Net).

Considered the little brother beneath Chef Howard, Chef Numan has come to despise him. With no say in his

dessert menu, and it being coordinated by an untrained chef, Chef Numan believes the quality of desserts he is being forced to

present is far less than his and Daisys capability.

3


6/13

Chef Numan above all else just wants to be creative and original with his dessert, if he were only able to choose

the dessert first he would gladly allow the much more culinary trained Chef Howard to decide the rest of the menu each night.

While in school during a business management class he came across a quote in a well respected textbook that stated "the trick is

to be creative when talking about menu writing, and whats more creative than deciding dessert first (BrownC5-7)? With the

ability to add cranberry sauce, a pecan sauce, sweat potatoes and more to a steak and make it compatible with a pumpkin tartlet

deciding an entre and its components around a selected dessert is rather simple while finding a dessert to go with caviar is

much more limited and difficult.

Chef Howard, however, will have no talk of such things occurring in his kitchen. Staff meetings become very

intense when Chef Numan tries to speak up. Having dessert decided first would go against the professional norm, but Daisy

in itself is a restaurant very different than most. Chef Howard simply does not wish to give up any of his responsibilities as

head chef, despite his lack of knowledge in some areas. If Chef Numan were able to be head chef he would not outstep his

limits and knowledge, it is possible to be head chef and in charge of only areas of kitchen instead of the kitchen as a whole

(Philpott).

Knowing that his relationship with Chef Howard is a relationship of "compliance or obedience with regular

patterns of inequality," Chef Numan has made several plans to change this relationship for both his and Daisys gain (Gingrich).

In a political conversation about global power shifts Joseph Nye stated that someones gain is not necessarily another persons

lost, even Chef Howard might have some gain out of a change of positions (Joseph Nye).

4


7/13

With staff meetings getting Chef Numan no where fast a plan B and even a few after that have had to take shape.

Getting inspiration from the sudden boost of popularity in television cooking and baking shows Chef Numan took to the web to

aid him in his plans. With chefs having meltdowns on camera and highly respected and famous chefs such as Chef Gordon

Ramsay being downright nasty on his own television show Hell's Kitchen, filming Chef Howard could either go in Chef

Numans favor or go against him and add to Chef Howards popularity. Deciding to do it any ways, for if a picture is worth a

thousand words, then video is worth at least a hundred thousand, Chef Numan ended up with days worth of useless footage

(Weigant). Chef Howard is unfortunately a rather calm chef in his more experienced years and only slightly rude to his

employees.

With that plan out the window Chef Numan became a little frantic. Ultimately deciding the consequences were not

worth it, for he would not have been able to enjoy being head chef in prison, Chef Numan returned the rat poisoning to the

storage closet without being caught.

In a much more rational state of mind Chef Numans next plan was title Cafe Numan, a caf all his own without

much of a culinary side. Desserts would be the main items on the menu and people would come from far and wide just to try his

dishes! The unfortunate reality of this plan was that restaurants and cafes cost money, as he learned in his business management

classes, and the pastry chef does not make as much as head chef does at Daisy. Investors might be possible, but when Daisy is

praised and people ask to meet the chef, Chef Howard is the face of the restaurant and little know that he is not involved in

preparing, plating, or serving his own desserts.5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx-kR3I1D2whttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am5Y5Pvrb4Mhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am5Y5Pvrb4Mhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx-kR3I1D2w


8/13

Though opening his own caf would solve his problems even if Chef Numan had the money for it unless he was

able to make a company/chain as successful as Daisy, and that could take years, it would do little to help out the pastry chef

profession as a whole.

With all of his failed plans Chef Numan is back at plan A, speaking up at staff meetings. But through all of his trial

and error plan A has been revamped. Not only will Chef Numan speak up at staff meetings but he plans on proving himself

even more not just to the owner but to the employees and too Chef Howard as well.

Gaining respect within the kitchen would be his first step. As Anthony Bourdain, famous chef, restaurant owner,

television personality and writer, says employees must choose sides early (Bourdain 227). While working on former staff

members, getting to new employees before Chef Howard could be very beneficial; the trick would be to take their loyalty from

Chef Howard without disrupting their loyalty to Daisy. Those that scary easily might be swayed with some of the footage of

Chef Howard being slightly rude to staff members or Chef Numan could prove himself with his kindness, willingness to teach,

hard work, and marvelous desserts.

Marvelous desserts might not just help him win over kitchen staff and employees but it would also help him win

over the public, and with the publics approval comes the owners approval. On his free time Chef Numan enjoys planning new

desserts with artistic plating and plentiful flavor, maybe slowly he could incorporate some of his ideas into the set menu Chef

Howard provides for him. Could he really punish him if it sells the restaurant more desserts? Profit is never a bad thing in the

customer service business.6


9/13All pictures Chef Numan**For the purpose of this fictional story only, all pictures property of author


10/13

8

Adding a bit of beauty and flavor to the desserts could really get people talking. Posts on facebook, check-ins,

tweets, and instagram pictures of his dishes would only help him achieve his goal.

During his free time Chef Numan has even looked into taking leadership and more business management classes

with a program called Restaurant 101. The classes are in Chicago, but with a new Daisy opening up in that area he might be able

to offer to help with the opening and take classes all at the same time, getting him in double good graces with the owners.

If Chef Numan can manage to win over the staff and employees, public, and owners Chef Howard will have

nothing concrete to argue against change. Try as he might the money to continue running Daisy comes from the customers and

public, and if they are talking more and spending more on dessert than with their entrees the owners could not possibly ignore

Chef Numan.

This plan is unfortunately a time consuming one, however itll be the most beneficial to Chef Numan, Daisy, and

the pastry chef professional. Once one restaurant changes and remains successful it is only a matter of time before others follow

suit, and nothing will stop Chef Numan from succeeding. If he sticks with this plan and builds up a presentation showing off

his creativity and originality in dessert making and how the people react positively towards it Chef Howard will be left without

any power in the matter. Appointing the culinary chef as the head of the kitchen limits creativity, originality, and production of

pastry chefs because of the limits imposed to have a unified menu; appointing the pastry chef as head of the kitchen allows for

equal originality in a unified menu and palette with each chef having creative control.
http://www.restaurant101.com/http://www.restaurant101.com/


11/13

The End

ChefNuman


12/13

"51-3011.00 - Bakers." O-Net Online - Bakers. O-Net Online, n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2012.

Bourdain, Anthony. Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly. New York,

NY: Bloomsbury, 2000. Web. 31 Oct. 2012.

Brown, Douglas Robert. The Restaurant Manager's Handbook: How to Set Up, Operate, and Manage a

Financially Successful Food Service Operation. Ocala, FL: Atlantic Pub., 2007. Print.

"Chefs & Head Cooks at My Next Move." Chefs & Head Cooks at My Next Move. My Next Move, n.d.

Web. 31 Oct. 2012.

Joseph Nye on Global Power Shifts. By Joseph Nye. TED: Ideas worth Spreading. N.p., Oct.

2010. Web. 31 Oct. 2012.

Philpott, Dan. "Sovereignty." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Standford University, 8 June

2010. Web. 31 Oct. 2012.

Bibliography


13/13

Gingrich, Paul. "Sociology 250 - Notes on Max Weber." Sociology 250 - Notes on Max Weber. N.p., 7 Oct.

1999. Web. 31 Oct. 2012. .

Weigant, Chris. "Big Brother v. Little Brother." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 23

Feb. 2011. Web. 31 Oct. 2012.

Bibliography (Cont.)

Documents

Dessert First? Chef versus Chef